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




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"WPTavern: Podcast Motor Acquires Seriously Simple Podcasting Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=64535";s:7:"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/podcast-motor-acquires-seriously-simple-podcasting-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2422:"<p><a href="http://seriouslysimplepodcasting.com/">Seriously Simple Podcasting</a>, created by <a href="https://hughlashbrooke.com/">Hugh Lashbrooke</a> in 2012, has been acquired by <a href="http://www.podcastmotor.com/">Podcast Motor</a>. The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/seriously-simple-podcasting/">plugin</a> is actively installed on nearly 20K sites and out of 104 reviews, has an average rating of 4.9 stars.</p>
<p>Lashbrooke no longer has the time to dedicate to the project, &#8220;I am in fact selling the plugin (along with all of its add-ons) as I just no longer have the time or bandwidth available to support it in the way that I know it deserves,&#8221; Lashbrooke said. Lashbrooke created the plugin to <a href="https://hughlashbrooke.com/2015/11/25/democratising-podcasting/">democratize podcasting</a> and says it was never meant to be a full-time project.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SSPSettingsPage.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64542" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SSPSettingsPage.png?resize=1025%2C541&ssl=1" alt="Seriously Simply Podcasting Settings Page" /></a>Seriously Simply Podcasting Settings Page
<p>Podcast Motor provides editing and production services to podcasters. Craig Hewitt, founder of Podcast Motor, acquired the plugin because of its established brand, ease of use, and it allows his company to serve a wider audience.</p>
<p>Seriously Simple Podcasting will remain a free plugin and Hewitt will continue to support it through WordPress.org. He also plans to add free features to increase the plugin&#8217;s value, &#8220;This will include things like bulk importing of episodes/feeds from other providers, RSS feed validation, and some enhanced front end styling of the on-page podcast display,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Hewitt is ready to breath new life into the project and is seeking feedback from users on what features they&#8217;d like to see added, &#8220;Our long-term goal is to enhance the functionality of the product so that it meets more needs of more podcasters down the road,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Instead of abandoning the plugin or putting it up for adoption, Lashbrooke has found it a new home with a developer anxious to improve on his work. If you use Seriously Simple Podcasting, what features do you want to see added?</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, 16 Dec 2016 23:07:51 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:82:"WPTavern: WP-CLI Project Launches Patron Support Model to Fund Ongoing Development";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=64512";s:7:"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/wp-cli-project-launches-patron-support-model-to-fund-ongoing-development";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5912:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-cli.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-cli.png?resize=1025%2C411&ssl=1" alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-55961" /></a></p>
<p>WP-CLI contributors have been <a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-cli-contributors-work-towards-a-more-sustainable-future-for-the-project" target="_blank">working towards a more sustainable future for the project</a> throughout 2016. Daniel Bachhuber, the project&#8217;s official maintainer, has launched an experiment to fund ongoing maintenance and new development, asking potential patrons, &#8220;<a href="http://wp-cli.org/blog/the-big-question.html" target="_blank">How much is WP-CLI worth to you?</a>&#8221; Options for contributions range from $100/yr &#8211; $7500/yr.</p>
<p>This particular funding experiment is not asking for one-time contributions but rather follows a subscriber model where patrons will be billed annually. Bachhuber said he has a number in mind in order to consider the funding a success but he is not going to share it.</p>
<p>&#8220;I want to see if this is a viable approach for funding a for-profit business,&#8221; Bacchuber said. He plans to fully refund subscribers if the campaign doesn&#8217;t reach its goal.</p>
<p>Last year Bachhuber <a href="https://wptavern.com/a-more-restful-wp-cli-kickstarter-campaign-is-now-187-funded" target="_blank">raised $32,822</a> in a highly successful Kickstarter campaign from 107 backers, which funded development during the first part of 2016. After the campaign he started a business called <a href="https://runcommand.io/" target="_blank">runcommand</a> that offered enterprise support and custom development for hosts and agencies. This was an attempt to help subsidize his time spent on WP-CLI, but it didn&#8217;t work out the way he planned:</p>
<blockquote><p>The business is doing alright, not great but not horrible. What I’ve come to realize, though, is that my time is zero-sum. I’m incentivized to spend time on runcommand, when I’d rather spend it on WP-CLI.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the challenge I’m running into is opportunity cost. I’d love to be able to invest more into WP-CLI, but doing so comes at the cost of other business pursuits. Because WP-CLI is such a large project, the several hours I volunteer each week are basically enough to fight entropy — not make headway on larger initiatives.</p></blockquote>
<p>Bachhuber said he hopes this patron-esque model will scale so he can hire a few people to work on WP-CLI, helping reduce his bus factor and creating a stronger contributor base.</p>
<p>&#8220;The project itself is at a point where it needs dedicated attention from maintainers, not occasional changes from contributors,&#8221; Bachhuber said in response to commenters on the post.</p>
<p>&#8220;I will, however, echo other comments here in regards to the wish for a public roadmap, more transparency, marketing efforts, and more in regards to the business being built upon WP-CLI,&#8221; subscriber Pippin Williamson said. &#8220;I have chosen to make my subscription payment as a donation to the project, not as a purchase/ of the product / service because, at this time at least, there&#8217;s not really anything I get out of it beyond continued development of the project.&#8221;</p>
<p>Williamson said the new <a href="https://runcommand.io/wp/doctor/" target="_blank">wp doctor</a> and <a href="https://runcommand.io/wp/profile/" target="_blank">wp profile</a> commands would not be of much use to him or his team. He also suggested that Bachhuber sell a professional subscription that offers a library of additional commands for popular plugins, such as WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, WP Migrate DB Pro, and Gravity Forms.</p>
<p>&#8220;What I&#8217;ve come to appreciate is that WP-CLI will be far more successful in the long-term by building all of these in the open, instead of a more traditional model of making some selection of them paid-access,&#8221; Bachhuber said.</p>
<p>Subscriptions will help fund the ongoing maintenance of WP-CLI, the creation of new commands, and improvements to the website and package index.</p>
<p>For a project that is geared almost exclusively towards developers, there&#8217;s a surprisingly low number of contributors to its development. The brunt of it falls to Bachhuber as the official maintainer. His campaign puts the impetus on subscribers to help improve the tools they use every day through monetary contribution.</p>
<p>Hopefully, funding the organization will also precipitate a culture shift resulting in more developers who are motivated to get their hands dirty and become personally invested in the code base. Funding one person&#8217;s time is not the most effective way to keep a project afloat and may not do much to reduce the bus factor on the project unless Bachhuber can hire or inspire more maintainers.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">This year, I've spent 308 hours on <a href="https://twitter.com/wpcli">@wpcli</a> (140 paid, 168 volunteer). Next year could be double or could be zero <a href="https://t.co/nujVBQZ3Bs">https://t.co/nujVBQZ3Bs</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Daniel Bachhuber (@danielbachhuber) <a href="https://twitter.com/danielbachhuber/status/809056634337042432">December 14, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>By choosing to wrestle with the challenges of funding open source software in a transparent way, Bachhuber is paving the way for other project maintainers to learn from his experiments and pursue similarly unorthodox funding options. So far WP-CLI has received 17 subscribers. If it reaches 50, Bachhuber plans to create a members-only forum. The <a href="http://wp-cli.org/blog/the-big-question.html" target="_blank">funding experiment</a> closes on December 28th.</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, 15 Dec 2016 23:05:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:17:"Matt: A Poetition";s:7:"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=46988";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://ma.tt/2016/12/a-poetition/";s: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:239:"<p>Joseph O&#8217;Neill has <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/pardon-edward-snowden">an amazing and funny poetry-related short story Pardon Edward Snowden in the New Yorker which pokes fun at itself quite a bit</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 15 Dec 2016 20:11:10 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:67:"WPTavern: WordPress.com Launches VR Content, Coming Soon to Jetpack";s:7:"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=64486";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-launches-vr-content-coming-soon-to-jetpack";s: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:4476:"<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/VR.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/VR.jpg?resize=960%2C589&ssl=1" alt="" class="size-full wp-image-64492" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/OQLN09UT3X">Sebastian Voortman</a>
<p>WordPress.com <a href="http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2016/12/15/introducing-vr-and-360-content-for-all-wordpress-com-sites" target="_blank">announced</a> today that users can now upload and publish VR content on their sites, including 360° photos and 360° videos. Regular photos and panoramas are also now viewable in VR. The VR gear tested so far includes Cardboard, Gear, Daydream, Rift, and Vive.</p>
<p>Uploading VR content works just like adding normal pictures and videos. Users can then add 360° photos and videos to posts using a &#8220;vr&#8221; shortcode. The Harvard Gazette&#8217;s <a href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/10/confronting-the-refugee-crisis/" target="_blank">Confronting the Refugee Crisis</a> story is one live example of the new VR content in action:</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/vr-example.gif?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/vr-example.gif?resize=523%2C526&ssl=1" alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-64503" /></a></p>
<p>&#8220;Our goal is to make publishing VR content as simple as publishing text or photos to the web,&#8221; Automattic team lead Toni Schneider said. Schneider, who is <a href="https://toni.org/2016/06/06/comparing-the-vive-to-the-rift/" target="_blank">a big VR fan himself</a>, led the team to bring VR capabilities to WordPress.com. He <a href="https://toni.org/2014/10/29/my-vr-memory/" target="_blank">worked in a VR startup</a> in the 90&#8217;s after college and has been a VR fan ever since.</p>
<p>&#8220;With the re-emergence of VR, it struck me that WordPress can play a role in making VR content easy to create and access for everyone, just like we did for text and photos,&#8221; Schneider said. His team at Automattic uses VR for collaboration and Schneider said &#8220;hearing [teammates&#8217;] voices in their proper spatial locations makes for a more natural and seamless collaboration experience&#8221; that feels less forced than a screenshare or video chat.</p>
<p>Immersive storytelling driven by VR technology is also finding its way into the publishing industry. As part of his article in <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/collection/predictions-2017/" target="_blank">NiemanLab&#8217;s Predictions for Journalism 2017</a> series, Mario García, a media consultant and adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, predicts that &#8220;storytelling using VR will be easier to achieve, and more members of the audience will be prepared to welcome it.”</p>
<p>García cites the The New York Times and its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/the-daily-360" target="_blank">Daily 360</a> section as one of the first publications to experiment with the medium. WordPress.com uses a similar UI, as you can see on the Harvard Gazette example, with an overlay that indicates VR content.</p>
<p>&#8220;One form of storytelling that will gain momentum: virtual reality,&#8221; García said. &#8220;It’s no coincidence: Editors and publishers are looking for ways to tell stories on mobile devices, and the future of virtual reality is also on mobile. For many newsrooms, VR is going to be the one big area for experimentation in 2017.&#8221;</p>
<p>WordPress.com is ready to ride this trend, making immersive storytelling available to all users &#8211; from large publications to small blogs. A few plugins, such as <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/vr-views/" target="_blank">VR Views</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-vr-view/" target="_blank">WP-VR-view</a>, are already available for self-hosted sites, and WordPress.com plans to make its VR capabilities more widely available to the WordPress world soon.</p>
<p>&#8220;It will be in Jetpack soon, as soon as the next Jetpack release comes out,&#8221; Schneider said. &#8220;The technology is built to work on all WordPress sites and even beyond that, on any web site. We consider this first release just a start. As soon as we see how people use it, we will start adding more features and supporting more types of VR experiences.&#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:"Thu, 15 Dec 2016 17:39:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:20:"Matt: Another Dongle";s:7:"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=46982";s:7:"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:37:"https://ma.tt/2016/12/another-dongle/";s: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:508:"<p>One of my favorite new .blogs is The Dongle blog, at dongle.blog. I think it&#8217;s mostly meant to be funny, but I really agree with this post pointing out you <a href="http://dongle.blog/an-opportunity-for-a-new-dongle/">really need something that lets you plug in your lightning headphones to your laptop</a>. I&#8217;ve been trying out <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Audeze-Closed-Back-Headphones-Integrated-Lightning/dp/B01FE8VM8Q/">the Audeze EL-8</a> and they only have a lightning connector.</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, 14 Dec 2016 20:06:00 +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: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:58:"WPTavern: Matt Mullenweg Proposes WordPress Growth Council";s:7:"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=59774";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-proposes-wordpress-growth-council";s: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:9717:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/plants.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/plants.jpg?resize=1025%2C505&ssl=1" alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-38240" /></a></p>
<p>During the last <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordsesh-4-now-available-on-video" target="_blank">WordSesh</a> event held in August 2016, Matt Mullenweg joined the community for a <a href="https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wordsesh4/21" target="_blank">session</a> where he spoke about the growth of WordPress and his thoughts on confronting the project&#8217;s external threats. Mullenweg floated the idea of a WordPress Growth Council &#8211; a collection of individuals and organizations interested in contributing to WordPress&#8217; growth.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have very direct competitors in Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;Wix is a public company so it&#8217;s actually possible to see their numbers and look at things. This year alone there&#8217;s about a quarter billion dollars being spent in marketing by proprietary systems that compete against WordPress. That&#8217;s more spent in one year than has ever been invested in all of the WordPress companies combined since they started. That&#8217;s more money spent in marketing than for many consumer brands.&#8221;</p>
<p>WordPress has grown organically over the past 13 years through the power of its community, without expensive advertising campaigns or traditional marketing initiatives. For the first time, Mullenweg is looking to tap a segment of the community that hasn&#8217;t often been directly involved in contributions &#8211; people and organizations with large scale marketing expertise.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think we could do a lot to figure out a roadmap for countering this huge marketing spending being directed against us, because we are the big guy here,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;We are the 26% and they are like a 1%. But even though they&#8217;re smaller, they might be cannibalizing some of the most valuable aspects of the WordPress customer base.&#8221;</p>
<p>Just before WordCamp US, he formalized the idea with <a href="https://ma.tt/2016/12/wp-growth-council/" target="_blank">a post on his blog</a> and an open invitation for council member applicants:</p>
<blockquote><p>
Never have there been more threats to the open web and WordPress. Over three hundred million dollars has been spent in 2016 advertising proprietary systems, and even more is happening in investment. No one company in the WP world is large enough to fight this, nor should anyone need to do it on their own. We’d like to bring together organizations that would like to contribute to growing WordPress.</p></blockquote>
<p>The <a href="http://mcm.polldaddy.com/s/wordpress-growth-council" target="_blank">survey for potential council members</a> asks them to share what they bring to the table as well as a few ideas about the growth of WordPress so far, how it can be accelerated, and how the project can best respond to the millions of dollars competitors are spending in advertising. Responses have already started coming in.</p>
<p>Alexa Scordato, VP of Marketing at Stack Overflow, <a href="http://alexascordato.com/the-wordpress-growth-council-an-experiment-in-open-source-marketing/" target="_blank">applied to be part of the council</a>. She said her experience as a long-time WordPress user and marketing executive has motivated her to help improve the overall consumer experience.</p>
<p>&#8220;I’ve been tinkering with self-hosted WordPress sites since 2007 and I’ve helped probably 100+ individuals and organizations explore the merits of the .com and .org experience,&#8221; Scordato said. &#8220;Let’s get real – the relationship is confusing, the admin panel is intimidating, and the learning curve is steep. The product marketer in me is itching to help streamline the value proposition across these funnels to help make it easier to educate and on-board new users.&#8221;</p>
<p>She is also an advocate for the open web and sees WordPress as a key player in combating the threat of walled gardens and closed systems that diminish user freedoms.</p>
<p>&#8220;While many enterprises are beginning to invest more in open source projects, there’s an imbalance in the force,&#8221; Scordato said. &#8220;The fact that an open source platform like WordPress powers 27% of the web makes it the greatest agent in defending Internet freedom.&#8221;</p>
<p>Nuno Morgadinho, co-founder of WidgiLabs and co-organizer of WordCamp Lisbon, is another applicant to the growth council who <a href="http://www.morgadinho.org/2016/12/03/wp-growth-council/" target="_blank">published</a> thoughts on what it should address. He thinks WordPress needs to take a hard look at attrition before considering advertising.</p>
<p>&#8220;As important as advertising is, a lot of businesses struggle and fail, not because they aren’t adding new users, but because they are lousy at keeping the ones they’ve got,&#8221; Morgadinho said. &#8220;We have to look at ourselves and see where we are losing users rather than just desperately try to reach new ones. Most people use things based on referrals.&#8221;</p>
<h3>What Will the Growth Council Look Like?</h3>
<p>After WordCamp US, I had the opportunity to ask Mullenweg a few questions about what types of applicants he&#8217;s hoping to attract to the council. He said he envisions it will function very much like a working group or mastermind group where council members learn from each other.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not necessarily only people at larger companies &#8211; the biggest contributions will come from people who currently are or have in the past managed some sort of large promotion of something,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t need to be WordPress. Maybe they sold Starbucks. Large advertising campaigns are what we&#8217;re trying to counter so experience for that is a good precondition for participating in the growth council.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mullenweg said he has received applications from people whose companies aren&#8217;t in the WordPress ecosystem but who are experienced in this area and want to contribute some night and weekend hours to help out.</p>
<p>&#8220;I imagine there will be other folks, including from Automattic, that are going to be spending budgets of tens of millions of dollars in the coming year and want to talk about that,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;There are some things that could be shared, including publicly. Everyone who does marketing does some research first. Why don&#8217;t we open up that research? That&#8217;s part of what I want to encourage. By taking an open source approach to this, doing more sharing both within the council and in the wider WordPress community, I think there&#8217;s a lot more to learn.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mullenweg said the meetings won&#8217;t be completely open, as companies may want to share some confidential information. The council may have some house rules in place to make it a safe space for companies to share what they are doing and to keep strategies safe from competitors.</p>
<p>In 2017 Mullenweg has committed to putting on the &#8220;product lead&#8221; hat for WordPress core development and it seems he&#8217;ll be bringing that same approach to the growth council.</p>
<p>&#8220;Advertising is just a product, just like an interface is, just like a website is, just like anything else,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of opportunity there.&#8221;</p>
<p>During his WordSesh session he outlined a few initial objectives for the council to tackle, including figuring out why the project has grown so far and understanding where the community&#8217;s resources are currently being spent.</p>
<p>&#8220;We should try to enumerate and track what is being spent right now, add up all the advertising, affiliate fees, and sponsorships of events,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;Determine what that adds up to so we know what is the gap we need to close and the relative arsenals on both sides.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mullenweg said he would like the council to figure out a plan for advertising where &#8220;we&#8217;re not competing with each other but really directing that outward against the folks who might go to Wix or Squarespace.&#8221; This particular aspect may be a challenge, as the council will need to avoid the appearance of serving only larger corporate interests in the fight against external threats.</p>
<p>&#8220;These external threats and proprietary threats are far bigger than any intra-WordPress open source threats,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;We can grow the pie far faster than we can take shares from people in the same pie.&#8221;</p>
<p>For the past three years, WordPress has consistently added 2% to its market share each year without any form of advertising. Instead of the project continuing to get by on &#8220;marketing happenstance,&#8221; as Mullenweg put it in the State of the Word address, 2017 will be the first year that WordPress makes a coordinated marketing effort to change the growth curve.</p>
<p>&#8220;The people power of WordPress is probably the thing that contributes most to the usage of WordPress,&#8221; Mullenweg said. The growth council&#8217;s challenge with advertising is producing that same magnetism on a larger scale without tarnishing the organic quality of the message. Can they come up with a marketing campaign that captures the essence of what WordPress is to the people who love it most? If the council is successful, it stands to have a positive impact on the WordPress economy as a whole.</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, 14 Dec 2016 19:50:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:82:"WPTavern: UpdraftPlus Acquires WP-Optimize, Will Be Integrated Into UpdraftCentral";s:7:"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=64460";s:7:"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/updraftplus-acquires-wp-optimize-will-be-integrated-into-updraftcentral";s: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:4048:"<p><a href="https://updraftplus.com">UpdraftPlus</a>, a European company that maintains a <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/">backup plugin by the same name</a> with nearly 1M active installs, <a href="https://updraftplus.com/updraftplus-confirms-acquired-wp-optimize/">has acquired</a> the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-optimize/">WP-Optimize</a> plugin. WP-Optimize was created eight years ago by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ruhanirabin/">Ruhani Rabin</a> and is actively installed on more than 500K sites. Its primary function is to clean and optimize databases. WP-Optimize will become part of a suite of plugins that make up <a href="https://updraftplus.com/updraftcentral/">UpdraftCentral</a>, a service that allows users to manage sites remotely.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WPOptimize.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64466" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WPOptimize.png?resize=819%2C673&ssl=1" alt="WP Optimize Settings Page" /></a>WP-Optimize Settings Page
<p>In an effort to simply the process of optimizing databases, Rabin created WP-Optimize to automates tasks such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>Removing all unnecessary data (e.g. trashed/unapproved/spam comments, stale data) plus pingbacks, trackbacks and expired transient options</li>
<li>Compact/de-fragment MySQL tables</li>
<li>Perform optimizations without the need for running manual queries</li>
<li>Show database statistics and potential savings</li>
</ul>
<p>WP-Optimize started as a personal project but when Rabin discovered that other users were looking for similar functionality, he uploaded the plugin to WordPress.org, &#8220;It ended up being a much bigger project than I imagined; when I connected with other people, I was suddenly opened up to a world of new challenges,&#8221; Rabin said. &#8220;I was encouraged to constantly improve the software’s functionality and compatibility, as well as the support information available.&#8221;</p>
<p>As the plugin&#8217;s popularity and user base increased, it eventually became too much work to support and maintain. Rabin received a few acquisition offers over the years but decided not to sell, &#8220;For me, WP-Optimize’s legacy was of prime importance. I didn’t set it up to make money, but to help out as many people as possible,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>One of the reasons Rabin accepted UpdraftPlus&#8217; offer is his familiarity with the plugin and its business model, &#8220;Even though they are business-driven, they still have a great freemium ecosystem,&#8221; Rabin said. He also appreciates the company&#8217;s enthusiasm and drive to take the product to the next level.</p>
<p>David Anderson, founder and lead developer of UpdraftPlus, says the acquisition makes perfect sense, &#8220;Although we see a lot of revolution on the outside, the WordPress core has been stable for a long time, and as such, there will always be a need for database optimization in order for sites to run efficiently.&#8221;</p>
<p>As part of the acquisition, Rabin will take on an advisory role in its continued development. Multisite support, a commercial version with additional features, and the ability for users to control it remotely through UpdraftCentral, are among the top priorities in development.</p>
<p>Since the acquisition, UpdraftPlus has released a new version of <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-optimize/changelog/">WP-Optimize </a>that Anderson says paves the way for future developments, &#8220;This release has a complete re-factoring of the plugin’s internals, to lay a solid foundation for future improvements.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Although it looks the same outwardly, it has been modernized and solidified,&#8221; Anderson said. &#8220;We have a great and growing team, a lot of experience in the internals of WordPress and also a lot of users who trust and depend on us. There’s plenty of opportunity for us to expand.&#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, 14 Dec 2016 19:39:07 +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:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"HeroPress: Changing Careers with 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:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=1525";s:7:"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://heropress.com/essays/changing-careers-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:8191:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/121416-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: Anyone who says it's easy to change your life is lying to you." /><p>Working in WordPress full time did not come quickly, directly, or in the ways I expected, and it was worth every step of the way. I started out in marketing in the music industry and ended up as the project manager at a WordPress development agency nearly 10 years later. Changing careers is a lot of work and none of it happens by accident. Here’s a story about how I took some dashed hopes and an economic crash and turned it into everything I ever wanted.</p>
<p>I started out by moving to NYC the day I graduated college to work in the music industry. Armed with my BA in English, I found my way in &#8211; I don’t care what anyone says, my English degree is my secret weapon.</p>
<blockquote><p>If you can’t communicate effectively and hold someone’s interest in the process, it doesn’t matter how many letters you have after your name or how many specialized degrees you hold.</p></blockquote>
<p>However, once I established myself as a project manager a major record label in the big city, it wasn’t easy to stay. I loved New York, but I did not love working nights to make ends meet. Realizing that my career in the music industry might not be something I could do long-term, I enrolled part-time in an accredited web development diploma program. All the classes were online, so I could do classwork around my work schedule. However, the record label was bought out and privatized, and the new owners instituted a 50% reduction in headcount worldwide. I tried to look at it as a blessing in disguise &#8212; more time to spend on completing my diploma while working fewer hours as a temp! But, answering phones and entering data didn’t exactly make me want to get out of bed in the morning. I tried to focus on shifting gears to becoming a developer.</p>
<h3>Becoming A Developer</h3>
<p>Though I got a great base of knowledge in HTML, CSS, PHP, Photoshop, light JavaScript, and, yes, Flash and ActionScript, I didn’t really have the goods to get a programming job right away. I was eventually re-hired in a different position by the record label, but this time I was slowly but surely working more digital into my marketing position. Finally, I had done enough to get another job as the head of digital marketing for a boutique music and entertainment-focused agency.</p>
<p>Though I was finally doing the type of work I wanted to do, I was starting to feel like New York wasn’t where I needed to be. One major pull was my long-distance NY to LA relationship. Sometimes, career is just not enough to keep you in one spot, so in June of 2011, I moved to Orange County, CA.</p>
<p>I was able to continue working remotely for the entertainment PR firm, but I wanted a more meaningful connection with the artists I was working with. I started freelancing for select bands, and then found a position handling all things internet-related for an Orange County-based artist management company.</p>
<p>It was an absolute dream &#8211; I was the social media voice for one of my favorite bands, plus many more new clients and projects I would have loved even if I wasn’t on the management team. In the interest of meeting new people in this new place as well as learning something, I started attending the Orange County WordPress Meetup at Zeek Interactive and learned how to take my general knowledge of PHP and apply it to this CMS that everyone seemed to be talking about. As some of our up-and-coming bands needed websites, I’d volunteer to build them. It was cost-effective for the client, and it gave me a chance to try out all the things I’d learned at the OCWP meetup. I also served as internal project manager for sites built by an external agency.</p>
<blockquote><p>I learned more from the many mistakes I made in developing websites than I did anything else.</p></blockquote>
<p>Coding myself into a corner was an opportunity to grow through asking someone else to show me where I went wrong. For a while, the OCWP developer night featured some time for someone to get up in front of everyone, walk the group through an issue they were working on, show their steps and reasoning, and ask for assistance. All the more experienced developers in the room were very kind to me, several of them going out of their way to help me learn new concepts to make my themes even better.</p>
<h3>Branching Out</h3>
<p>Bands don’t need websites all that often, and I wanted to keep learning, so I found some non-entertainment website work to do on evenings and weekends. For a lot of it, I was a second pair of hands for another developer. For others, friends or friends of friends would come to me for help with their small business sites. These small sites worked out great, but I fully understood that the way I was working had a ceiling to it. If it’s a relatively small site with not a lot of traffic to scale, I could help. If it was going to be a big site that a lot of people would see, my code would probably not be ideal. I knew enough to be dangerous, and I knew how to fix a site if and when it white-screened, but not enough to implement all the latest and greatest techniques.</p>
<p>So, I started looking to get back into my first love: project management, only this time for websites instead of musicians. Thankfully, my friend Steve Zehngut suddenly found himself with a need to replace his PM, and after we talked through goals and methods of working, we made it official.</p>
<p>I’ve been the project manager at Zeek Interactive for two years now, and it’s been everything I could have ever hoped for. It took nearly a decade, retraining, lots of late nights and weekends spent learning new things and getting way outside my comfort zone, but I successfully changed industries and careers. Anyone who says it’s easy to change your life is lying to you. But I’m hard-pressed to find a reason not to do it anyway if you want to make new and better things happen.</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: Changing Careers with WordPress" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Changing%20Careers%20with%20WordPress&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fchanging-careers-wordpress%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Changing Careers with WordPress" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fchanging-careers-wordpress%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%2Fchanging-careers-wordpress%2F&title=Changing+Careers+with+WordPress" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Changing Careers with WordPress"></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/changing-careers-wordpress/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/121416-150x150.jpg&description=Changing Careers with WordPress" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Changing Careers with WordPress"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/changing-careers-wordpress/" title="Changing Careers with WordPress"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/changing-careers-wordpress/">Changing Careers with WordPress</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, 14 Dec 2016 12:00:52 +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:12:"Sarah Wefald";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:51:"WPTavern: Harare, Zimbabwe Hosts Its First WordCamp";s:7:"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=64419";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:61:"https://wptavern.com/harare-zimbabwe-hosts-its-first-wordcamp";s: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:3497:"<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wordcamp-harare.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wordcamp-harare.jpg?resize=1025%2C560&ssl=1" alt="" class="size-full wp-image-64426" /></a>photo credit: <a href="http://www.techzim.co.zw/2016/12/wordcamp-2016-harare-learning-pictures/">Limbikani Soul Makani Kabweza</a>
<p><a href="https://2016.harare.wordcamp.org/" target="_blank">WordCamp Harare</a>, the first ever WordCamp in Zimbabwe, was held over the weekend at the Harare City Library. Harare was selected out of 182 applicants as one of the three locations for the <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-incubator-program-to-launch-in-indonesia-zimbabwe-and-columbia" target="_blank">WordCamp Incubator Program</a>. The experimental program launched in February 2016 with the goal of bringing WordCamps to new locations around the world where local meetups may not be as well established.</p>
<p>WordCamp Harare was successful at connecting the Zimbabwean WordPress community and introducing the attendees to the concept of a WordCamp.</p>
<p>&#8220;It was a great day because we met lots of people who are passionate about WordPress and building stuff on the internet,&#8221; Limbikani Soul Makani Kabweza said in his <a href="http://www.techzim.co.zw/2016/12/wordcamp-2016-harare-learning-pictures/" target="_blank">recap</a> of the event. Kabweza is a contributor at <a href="http://www.techzim.co.zw/" target="_blank">Techzim</a>, a Zimbabwean tech publication that runs on WordPress.</p>
<p>&#8220;As Techzim (and the other startups we work with like <a href="http://www.soccer24.co.zw/" target="_blank">Soccer24</a> and <a href="http://www.pindula.co.zw/news/" target="_blank">Pindula</a>) the internet is our lifeblood, so a day dedicated to discussing internet platforms and how to do things better was the amazingly enriching experience we expected it to be.&#8221;</p>
<p>Co-organizer Charles Muzonzini, who works as a web and mobile app developer with <a href="http://www.csz.org.zw/" target="_blank">The Computer Society of Zimbabwe</a>, said, &#8220;WordCamp Harare 2016 was an awesome success, far exceeding my expectations. Everything was on point and I’m glad to have met so many great people and learnt so much. This is hands down the best IT conference this year.&#8221; Muzonzini is also a co-organizer of the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Harare-WordPress-Meetup/" target="_blank">Harare WordPress Meetup</a>, which now has 82 members.</p>
<p>Job Thomas, who works as an Education Vanguard at Automattic, traveled from Cape Town to speak about WooCommerce at the WordCamp. In a <a href="https://2016.harare.wordcamp.org/open-source-empowering-africa/" target="_blank">guest post</a> for the event Thomas wrote about the importance of open source for the empowerment of Africa in removing hindrances for becoming successful.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is great to see WordCamp Harare happening,&#8221; Thomas said. &#8220;WordCamps are not primarily events for communicating ideas – although this plays a big role. WordCamps are primarily a celebration of the open source community; they gather people with a similar passion for making the web a better place.&#8221;</p>
<p>WordCamp Harare was the fourth WordCamp held in Africa in 2016, joining events in Nairobi, Johannesburg, and Cape Town in the expansion of the WordPress community in southern and eastern Africa.</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, 13 Dec 2016 05:11:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:73:"WPTavern: WordPress 2.7 Is the Role Model for How Design Can Lead the Way";s:7:"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=64183";s:7:"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/wordpress-2-7-is-the-role-model-for-how-design-can-lead-the-way";s: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:11607:"<p>When Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of the WordPress open source project, <a href="https://videopress.com/v/IYfHX4jN?at=3472">announced that</a> design would lead the way for WordPress development in 2017, utilizing user research and mockups, the first thing that came to my mind was WordPress 2.7. That release was the culmination of effective leadership and effort from Jen Mylo and Liz Danzico. In order to learn why this release is in a class of its own, we must look at how it was created.</p>
<h2>Introducing Crazyhorse</h2>
<p>On March 29th, 2008, WordPress 2.5 &#8220;Brecker&#8221; <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/03/wordpress-25-brecker/">was released</a> to the world. The biggest feature in 2.5 was the redesigned backend that was built in collaboration with <a href="http://happycog.com/">Happy Cog</a>.</p>
<p>When Mullenweg gave the public a <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/03/25-sneak-peek/">sneak peek</a> at the redesigned backend, he had this to say:</p>
<blockquote><p>For the past few months, we’ve been working with our friends at Happy Cog — <a href="http://zeldman.com/">Jeffrey Zeldman</a>, <a href="http://jasonsantamaria.com/">Jason Santa Maria</a>, and <a href="http://bobulate.com/">Liz Danzico</a> — to redesign WordPress from the ground-up. The result is a new way of interacting with WordPress that will remain familiar to seasoned users while improving the experience for everyone. This isn’t just a fresh coat of paint — we’ve re-thought the look of WordPress, as well as how it’s organized so that you can forget about the software and focus on your own creative pursuits.</p></blockquote>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WordPress25PostEditor.jpg?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64399" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WordPress25PostEditor.jpg?resize=1008%2C643&ssl=1" alt="WordPress 2.5 Post Editor" /></a>WordPress 2.5 Post Editor
<p>While some people <a href="http://socializedsoftware.com/2008/03/30/wordpress-25-review/">praised the redesign</a>, others <a href="http://scottberkun.com/2008/wordpress-25-review/">were not happy</a>, particularly with the menu hierarchy. Since sentiment in the community was mixed, Mylo contracted Ball State University’s Center for Media Design, Insight and Research to <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/10/usability-testing-report-25-and-crazyhorse/">perform a usability report</a> on the WordPress 2.5 admin design. The report was used to figure out which issues were based on interface problems versus people simply not liking the changes.</p>
<p>Usability <a href="http://wpdotorg.wordpress.com/files/2008/10/wp-testreport-205-crazyhorse-1028a08jw.pdf">testing results</a> were shared with lead developers which inspired a prototype interface to address some of the issues discovered. This allowed developers to use WordPress 2.5 on their own sites and the prototype on a test site. However, once testing began with the prototype interface, it became clear that a more ambitious approach was required.</p>
<p>According to Mylo, the second prototype known as &#8220;Crazyhorse&#8221; blew test subjects away:</p>
<blockquote><p>The second round of testing blew everyone away. The research team had never seen such consistent results. Tasks were completed faster, participant opinions rated it higher, understanding of how interface elements worked was greater, and it wasn’t even a fully functional application. Of the test participants, every single one said they would choose the prototype over their current administrative interface, and it wasn’t even pretty.</p></blockquote>
<p>Throughout the 2.7 development process, Mylo used a number of communication channels to gather user feedback. On September 15th, 2008, Mylo published a <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/09/wordpress-27-navigation-options-survey/">Navigation Options Survey</a>. The survey was part of a broader effort to get more people involved in the design and decision process:</p>
<blockquote><p>As part of the mission to increase user involvement in design decisions, we’ve created a survey intended to give WordPress users the ability to play a part in deciding how the navigation options should be grouped and labeled.</p></blockquote>
<p>Later that month, a <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/09/wordpress-2-7-survey-no2/">second survey</a> was created that allowed users to vote on mockups of the search box, favorites menu, the Future/Publish and Edit Timestamp buttons. It only took two days for the survey to reach its maximum response count of 5,000.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/CrazyhorseWireframe.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64416" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/CrazyhorseWireframe.png?resize=894%2C666&ssl=1" alt="Crazyhorse Wireframe" /></a>Crazyhorse Wireframe
<p>Once the survey concluded, Mylo <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/10/wordpress-27-wireframes/">published a follow-up post</a> as well as a document containing <a href="https://wpdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/wf-dashboard_v002_093008jw.pdf">wireframes</a> that gave users an idea of what the end product might look like. Near the middle of October, 2008, Mylo <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/10/the-visual-design-of-27/">published</a> semi-polished screenshots of the 2.7 interface and explained how it worked. Matt Thomas and Andy Peatling are largely responsible for the design of WordPress 2.7.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WordPress27Dashboard.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64418" src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WordPress27Dashboard.png?resize=597%2C753&ssl=1" alt="WordPress 2.7 Dashboard" /></a>WordPress 2.7 Dashboard
<p>The response to the screenshots was <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/10/the-new-27-dashboard/">overwhelmingly positive</a>. A week after showcasing the 2.7 dashboard, Mylo <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/10/calling-all-wordpress-loving-icon-designers/">asked the WordPress community</a> to create a set of icons to go with each of the navigation sections. More than a dozen people submitted icon sets and instead of choosing one, Mylo <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/11/wordpress-27-project-icon/">let the community vote</a> on which set best matched WordPress 2.7&#8217;s style. With 35% of the vote, the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/11/the-results-of-project-icon/">winning set</a> was created by <a href="http://bendunkle.com/">Ben Dunkle</a>.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/BDIcons.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64421" src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/BDIcons.png?resize=147%2C479&ssl=1" alt="Ben Dunkle's Winning Icon Set" /></a>Winning Icon Set
<p>I asked Dunkle what inspired him to create the icons and if Mylo didn&#8217;t offer the opportunity to the community the way that she did, if he would have contributed to WordPress 2.7 otherwise.</p>
<p>&#8220;When I saw Jen&#8217;s post calling for icon designers to submit a set for 2.7, it was right at the deadline,&#8221; Dunkle told the Tavern. &#8220;I can&#8217;t remember how I found the post, since I didn&#8217;t visit the WordPress development blog very often. I&#8217;d been building sites with WordPress for few years by that time, and really enjoyed it, but I didn&#8217;t think much about the online community.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Jen expressed the direction eloquently: &#8216;Icons should be subtle, with a classic/designed look, nothing cartoonish. Thin lines. Maybe a little old-fashioned looking.&#8217; I was designing icons for other open source projects around that time, and the language of the post struck a chord with me. I rushed out an email.</p>
<p>&#8220;I ended up as a finalist, pushed the pixels, and sent off the design. Mine got the most votes. The contest caused some controversy, since anything resembling spec work has always been a lightning rod in the design community. I didn&#8217;t see it that way. It was an open source project and I was a volunteer, not a contractor.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the end, it launched an ongoing connection that I maintain to this day. They&#8217;re now called Dashicons, made with vectors instead of pixels, and soon to be SVGs instead of web fonts (once we get the bugs sorted out).&#8221;</p>
<p>After going through the beta and release candidate stages, WordPress 2.7 &#8220;Coltrane&#8221; was <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2008/12/coltrane/">released to the public</a> on December 11th, 2008. More than 150 people contributed code directly to the release and countless others contributed with valuable feedback during opportune times through surveys, mailing lists, and testing.</p>
<p>Referring to WordPress 2.7, longtime user Ozh <a href="http://planetozh.com/blog/2008/12/a-journey-through-five-years-of-wordpress-interface/">had this to say</a>, &#8220;The dev team asked users what they wanted and what they liked, and the result is light years beyond what the design studio produced for 2.5 six months earlier. One word to summarize it all: &#8216;Above the fold!'&#8221;</p>
<h2>WordPress 2.7 Set a Great Standard</h2>
<p>During Contributor day at WordCamp US 2016, I asked Mullenweg if the WordPress 2.7 development process inspired the experimental approach to developing WordPress in 2017.</p>
<blockquote><p>Yeah, I mean that was one of the beginnings to Jen&#8217;s contributions and her huge impact on the WordPress world. She brought an entirely different way of thinking with a user first, usability, research led mindset. It was fantastic to have female leadership demonstrating very early on in the WordPress community that this is software made by everyone for everyone. What that was for its time is a great standard to hold ourselves up to as we move forward in 2017.</p></blockquote>
<p>Out of all the WordPress releases I&#8217;ve covered since 2007, WordPress 2.7 is special. It&#8217;s the only release where I feel like a lot of the community rallied together and focused on making WordPress better. Through surveys, comments, blog posts, testing, and reaching out to talented people in the community for help, Mylo proved that the community can be part of the development and design process of WordPress and end up with a better product as a result.</p>
<p>Things have changed since 2008. The community, contributor pool, and the project itself has become larger. Communication is spread out among the Make Blogs as well as SlackHQ. The WordPress development process is more open now than ever before. Since WordPress 2.7&#8217;s release, I haven&#8217;t felt the same spark of rallying together for a common goal that Mylo was able to foster. Perhaps it&#8217;s because I&#8217;m not part of a project team like the REST API or I&#8217;m not searching for it in the right places. I hope those feelings are rekindled in 2017.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how the new development process works out. Until then, I leave you with a wonderful quote from Mylo as it succinctly captures the way I feel and remember the WordPress 2.7 development cycle.</p>
<p>&#8220;I hope you enjoy getting an inside look at how we’ve been organizing our thoughts around 2.7, and that when the community feedback starts flowing everyone remembers that we all want the same thing: the best WordPress possible.&#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, 13 Dec 2016 01:56:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"Matt: State of the Word, 2016";s:7:"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=46950";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:45:"https://ma.tt/2016/12/state-of-the-word-2016/";s: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:2117:"<p></p>
<p>The full video and Q&amp;A from 2016&#8217;s State of the Word last week in Philadelphia is now online. This year was especially exciting because it wasnt&#8217; just a look back at the previous year, but sets out a new direction for where WordPress will be in 2017 and beyond.</p>
<p>If you want just the slides, here they are:</p>
<p>  </p>
<div> <strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/photomatt/state-of-the-word-2016" title="State of the Word 2016" target="_blank">State of the Word 2016</a> </strong> from <strong><a target="_blank" href="http://www.slideshare.net/photomatt">photomatt</a></strong> </div>
<p>Like every year, there was a ton of help bringing this together. Mark Uraine led the slides, and at various points these folks pitched in as well: Mel Choyce, Tammie Lister, Michael Arestad, Ashleigh Axios, Ian Dunn, Corey McKrill, Martin Remy, Josepha Haden, Alex Kirk, Marina Pape, Alx Block, Cami Kaos, Matias Ventura, Donncha O Caoimh, John Maeda, Barry Abrahamson, Nikolay Bachiyski, Chrissie Pollock, Sam Sidler, Boris Gorelik, Dion Hulse, Brooke Dukes, Sarah Blackstock. I also got input and suggestions from Petya Raykovska, Tony Perez, Joe Casabona, Helen Hou-Sandi, Jon Bossenger, Jason Cohen, Daniel Bachhuber, Drew Butler, Ryan Boren, Andrew Roberts, Joost de Valk, Stephane Daury, Dion Hulse, Gary Pendergast, David Bisset, Ryan McCue, Alex Shiels, Brian Krogsgard, Joe Hoyle, Sean Blakeley, Andrew Nacin, Mark Jaquith, John Blackbourn, and thank you to Rose Kuo for inspiring the poetry theme which featured prominently this year.</p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2016-mullenweg-pushes-calypso-as-future-of-wordpress-interface-proposes-major-changes-to-release-cycle">Tavern</a> and <a href="https://poststatus.com/matt-mullenweg-state-word-2016/">Post Status</a> wrote up the talk itself. As a follow-up I did interviews with both to expand on some of what was discussed in the speech. The <a href="https://poststatus.com/interview-matt-mullenweg-new-wordpress-release-cycle/">Post Status one is now up</a> and you can watch it here:</p>
<p></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 12 Dec 2016 21:10:21 +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: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: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:74:"WPTavern: Bluehost Network Outage Hits Customers with 12 Hours of Downtime";s:7:"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=64386";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"https://wptavern.com/bluehost-network-outage-hits-users-with-12-hours-of-downtime";s: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:4435:"<p>Over the weekend, <a href="https://www.bluehost.com/" target="_blank">Bluehost</a> experienced a severe, widespread network issue that caused customer sites to go down. The incident began Friday evening and continued into the night. As WP Tavern is hosted on Bluehost, we were watching the situation with keen interest, finally clocking the downtime at 12 hours before our site was back up.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">We are seeing problems w/ network flapping which could be caused by denial of service or other network issues in our switching fabric. (1/5)</p>
<p>&mdash; Bluehost (@bluehost) <a href="https://twitter.com/bluehost/status/807394100630667265">December 10, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>The Bluehost Twitter and Facebook accounts kept customers updated as network engineers worked to resolve the issue. Shortly after midnight Bluehost said they identified a network loop within a portion of the network. Staff worked to restore services &#8220;while making sure we do not reintroduce the loop into the network.&#8221;</p>
<p>At approximately 10 hours into the downtime, Bluehost updated customers who were still down, citing &#8220;a packet filtering problem&#8221; in its core routing layer for which the team had created a fix. Within a couple more hours most of the company&#8217;s customers were back online.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">We have identified a packet filtering problem in our core routing layer. We have worked closely with our vendor to develop a global fix- 1/2</p>
<p>&mdash; Bluehost (@bluehost) <a href="https://twitter.com/bluehost/status/807491514830098432">December 10, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Bluehost&#8217;s earliest communications about the downtime indicated a DDoS attack may have caused the incident, though this is no longer a strong consideration.</p>
<p>&#8220;It doesn’t appear to be a DDoS but we are conducting a full investigation,&#8221; Bluehost head of product Brady Nord told the Tavern after the incident. His team worked around the clock to identify and resolve issues until customer sites came back up.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many of our dedicated and VPS customers were affected to some degree for approximately 12 hours,&#8221; Nord said. &#8220;We made every attempt to keep our customers informed during the event as information became available because we understand our customers depend on our products and services.&#8221;</p>
<p>Nord would not share further details about the cause of the outage but said the company plans to complete a detailed post mortem to prevent future outages.</p>
<p>&#8220;With any significant event that affects our customer base, we conduct an extensive examination after the event to ensure we understand the root cause and develop a course of action to improve our systems and procedures,&#8221; Nord said.</p>
<p>Bluehost is one of the hosts listed on <a href="https://wordpress.org/hosting/" target="_blank">WordPress&#8217; recommended hosting page</a> and Nord said roughly 2/3 of the company&#8217;s customer base uses WordPress.</p>
<p>&#8220;The incident last night mainly impacted our dedicated and VPS customers which is a lower density section of the platform,&#8221; Nord said.</p>
<p>Bluehost has not yet published the results of its investigation, but support staff have <a href="https://twitter.com/bluehostsupport/status/807670769685856256" target="_blank">replied</a> to customer inquiries with a fairly definitive assessment of the issue as having been due to a spanning tree issue on their core routing layer.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/saxangle">@saxangle</a> Sure we can tell you what happened. We discovered a spanning tree issue on our core routing layer which caused network degradation</p>
<p>&mdash; help.bluehost.com (@bluehostsupport) <a href="https://twitter.com/bluehostsupport/status/807670769685856256">December 10, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/lan-switching/spanning-tree-protocol/10556-16.html" target="_blank">Spanning tree protocol</a> misconfigurations can cause network problems similar to what Bluehost experienced but results of the investigation should confirm whether this was the root of problem that took customer sites down over the weekend.</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, 12 Dec 2016 17:48:20 +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:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:11:"
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:52:"HeroPress: WordCamp US Talk, The People Of 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://heropress.com/?p=1524";s:7:"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://heropress.com/wordcamp-us-talk-people-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:2810:"<p>I was incredibly honored to speak at WordCamp US in Philadelphia this year. It was especially cool to hear from people all over the world watching on the live stream.</p>
<p>The hardest part was telling only a few stories that would fit into the time slot, and not every story on this site.</p>
<p>If you missed the talk, it&#8217;s now on <a href="http://wordpress.tv/2016/12/11/topher-derosia-heropress-the-people-of-wordpress/">WordPress.tv</a>, but you can also watch it right here.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I love speaking, and I&#8217;ll probably talk about HeroPress again, what are some other topics and ideas you&#8217;d like to hear about?</p>
<p>Please leave a comment and let me know.</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: WordCamp US Talk, The People Of WordPress" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=WordCamp%20US%20Talk%2C%20The%20People%20Of%20WordPress&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fwordcamp-us-talk-people-wordpress%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: WordCamp US Talk, The People Of WordPress" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fwordcamp-us-talk-people-wordpress%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%2Fwordcamp-us-talk-people-wordpress%2F&title=WordCamp+US+Talk%2C+The+People+Of+WordPress" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: WordCamp US Talk, The People Of WordPress"></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/wordcamp-us-talk-people-wordpress/&media=http://heropress.com/wp-content/plugins/rtsocial/images/default-pinterest.png&description=WordCamp US Talk, The People Of WordPress" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: WordCamp US Talk, The People Of WordPress"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/wordcamp-us-talk-people-wordpress/" title="WordCamp US Talk, The People Of WordPress"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/wordcamp-us-talk-people-wordpress/">WordCamp US Talk, The People Of WordPress</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:"Mon, 12 Dec 2016 00:50:56 +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:"";}}}}}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:86:"Post Status: Interview with Matt Mullenweg on the new WordPress release cycle and more";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=31281";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"https://poststatus.com/interview-matt-mullenweg-new-wordpress-release-cycle/";s: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:1864:"<p>During contributor day of WordCamp US in Philadelphia, I was able to interview Matt Mullenweg to follow up on several items he announced in the <a href="https://poststatus.com/matt-mullenweg-state-word-2016/">State of the Word</a>.</p>
<p>We mostly discussed the new WordPress development cycle and how it will work with the three focus areas. We also discussed how that will affect other non-major updates and WordPress features.</p>
<p>Matt also talked about the WordPress REST API, how he defines success for it, what he hopes to see out of it, and what he thinks would cause it to revert to a plugin only feature.</p>
<p>And as this was the second and final year of WordCamp US in Philadelphia, we reflected on the event, and talked about what there is to look forward to in Nashville for WordCamp US 2017 and 2018.</p>
<p>You can listen to just the audio, also on our podcast, 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.</p>
<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');</script><![endif]-->
<a href="https://audio.simplecast.com/54882.mp3">https://audio.simplecast.com/54882.mp3</a>
<p><a href="https://audio.simplecast.com/54882.mp3">Direct Download</a></p>
<p>Or just watch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh5DF5-6UoE">video on YouTube</a>, or below for the full experience. And don&#8217;t forget to subscribe to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCndSWDwwIOmbuxC79Lv66NQ">my new channel on YouTube</a>.</p>
<p></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 10 Dec 2016 22:53:11 +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:15:"Brian Krogsgard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:59:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 255 – All About the Customizer";s:7:"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=64372&preview=true&preview_id=64372";s:7:"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/wpweekly-episode-255-all-about-the-customizer";s: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:2964:"<p>In this episode of WordPress Weekly, <a href="http://marcuscouch.com/">Marcus Couch</a> and I are joined by <a href="https://weston.ruter.net/">Weston Ruter</a> and <a href="http://celloexpressions.com/">Nick Halsey, </a>lead developers of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/components/customize/">Customize component</a> in WordPress.</p>
<p>I invited Ruter and Halsey on the show to give us some insight into its origin and why it was created. We also discuss its evolution since WordPress 3.6 and why it&#8217;s an important <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2016-mullenweg-pushes-calypso-as-future-of-wordpress-interface-proposes-major-changes-to-release-cycle">part of WordPress&#8217; future</a>.</p>
<p>The duo shared their experience of what it&#8217;s like to iterate on a feature that routinely receives push-back from a subset of the community. We also talk about the perception that features are continuously being crammed into the Customizer when it&#8217;s really about adding live previews to WordPress functionality.</p>
<p>Last but not least, Ruter and Halsey describe what improvements we can expect to see going forward. For details on how to contribute to the Customize component, please visit the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/components/customize/">Make Core Customize Component </a>website.</p>
<h2>Plugins Picked By Marcus:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/product-designer/">Product Designer</a> allows you to display an awesome Product Designer on your website via short-code. You can add unlimited clip art using a custom post. Text can be used with a fancy font family, font size and color.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/text-to-speech-widget/">Text To Speech Widget</a> converts any text into speech in a selected language and voice. It supports 63 voices in different languages. The plugin is based on HTML5 and doesn&#8217;t require using Flash.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/featured-products-first-for-woocommerce/">Featured Products First for WooCommerce</a> allows a product in WooCommerce to be featured on the first shop page as well as search results. It also comes with a sidebar widget to display featured products on the homepage.</p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, December 14th 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 #255:</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:"Fri, 09 Dec 2016 01:23:24 +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:"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:67:"WPTavern: WordCamp Europe Calls for Host City Applications for 2018";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=64343";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-calls-for-host-city-applications-for-2018";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3711:"<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/planning.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/planning.jpg?resize=960%2C416&ssl=1" alt="" class="size-full wp-image-64370" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/5ZMT04MIW6">Oli Dale</a>
<p>Even though the <a href="https://2017.europe.wordcamp.org/2016/11/28/join-us-as-a-speaker-at-wordcamp-europe/" target="_blank">call for speakers</a> for WordCamp Europe 2017 has just opened, organizers are already on the hunt for a city to <a href="https://2017.europe.wordcamp.org/2016/12/08/apply-to-host-wordcamp-europe-2018/" target="_blank">host the event in 2018</a>. The team chosen to host in 2018 will need to be planning throughout 2017 and should be present on the ground in Paris, so the selection process is already underway.</p>
<p>WordCamp Europe is currently WordPress&#8217; largest community event, and support and mentorship have been a key part of its success. Petya Raykovska, a past organizer, said the prospect of organizing the event can be intimidating for new teams but mentors will be available to applicants throughout the process.</p>
<p>&#8220;The mentors are supposed to help the local teams prepare a better application,&#8221; Raykovska said. &#8220;They are all experienced WCEU organizers who can help with many aspects of the planning.&#8221;</p>
<p>Host city selection is based on more than two dozen factors, including organizer experience, location, venue, and budget considerations. One of the most challenging aspects is securing a venue that can accommodate 3,000 attendees, but applicants are given a lot of flexibility on the event date.</p>
<p>&#8220;We ask volunteers to book a venue for 3,000 people,&#8221; Raykovska said. &#8220;Not only are there not many venues that can fit us at this scale, most of them are booked years in advance.&#8221;</p>
<p>Raykovska said organizers can book dates anywhere from May 1 &#8211; June 31, 2018. This makes it possible to have more cities and venues vying to host the event.</p>
<p>Raykovska volunteered in Leiden in 2013 and helped organize WordCamp Sofia after that. In 2014, she applied to host WordCamp Europe in Sofia along with Tina Kesova, Nikolay Bachiyski, Veselin Nikolov, and Mario Peshev. Since that time she has been involved in organizing the event and mentoring newcomers. Potential applicants are encouraged to get in touch if they are wondering if their team has what it takes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Sometimes these conversations serve as a reality check,&#8221; Raykovska said. &#8220;People can get super enthusiastic about organizing without having an idea of the time commitment. We want WCEU to be a positive experience for organizers and make sure our local teams have enough people and are aware what it takes to get involved as a local host.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://2017.europe.wordcamp.org/2016/12/08/apply-to-host-wordcamp-europe-2018/" target="_blank">Applications for host city</a> will be open through February 15, 2017 and the decision will be made by the end of February. The team selected for 2018 will then join the 2017 planning team to gain a better understanding of the process. Potential applicants who want to be matched to a mentor can get in touch by emailing host at wp-europe.org.</p>
<p>&#8220;In late 2013, one tweet pushed the WordCamp Sofia team to apply to host WCEU,&#8221; Raykovska said. &#8220;It turned into the most incredible journey I&#8217;ve taken so far with stops further beyond the future host cities of Seville, Vienna, and Paris. It&#8217;s time for someone to write the next chapter of the story.&#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:"Thu, 08 Dec 2016 23:44:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:65:"Post Status: Photos from Post Status Publish and WordCamp US 2016";s:7:"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=31040";s:7:"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:67:"https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/";s: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:52709:"<p>Last week was a whirlwind of events. On Thursday, December 1st, I hosted the inaugural <a href="https://poststatus.com/publish">Post Status Publish</a>, which was a ton of fun. And following that event, we had three straight days of <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org">WordCamp US</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/rzen">Brian Richards</a> and I teamed up to take pictures and cover the event.</p>
<h3>Post Status Publish</h3>
<p>Publish was on Thursday. We have a lot of video, but fewer pictures. Here is a selection taken by Brian Richards. If you took photos at Publish, we&#8217;d love to see them as well!</p>

<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-1/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-1-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-4/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-4-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-3/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-3-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-6/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-6-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-5/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-5-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-7/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-7-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-8/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-8-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-10/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-10-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-9/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-9-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-11/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-11-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-12/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-12-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-14/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-14-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-13/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-13-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-16/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-16-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-15/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-15-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-17/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-17-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-19/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-19-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-20/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-20-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-21/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-21-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-22/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-22-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-24/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-24-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-23/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-23-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-25/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-25-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-26/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-26-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-27/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-27-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-28/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-28-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-29/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-29-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-31/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-31-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-32/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-32-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-34/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-34-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/publish-2016-33/"><img width="114" height="150" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/publish-2016-33-114x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>

<h3>WordCamp US</h3>
<p>Then there was WordCamp US. I unfortunately didn&#8217;t get to any sessions other than Matt&#8217;s State of the Word. But thankfully they&#8217;ll all be up on WordPress.tv, so I can catch up on the many that I wanted to attend.</p>
<p>All photos directly before and during Matt&#8217;s <a href="https://poststatus.com/matt-mullenweg-state-word-2016/">State of the Word</a> are by Brian Richards. I took most of the hallway shots.</p>

<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-1/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-1-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-2/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-2-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-3/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-3-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-4/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-4-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-5/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-5-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-6/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-6-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-8/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-8-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-7/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-7-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-10/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-10-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-11/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-11-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-12/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-12-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-14/"><img width="100" height="150" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-14-100x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-13/"><img width="100" height="150" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-13-100x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-16/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-16-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-15/"><img width="100" height="150" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-15-100x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-17/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-17-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-18/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-18-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-19/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-19-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-20/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-20-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-21/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-21-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-22/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-22-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-24/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-24-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-23/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-23-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-25/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-25-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-27/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-27-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-28/"><img width="100" height="150" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-28-100x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-29/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-29-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-30/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-30-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-31/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-31-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-32/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-32-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-33/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-33-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-35/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-35-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-34/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-34-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-36/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-36-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-37/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-37-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-39/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-39-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-38/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-38-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-41/"><img width="100" height="150" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-41-100x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-40/"><img width="100" height="150" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-40-100x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://poststatus.com/photos-post-status-publish-wordcamp-us-2016/wcus-2016-43/"><img width="150" height="100" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wcus-2016-43-150x100.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a>
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<h3>WordCamp US Contributor Day</h3>
<p>Finally, Contributor Day was on Sunday. In addition to the contributor area itself, lunch was at the market where you can choose from a variety of lunch spots, with common cafeteria seating. I had an awesome spicy roast pork sandwich from Dinic&#8217;s, which I took a few pictures of as well.</p>

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<p>I&#8217;ll have more coverage of both Publish and WordCamp US for Post Status Members in the coming days. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the pictures! If you&#8217;d like to use any of them, you are free to do so, and while credit is not required, it&#8217;s always appreciated.</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, 08 Dec 2016 20:49:38 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Brian Krogsgard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:95:"WPTavern: GoDaddy Acquires WP Curve, Aims to Become a One-Stop Shop for WordPress Professionals";s:7:"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=64287";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:105:"https://wptavern.com/godaddy-acquires-wp-curve-aims-to-become-a-one-stop-shop-for-wordpress-professionals";s: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:5040:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/godaddy-logo.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/godaddy-logo.jpg?resize=680%2C295&ssl=1" alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61236" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://wpcurve.com/" target="_blank">WP Curve</a>, a WordPress services business that focuses on completing small jobs for customers, <a href="https://wpcurve.com/wp-curve-joins-godaddy/" target="_blank">announced</a> this week that GoDaddy has acquired the company. Founders Dan Norris and Alex McClafferty bootstrapped WP Curve in 2013 and have processed 105,000+ jobs through its pipeline.</p>
<p>&#8220;WP Curve complements GoDaddy’s expanding WordPress offering including Managed WordPress and the recent ManageWP addition,&#8221; the company said in the announcement.</p>
<p>Existing customers will be on-boarded to GoDaddy accounts with their current subscriptions. After the transition, the newly acquired WP Curve team will assist in scaling the services to support GoDaddy&#8217;s WordPress customers. Norris plans to exit the company and McClafferty will lead the team at GoDaddy.</p>
<h3>GoDaddy&#8217;s Plans for WP Curve</h3>
<p>Gabe Mays, head of WordPress Products at GoDaddy, said the WP Curve acquisition is an important part of GoDaddy&#8217;s goal to become &#8220;a one-stop shop for WordPress professionals.&#8221; Roughly one third of all GoDaddy sites are running on WordPress, and half of all new sites are using the software. This is one of the reasons GoDaddy plans to <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-passes-27-market-share-banks-on-customizer-for-continued-success" target="_blank">invest in improvements to WordPress&#8217; core customizer component</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;WP Curve will help us in two ways,&#8221; Mays said. &#8220;First we’re adding WP Curve’s WordPress experts to the company and we’ll leverage their expertise to improve the training and tools for the hundreds of GoDaddy Customer Care representatives that support our customers globally.</p>
<p>&#8220;Second, we’ll directly offer WP Curve&#8217;s services to our customers,&#8221; Mays said. &#8220;This combination will be amazing for our customers and create a compelling one-stop shop for WordPress professionals and their clients.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mays said WP Curve&#8217;s services &#8220;will continue to be offered as standalone services&#8221; but GoDaddy may consider adding them to its hosting plans sometime in the future.</p>
<p>&#8220;Down the road it&#8217;s possible we&#8217;ll see aspects integrated into our Hosting plans to improve the customer experience, especially for nascent WordPress users,&#8221; Mays said.</p>
<p>Mays would not comment on whether GoDaddy has more acquisitions in the pipeline, but the company is likely to require additional expertise if it aims to become a one-stop shop for WordPress professionals. GoDaddy is part of a more recent trend of hosting companies acquiring WordPress products and services, including its <a href="https://wptavern.com/godaddy-acquires-wordpress-site-management-service-managewp" target="_blank">ManageWP acquisition</a> and <a href="https://wptavern.com/flywheel-acquires-wordpress-local-development-tool-pressmatic" target="_blank">Flywheel&#8217;s purchase of Pressmatic</a>. The trend has sparked some recent discussion on Twitter regarding &#8220;hosting companies eating WordPress:&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">If software is eating the world, then hosting companies are eating WordPress.</p>
<p>&mdash; Cory Miller (@corymiller303) <a href="https://twitter.com/corymiller303/status/805891418866806784">December 5, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Mays sees this notion as a positive development and an opportunity for hosts to become more deeply invested in WordPress core and the surrounding ecosystem.</p>
<p>&#8220;We see it as win-win for hosts and the WordPress community, more investment in WordPress is better for everyone,&#8221; Mays said. &#8220;For example, this year we hired our first core contributor, contributed full translations to some of the most popular themes and plugins, built a number of themes and plugins and contributed them to the WordPress repo and more. As a WordPress community we need all the investment we can get to reach our 50% goal and beyond.&#8221;</p>
<p>Just days after the WP Curve acquisition, GoDaddy <a href="https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/news-releases/news-releases-details/2016/GoDaddy-Acquires-Host-Europe-Group-Becomes-Market-Leader-In-Europe-For-Small-Business-Cloud-Services/default.aspx" target="_blank">announced</a> its acquisition of <a href="https://www.heg.com/" target="_blank">Host Europe Group</a> (HEG) for $1.8 billion. HEG is Europe&#8217;s largest privately-owned web services provider in Europe and the purchase delivers 1.7 million new customers to GoDaddy, expanding the company&#8217;s international reach.</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, 08 Dec 2016 20:49:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:75:"WPTavern: The Value of Sponsoring a WordCamp from a Business’ Perspective";s:7:"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=64315";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"https://wptavern.com/the-value-of-sponsoring-a-wordcamp-from-a-business-perspective";s: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:27974:"<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/tony-perez-sucuri.jpg?ssl=1"><img class="wp-image-64317 size-thumbnail" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/tony-perez-sucuri.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1" alt="Tony Perez, CEO of Sucuri" /></a>Tony Perez, CEO of Sucuri
<p>This is a guest post written by Tony Perez, <a href="http://perezbox.com/about/">co-founder and CEO</a> of <a href="https://sucuri.net">Sucuri</a>. Sucuri is a website security platform that helps clean and protect websites. I would consider us a small mid-sized company. Our annual sponsorship budget is in the range of $300 &#8211; $400k per calendar year (CY).</p>
<p>One of the industry events we’ve been actively participating in since our inception has been WordCamps. Unlike 2015, in 2016 I decided to be more pragmatic in the way we invest in WordCamps. This new approach stemmed from two basic questions &#8211; <b>What is the ROI of sponsoring a WordCamp and should a business sponsor a WordCamp?</b></p>
<p>One qualifier I want to add before getting started is that tracking success at events is very difficult. Even with the number of tools and approaches in the market, many organizations struggle getting their hands around the actual ROI of any event sponsorship. This means that many of the points in this post are not unique to the WordPress ecosystem, but the uniqueness and openness of the community makes it worth discussing.</p>
<hr />
<h1>The Reality of WordCamps and Sponsors</h1>
<p>It’s been many years since I helped co-organize a WordCamp (<a href="https://2011.sandiego.wordcamp.org/">San Diego back in 2011</a>), and there is no denying that a lot has changed in the way they are put together. The one thing that hasn’t changed however, is the struggle organizers face when it comes to fundraising. Over the years we’ve seen a number of awesome initiatives by the <a href="http://wordpressfoundation.org/">WordPress Foundation</a> to help assist in the process.</p>
<p>At <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp US 2016</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2016-mullenweg-pushes-calypso-as-future-of-wordpress-interface-proposes-major-changes-to-release-cycle">the State of Word reported </a>that in 2016 alone there were:</p>
<ul>
<li>116 WordCamps around the world</li>
<li>36,000 attendees</li>
<li>2,056 speakers</li>
<li>1,036 sponsors</li>
<li>750 organizers</li>
</ul>
<p>What makes it even more impressive is that these are events put on by volunteers. Matt Mullenweg also shared that these WordCamps are made possible by the generosity of the various sponsors which cover 85 &#8211; 95% of the costs associated with such events.</p>
<p>It’s because of these sponsors that the costs are kept so low for attendees; including the annual event (WCUS) which came in at a cost greater than $500 per person but sold for ~$20 / day (Total of $40 / person). This is truly a herculean feat, and I commend them on their success to date.</p>
<h1>The Sponsor Canoe Is Leaking</h1>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Canoes.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64321" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Canoes.png?resize=705%2C210&ssl=1" alt="Canoes" /></a>photo credit: dolbinator1000 <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/126654539@N08/25305151246">Boyhood</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p>With this in mind, I think it’s fair to say that at the rate things are going we might find ourselves with a problem of scale. While there have been 1k + sponsors in 2016, I would wager that a majority of the money is likely coming from a smaller subset of that group.</p>
<p>Taking this into consideration, unless you’re Automattic, I can’t help but imagine that as a business the ROI question continues to come up as it does for me. This is further compounded by the dramatic increase in the <strong>a)</strong> request for sponsorships (# of camps) and <strong>b)</strong> the economics of the sponsorship itself (the $$ amount).</p>
<p>This makes me think that it’s only a matter of time when the source of funds will be exhausted. Organizations have fiduciary responsibilities to their companies to spend their cash flow wisely, especially in today’s turbulent economic times.</p>
<p>The impacts of this, as highlighted above, are going to be felt (if not already) by those volunteers trying to put on these great WordCamps. This will become exceptionally difficult for new camps, especially those in remote cities and countries.</p>
<h1>Why Do Businesses Sponsor WordCamps?</h1>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/QuestionmarkSmaller.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-48305" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/QuestionmarkSmaller.png?resize=650%2C200&ssl=1" alt="Smaller Question mark featured image" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewmcvickar/4380126801/">Matthew McVickar</a> &#8211; <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
<p>There is one common phrase every business that has invested in WordCamps has come to terms with &#8211; <b>sponsorships are done in-kind; expect nothing</b>.<i> I’m not clear how this guidance came to be, whether it was explicitly outlined by the Foundation or guidance that came to be over time. What I do know is that a good number of sponsors are familiar with it. </i></p>
<p>Whether intended or not, allow me to be the first to publicly admit that while we are familiar with the phrase, no one really subscribes to it. The dirty little secret is that every business has some form of an expected ROI. It’s not always financially based, but there is some expectation. Companies sponsor events because there is some vested interest unless we’re talking about a child’s gymnastics or softball team.</p>
<p>ROI takes many different shapes. Allow me to share the ROI as I see it when I look across the spectrum of some of today’s top sponsors (know that these are all my opinions as a third-party observer):</p>
<h3><b>GoDaddy </b></h3>
<p>They sponsor because they need to. When they came into the space two to three years ago, after the changing of the guard they identified the potential in WordPress. They had an image problem; one that couldn’t be fixed remotely. It had to be fixed with boots on the ground.</p>
<p>Building relationships. Sharing experiences. Engaging influencers (do not underestimate the power of influencers). Whatever you might think of the brand today is nothing compared to what it was a few years ago. WordCamps have been a critical piece of their strategy to make this work. Who doesn’t know <a href="https://ifyouwillit.com/about-mendel-kurland/">Mendel Kurland</a>?</p>
<h3><b>SiteGround </b></h3>
<p>When they started to make their big push into the market, they were at every camp giving away free accounts. For them, it wasn’t about the short-term gain as much as the long-term gain. They had everything going against them. They were from Bulgaria working to service the biggest economic market, the US. They were trying to penetrate what many would argue was an already saturated market.</p>
<p>I remember when they first appeared. No one knew them, and yet through their guerrilla marketing tactics, brand ambassadorship, stellar performance with customers, and word-of-mouth referrals, they are a powerhouse in the WP hosting space.</p>
<h3><b>WP Engine</b></h3>
<p>While they exploded through a number of initiatives, I believe that WordCamps and their strategy to engage with the community is what propelled them ahead of their competitors. Their focus wasn’t revenue generation early on. I recall their free accounts campaign. I think it ran for close to two years.</p>
<p>What better combination than to have a freemium-like model where all you have to do is focus on user adoption (oversimplification of course). Your product and support are spot on, you just need more people touching it, more people telling their friends about it. They grew organically and these events made that possible.</p>
<h3><b>Automattic</b></h3>
<p>Honestly, they have no choice but to sponsor. They are the project sponsor by design. They are in many ways tied to the success and continued growth of the platform. They too have their free services that require adoption and user growth, things like Jetpack, Akismet, WooCommerce, and so many others.</p>
<p>Without growth, they are dead solutions. They have to show support for a product that they’ve gone all in on. If they don’t sponsor, why would anyone else? Their fates are intertwined.</p>
<p>And the observations go on. Granted, these are obvious gross oversimplifications, but I share them to highlight what ROI can look like. I also share them to show you what success looks like, and what the DNA of these organizations look like. Most of the scenarios above are built on the idea of “free” or “free-ish” services, with the exception being GoDaddy whose prices are so low you might as well consider them a freemium-like model.</p>
<h1>Measuring the ROI of Events</h1>
<p>What happens if you’re a premium service though? In this scenario, your ROI is no longer about adoption or user growth. Instead you’re now focused on growth in the form of revenue and sales. User adoption will never be as great as the freemium model.</p>
<p>As organizations, we’ve invested a lot of money. There has to be something we’re getting out of this. Only in the WordCamp community have I seen this idea that people will donate not only time, but money, under the assumption that there will be nothing at the end of the tunnel.</p>
<p>I wanted to better understand this myself, and what better place to look for ROI than our own data here at Sucuri.</p>
<p>The data below highlights the period between December 2015 &#8211; June 2016. I encourage other businesses to share their own data to add to the conversation. When speaking to ROI, I looked for measurable attributes first:</p>
<ul>
<li>How many marketing leads were captured?</li>
<li>How many sales leads were captured?</li>
<li>How many of those leads converted to sales?</li>
<li>What kind of exposure did we get via social?</li>
<li>What kind of exposure did we get via backlinks?</li>
</ul>
<p>Perhaps the biggest immeasurable metric being:</p>
<ul>
<li>What kind of brand awareness are you really getting?</li>
</ul>
<p>In the table below, <b>sponsorship</b> is exactly what you’d think, while <b>financial investment</b> implies ancillary costs of getting people there, lodging and eating. It does not include labor, collateral, shipping and other items.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SucurisWordCampsInvestments.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64325" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SucurisWordCampsInvestments.png?resize=996%2C265&ssl=1" alt="Sucuri WordCamp Investments Dec. 2015 - June 2016" /></a>Sucuri&#8217;s WordCamp Investments Dec. 2015 &#8211; June 2016
<p>This chart shows the ROI we got in terms of money (did we close deals?) As a for-profit business one of the many attributes we look at are the total net-new customers we can generate from any investment, including events.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SucuriCPLCACInvestment.png?ssl=1"><img class="wp-image-64327 size-full" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SucuriCPLCACInvestment.png?resize=887%2C259&ssl=1" alt="Sucuri Investment CPL/CAC Analysis" /></a>Sucuri Investment CPL/CAC Analysis
<p>To date, from all the events including WordCamp US (2015), we were able to track a total of 13 deals that closed from a direct engagement at the event. Putting the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) in the neighborhood of $12.4k per closed lead.</p>
<p>This means that my lifetime value (LTV), if they purchased a basic plan at $199.99 would have to be 45 years. If they purchased our $499.99 plan, we&#8217;d be looking at a 18 year LTV.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SucuriInvestmentMeasurableROI.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64328" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SucuriInvestmentMeasurableROI.png?resize=1006%2C165&ssl=1" alt="Sucuri Investment Measurable ROI" /></a>Sucuri Investment Measurable ROI
<p>Focusing on exposure, it is one of the many things you get from sponsoring an event. You get linkbacks from the event, shout outs on the pages, posts highlighting your sponsorship. What does that really amount to? Can it be measured? The easiest way to answer these questions was to look at the main site links and social engagements.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SucuriWebSocialImpact.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64329" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SucuriWebSocialImpact.png?resize=577%2C304&ssl=1" alt="Sucuri Web / Social Sponsorship Impact" /></a>Sucuri Web / Social Sponsorship Impact
<p>We generated 190 sessions total, the most coming from WordCamp US (at the time of the event, not leading up to it, or after). We generate over 500k sessions a month across all our platforms. This makes 190 total sessions over a six month period negligible.</p>
<p>In my review, we looked at direct traffic from referrals and traced down the social <b>&#8220;thank you&#8221;</b> and <b>&#8220;promotions&#8221;</b> each event provided. It&#8217;s fair to note, that the lack of success in the measurable values above could be very closely be related to our ineffectiveness as an organization as well. We could just be really bad at working events; it’s an art in and of itself.</p>
<p>I intentionally did not include marketing leads. For me, my focus is looking at what actually converts so when we go to events, we place more emphasis on qualified sales leads (opportunities) than marketing leads; I am not very big on getting into the card collection and SPAM business.</p>
<p><b>What does this all mean?</b></p>
<p>Well, if I was a rational person this would mean that as a premium service provider, investing in WordCamps doesn’t make sense. Trust me, I love the community. We are involved in many ways, but this is really too difficult to digest and justify. I wonder what happens when more companies, even the ones that I shared above, start doing the same mathematics.</p>
<h1>The WordCamp Sponsorship Conundrum</h1>
<p>The WordPress platform promotes the idea of Free and targets a very curious niche of people &#8211; self-service/Do It Yourself (DIY) types. By this self-proclaimed profile, they are not buyers of premium services; they are the ones that will invest sweat equity to build or find an alternative to their problem &#8211; <b>it just has to be free. </b></p>
<p>This ideology is fine, but it also means that it frankly may not be the right market for most premium businesses. I would be remiss however, if I did not highlight the fact that a number of the sponsors for WCUS 2016 were premium service providers. The only challenge I would make to this claim is that just because they are sponsoring, doesn’t mean they are getting a return.</p>
<p>I’d also challenge it and say some of them have a need to sponsor for some of the same reasons described above. Just because a premium service sponsors, it doesn’t mean their goal is defined purely around selling, in many instances it’s built around brand awareness and ambassadorship &#8211; especially unknown brands, or those with bad reputations. GoDaddy is a perfect example of this.</p>
<p>Does this mean that there is no hope? No, I don’t think so. I just think we have to ask ourselves some key questions, both as organizations and a community. To assist in the conversation, I’ve highlighted a few areas that I find challenging as a business and encourage others to introduce their own. If nothing else, this can help both the Foundation and organizers alike better work with sponsors.</p>
<h2>The Audience Quality Factor</h2>
<p>When we turn our attention to WordCamps, events designed to promote and bring together these ideals, you realize that the problem with WordCamps for businesses is the audience.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m by no way saying that their current design is bad for what WordCamps were designed for. On the contrary, I&#8217;d say they&#8217;ve done an exceptional job sticking to their predefined audience, at least in terms of cost bracket. They don’t, however, do a good job of differentiating between the various personas in attendance. They’re all rolled up into one big bucket. This creates a severe imbalance between the economic investment and audience potential.</p>
<p>This imbalance I think has to do with the quality of the audience. This is not meant to imply that the audience is not good in their own right, but from a company perspective not so much (i.e., as a potential customer). In a world where everything is expected to be free, and quickly commoditized, how do you bridge that divide?</p>
<p>This also has residual effects as well into the quality that can be expected at the event, in terms of organization, presentation and speakers. There are so many different ways this can go, does it mean WordCamp Pro like events? I’m not sure, but what I do know is that in it’s current incarnation something has to give.</p>
<p>Granted, this does not apply to everyone. I know a number of theme shops that bring and meet their customers at these events. Where closing one deal cannot only cover their costs, but set them up nicely for a couple of months.  My points here are more tailored at product / premium shops that are operating at a very different scale and configuration.</p>
<h2>Increasing Number of Events Globally</h2>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/WPWorldLogo.jpg?ssl=1"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-6948" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/WPWorldLogo.jpg?resize=200%2C160&ssl=1" alt="WordPress World" /></a>The sheer volume of camps and sponsorships presents a very big problem, not just for the Foundation but for businesses as well. Which ones do you invest in? Which will offer the most return?</p>
<p>I assure you, these are the conversations that are occurring. There are so many, and it’s impossible to invest in them all (at least in a meaningful way). This will continue to put undue pressures on all the organizing teams looking to raise funds. I think you can see an example of this with this years WCUS 2016 sponsorships, a very different (stark) representation of today’s reality when it comes to sponsorships.</p>
<p>Yes, I&#8217;m very familiar with the new Global Sponsorship opportunities the Foundation has put together. They&#8217;re divided by geographic region, and don&#8217;t include the main geographic events like WordCamp US and WordCamp Europe. The prices are below:</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/GlobalSponsorshipOpportunities.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64326" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/GlobalSponsorshipOpportunities.png?resize=730%2C143&ssl=1" alt="Global Sponsorship Prices" /></a>Global Sponsorship Prices
<p>It’s definitely a great idea, but providing a large sum of cash that gets distributed across events that you may or may not attend isn’t something I’m particularly fond of. I worry about the longevity of this program, and while I know there are always new sponsors, what will the churn look like in the program. Only time will tell.</p>
<h2>Impacts of a Corporation Type</h2>
<p>For those unfamiliar, the entity responsible for facilitating the growth and management of WordCamps around the world is now known as the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/03/02/transitioning-to-wordpress-community-support/">“WordPress Community Support (WPCS) Public Benefit Corporation (PBC)”</a>. This new entity is a subsidiary of the WordPress Foundation, which is still a non-profit, and established in 2016 (Yes, Matt said it’d take effect in 2017 but I’m pretty sure that was in error).</p>
<blockquote><p>After March 31, sponsorship payments sent to WordPress Foundation accounts will be returned to sender. Please send <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer-handbook/first-steps/budget-and-finances/running-the-money-through-wpcs/#sponsorship-revenue">revised payment instructions</a> to any sponsors who have not yet paid.</p></blockquote>
<p>This new entity is what is known as a benefit corporation, and should NOT be confused with a b-corp. Although it is used in many instances interchangeably, there are a number of differentiating factors, the biggest being that to obtain a b-corp classification an entity must be certified.</p>
<blockquote><p>B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.</p></blockquote>
<p>Establishing a PBC to handle the WordCamps I firmly believe was done with the best of intentions for the community, but it does present a few challenges for private businesses. A PBC is still a private for-profit company. The biggest difference, however, is that unlike other corporation types (e.g., C, S, etc..) a PBC allows an organization to be a charter (or mission focused) in addition to more traditional goals of generating profits for its shareholders.</p>
<p>This change is a bit more significant than might be implied when reading through <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/03/02/transitioning-to-wordpress-community-support/">the announcement</a>. One of the driving forces for the change was to make the sponsorship process easier for both the organizers and sponsors alike:</p>
<blockquote><p>One of the main advantages to the change from the WordPress Foundation (a non-profit) to the WPCS (a public benefit corporation) is that the rules around sponsoring official WordPress events are much simpler.</p>
<p>The people involved in overseeing the program have updated sponsor rules accordingly, to eliminate the barriers to value-adding stuff like direct links, discounts, and calls to action, while keeping the ones that helped us form such a trustworthy, community-focused sponsor program, like the rule about not using superlatives or unprovable claims.</p></blockquote>
<p>As a prior WordCamp organizer, there is perhaps no greater challenge in my mind than asking people for money. While my experience was back in 2011, I can only imagine that the struggles are still the same and one of the things leveraged when pitching to companies are the benefits of a non-profit. The non-profit classification was not just about securing donations like venues (which is very important) but it’s critical for some in securing the dollars they require.</p>
<p>For a company, it also makes it harder to justify the costs. As the dollar investment continues to increase, the one thing that could always be counted on was the non-profit status. By changing it to a private organization (on paper) it’s donating money to another company (regardless of what the mission may or may not be). This might not be a big deal for some, but when we start talking significant investments, it becomes a serious problem.</p>
<h1>Incentivizing Businesses</h1>
<p>When you read through the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/planning-details/fundraising/wordcamp-sponsorship/#wordcamp-sponsorship-rules-for-2016">Sponsorship rules for 2016</a> the changes are not incentivizing enough for a business. The biggest change being the ability to print comparisons or introduce pricing on collateral, both of which are insignificant as you can account for most of your physical collateral to end up in the trash and difficult to track.</p>
<p>I believe there will be, or are changes in the works, to include pricing on virtual print as well which will definitely be a positive move, but I defer to the ROI measurements above as well.</p>
<p>While the idea of incentivizing a business might be repulsive, it’s a necessity. As a good friend of mine mentioned, it’s about exposure for businesses. If we’re investing significant dollars and being such pivotal players in the success of these events, then we’re going to ask for as much exposure as possible.</p>
<p>We’re also going to push the limits of our imaginations and require some flexibility, in return I think most companies would willingly be open to negotiation and flexibility. If ROI is going to be based on exposure and brand awareness, we need to be able to capitalize on that.</p>
<p>What might be interesting here is to perhaps do a survey of businesses, those that have been supporting the WordCamp communities for years, and take a poll. Maybe present some options and make them part of the process. Even if it’s a fixed list, maybe ask for a wishlist of things; things that can be discussed and openly taken into consideration.</p>
<p>Like I tell my teams &#8211;<b>most reasonable people don’t need to always win, they just want to be heard and be part of the process.</b> This applies to companies as well. When it comes down to it, it’s but a few people at each organization that will be your evangelists.</p>
<h1>WordCamp Sponsorship Can Work</h1>
<p>I am not saying that sponsoring WordCamps is not valuable. I’m also not saying that it’s a lost cause working with WordCamps.  I am saying that it’s important to have a dialog if longevity is what we’re after in the community,  sponsorships are the bloodline that keep these events going.</p>
<p>There is little that can be done about the growth of events or the new subsidiary (and I don’t think either is bad). They are today’s realities and as organizations we’ll have to work through them independently.</p>
<p>The two areas I think can be improved on is the audience and how businesses are incentivized.</p>
<ul>
<li>I’m not particularly hopeful of the audience, that’s a problem the community will need to solve and not necessarily something the Foundation should concern themselves with. If I were the Foundation, I would be doing exactly what they are doing &#8211;<b> keep the price as low as possible to make it reachable to everyone (need a low barrier to entry). </b>We’ve already seen a few events attempt this, and the best example in my opinion so far has been <a href="https://wooconf.com/">WooConf</a> and <a href="https://wpcampus.org/">WPCampus</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The one I’m more hopeful of is how businesses are incentivized. If we can agree that at a minimum all organizations are looking for exposure, then that should be the easiest place to start. A few examples might include: speaking guarantees, more prominent branding, access to some form of audience information. Yes, some of these are highly controversial, but I have faith that together we can make something work that is in line with the spirit of these events. I would also encourage other camps to look at <a href="https://2017.miami.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp Miami</a>; beyond  having a Learn JavaScript Deeply track, they do an exceptional job with the way they engage with their sponsors.</li>
</ul>
<p>I share this post as a way to provide a perspective that I hope is unique and valuable. If it starts a discussion, and opens a better dialog between businesses, WordCamp organizers and the Foundation then I will consider it a success. Sponsors are a critical piece to the continued success and growth of these community events, and I’d like to ensure that continues.</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, 08 Dec 2016 04:36:11 +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: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:28:"BuddyPress: BuddyPress 2.7.3";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=261855";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://buddypress.org/2016/12/buddypress-2-7-3/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:756:"<p>BuddyPress 2.7.3 is now available. This is a maintenance release and a recommended upgrade for all BuddyPress installations.</p>
<p>BP 2.7.3 fixes bugs in several components. For more information, see the <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/query?group=status&milestone=2.7.3">2.7.3 milestone</a> on <a>BuddyPress Trac</a>.</p>
<p>Update to BuddyPress 2.7.3 today in your WordPress Dashboard, or by <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress/">downloading from the wordpress.org plugin repository</a>.</p>
<p>Questions or comments? Check out the <a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/releases/version-2-7-3/">2.7.3 changelog</a>, or stop by our <a href="https://buddypress.org/support/">support forums</a> or  <a>Trac</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, 07 Dec 2016 23:15:56 +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:8:"@mercime";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:76:"WPTavern: WordPress 4.7 is the First Release to be 100% Translated into Urdu";s:7:"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=64040";s:7:"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/wordpress-4-7-is-the-first-release-to-be-100-translated-into-urdu";s: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:5620:"<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/lahore-pakistan.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/lahore-pakistan.jpg?resize=1024%2C589&ssl=1" alt="" class="size-full wp-image-64311" /></a>photo credit: WasifMalik <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/47644350@N04/23458524585">Wazir Khan Masjid Mosque Shahi Royal Hammaam Bathhouse Lahore Pakistan Oct 2015  031</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-introduces-twenty-seventeen-default-theme-and-wp-rest-api-content-endpoints" target="_blank">WordPress 4.7 was released yesterday</a> with translations for 52 languages, thanks to the volunteer efforts of its vibrant community of translators. For the first time, WordPress is 100% translated into Urdu, the national language of Pakistan. Urdu is spoken by 100 million people in several different areas of the world, including India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Middle East.</p>
<p>As part of the effort to bring the Urdu translation to 100%, WordPress developer Ahmad Awais <a href="https://ahmadawais.com/urdu-wordpress/" target="_blank">organized a small meetup in Lahore, Pakistan</a> during the <a href="https://wptavern.com/2nd-global-wordpress-translation-day-brings-780-translators-together-across-133-locales" target="_blank">2nd WP Translation Day</a> event. More than 60 attendees joined online and offline over the span of two days with many participating in the <a href="http://WP-Pakistan.Slack.com" target="_blank">WP-Pakistan Slack</a> team in the #translators channel.</p>
<p>Having WordPress available in Urdu is a major milestone for the Pakistani tech community. It makes it possible for government websites to adopt the software.</p>
<p>&#8220;The government websites are required to be accessible,&#8221; Awais said. &#8220;While we are not there yet, there are efforts underway to make every government website available in both English and Urdu.&#8221;</p>
<p>Awais cited the <a href="https://www.nadra.gov.pk/" target="_blank">National Database and Registration Authority</a> (NADRA) website as one example that has recently started using WordPress for its online portal. NADRA issues identity cards with CNIC numbers in Pakistan, similar to social security numbers in the US.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/nadra-website.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/nadra-website.png?resize=1025%2C720&ssl=1" alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-64303" /></a></p>
<p>&#8220;The NADRA site is far from perfect but is much better than other government sites,&#8221; Aawais said. &#8220;People have already started to notice that. There&#8217;s a pretty large developer community in Pakistan that&#8217;s connected to WordPress in one way or another, but on the consumer end &#8211; not so much.&#8221;</p>
<p>Awais said many Pakistani media sites are powered by WordPress but adoption is slower when it comes to e-commerce. WordPress penetration in the enterprise sector is nearly non-existent.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think the 100% Urdu variant of WordPress will definitely help in the expansion for the local consumer-base,&#8221; Awais said. &#8220;Web developers will find it easier to pitch WordPress as the go-to CMS for government, local, and higher education web properties as compared to other proprietary, closed-source Urdu CMS software. That alone can have a huge impact as far as the growth of the local WordPress community is concerned.&#8221;</p>
<p>The concept of contributing back to open source software is still relatively new in Pakistan but Awais and his fellow translators and developers are working to change the general perception in their tech culture.</p>
<p>&#8220;I would like to request Foundation to pay more attention to regions like ours, where software developers, computer science students, and entrepreneurs seldom understand the concept of open source software,&#8221; Awais said. &#8220;The concept of giving back and making it work to pay the bills is lost on simple and misunderstood questions of &#8216;Can people make money via Open Source?&#8217; and &#8216;What do you get by giving back and helping out for free?&#8217;</p>
<p>&#8220;Believe me, these are tough questions to be answered when there are no huge WordPress supported companies picking up the tabs for those who are trying to give back,&#8221; Awais said. &#8220;Support for open source is a rare commodity here. I hope that changes in the next five years or so.&#8221;</p>
<p>During the <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2016-mullenweg-pushes-calypso-as-future-of-wordpress-interface-proposes-major-changes-to-release-cycle" target="_blank">2016 State of the Word</a>, Matt Mullenweg said one of <a href="https://twitter.com/WordCampUS/status/805158678353608704" target="_blank">the Foundation&#8217;s new focuses</a> will be running educational workshops in developing nations. When asked about how this initiative will work during the Q&amp;A session, Mullenweg said they are still figuring it out but envision an open source curriculum with locally run classes and support.</p>
<p>More than 100 translators participated in bringing the Urdu translation to 100% for WordPress. With the software now accessible to 100 million Urdu speakers, the region seems like a good candidate for an educational investment to bring more developers up to speed with using WordPress for commerce and government sites.</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, 07 Dec 2016 20:56:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:64:"HeroPress: Full Circle: Life Lessons of a Perennial Entrepreneur";s:7:"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=1517";s:7:"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://heropress.com/essays/full-circle-life-lessons-perennial-entrepreneur/";s: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:10454:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/120716-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: Take the time to learn the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, JS and PHP. You'll be glad you did." /><p>I didn’t go to college until I was in my 40’s. When I graduated high school I went to work for a family business.</p>
<p>There has been one common thread throughout my adult career, my love for technology.</p>
<p>I was 24 when I bought my first computer, it was PC running MS-DOS.</p>
<p>Five years later, the company I was working for bought a computer program to manage their rental properties. I was responsible for using it and data entry. The program was written by a local software developer. He became a mentor and when problems arose with the code, he walked me through on the phone how to edit and compile the source code. (Yes, he left a copy of the source code on the computer &#8211; this was way before remote support was possible.) It was dBase II. Fast forward a few years later and he hired me as a part-time contractor to help him customize the codebase for his clients. It seemed I had a knack for writing code and troubleshooting bugs.</p>
<p>Eventually, I would go on to purchase the source code from him and launch my own property management software company. I ran it for eight years, while I rewrote the entire codebase. My business grew. I learned a lot about sales, running a business and managing employees. Most importantly, I learned how to listen to clients and by doing so, I was able to create the products they needed to run their businesses.</p>
<p>Then, Windows came onto the scene. My software was not Windows compatible. It was running on FoxPro, a Dbase III competitor for MS-DOS. My business plateaued and I was faced with another rewrite of the codebase to stay competitive. To top it off, I’d lost my only support person at the same time. These are the challenges most small business owners face at some point. I was experiencing burnout and needed a change. Long story short, I eventually sold the software line to a competitor who was looking to expand their user base and incorporates some features that were in demand that my product had. It was win-win for both of us and to this day &#8211; I&#8217;m still happy about that transaction.</p>
<p>I went on to work at a boutique consulting services firm in Houston, Texas as an Account Manager to large Fortune 500 clients, mostly in the energy sector. It was an amazing experience and I learned a lot about working in the enterprise space. This was very different from working with the small property management companies I had previously serviced. It was a great four years. The last year boomed as many clients scrambled to complete their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2000_problem">Y2K upgrades</a>.</p>
<p>In the spring of 2000, everything changed. The company had been acquired, and the dot-com bubble had burst. All the Y2K work was done and the world did not end. I decided to take some time off.</p>
<p>In the fall of 2000, I enrolled at a local community college. I spent the next two years and half years completing my core curriculum and then transferred to Texas A&amp;M in 2003 to complete a Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture.</p>
<p><strong>Why Horticulture?</strong> I’ve always loved gardening and jumped at the opportunity to learn everything I could about it.</p>
<p><strong>Life Lesson:</strong> In hindsight &#8211; I wish I would have completed a degree in Computer Science. It was a bit of my own arrogance, that since I had run a software company and worked at a consulting firm, I knew all I needed to know. Truth was, I didn’t and would have benefited greatly from that experience.</p>
<h3>Trying to make a hobby into a business.</h3>
<p>In 2003, I decided to open an online store to sell home and garden gifts. I built a website using the Yahoo Store platform, and for the next 5 years watched it grow.</p>
<p>My first introduction to WordPress came when I wanted to start a blog for the store. I like the idea of a self-hosted solution and loved getting back into programming.</p>
<p>I went from running the business from my home to a small warehouse. It was 2007 and the housing market was booming. I jumped at the opportunity to lease a much larger warehouse with a retail storefront.</p>
<p>There were important life lessons in it. One that made a strong impression on me was best described by the character Justin Matisse in the movie Hope Floats:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;You&#8217;re talkin&#8217; &#8217;bout the American Dream. You find something that you love, and then you twist it, and you torture it, try and find a way to make money at it. You spend a lifetime doing that. At the end, you can&#8217;t find a trace of what you started out lovin&#8217;. &#8220;</p></blockquote>
<p>That’s how I felt sometimes when running my store. What I loved about the home and garden space and trying to make money at it were sometimes at odds with each other. I loved designing the website, adding functionality and mastering the art of improving the SEO of the site.</p>
<p>I was about to learn a very painful and valuable lesson. I was financing the growth with debt. I got caught up in the growth curve and was sure that things would just keep getting better, allowing me to pay down the debt. Indeed servicing the debt was not a problem, as sales continued to grow.</p>
<p>Then came 2008 and the Great Recession. For the next three years, I watched sales decline, my credit lines pulled and my business contract. That made servicing the debt, really hard. I was stuck in a lease that I could not afford. Many of the vendors I bought products from went out of business. Everyone was hurting. <strong>I was not financially prepared for it.</strong></p>
<p>In the end, a chain of events led to a huge financial mess &#8211; one that to this day, I am still recovering from. In 2011, I liquidated the inventory, sold my online store to a third-party and moved on.</p>
<h3>Transitioning to WordPress</h3>
<p>I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do at that point. I was depressed and dealing with the financial fallout of losing my business.</p>
<p>I wrote content for a garden center and slowly began working on websites for others. I chose to use the Genesis Framework and began customizing their themes for clients. I liked it because it leveraged the power of hooks and filters in a way that made sense to me &#8211; and the Genesis community is amazing.</p>
<p>I worked in real estate for a while to help pay the bills, but it just wasn’t right for me.</p>
<p>During this transition period, I used the time to improve my web development skills. I began working with WordPress every day, learning everything I could. I took online courses in HTML, CSS and PHP.</p>
<p>Today, I’m running my own business again, building websites and helping clients promote their digital brand. I learned a lot about SEO running my eCommerce business, how to market products, write copy and promote my brand. Now I’m helping clients do that.</p>
<p>With decades of business experience along with some hard life lessons, here’s what I’ve learned so far:</p>
<ol>
<li>Don’t assume things will continue in the same direction. Business is cyclical, so like a squirrel &#8211; stash away some nuts for the winter.</li>
<li>Stay out of debt.</li>
<li>Know when to hold &#8217;em and when to fold &#8217;em. Sometimes hindsight helps make this clearer, but trust your gut and follow your instincts.</li>
<li>Be helpful to others. Take time to share what you’ve learned, make friends and enjoy the ride.</li>
<li>Learn from every engagement, and take steps to improve how you communicate.</li>
<li>Be a Life-Long Learner. Dedicate time to experiment, think and try new things.</li>
</ol>
<p>Finally, if you’re considering a career in web design and development in WordPress, take the time to learn the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, JS and PHP. You’ll be glad you did.</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: Full Circle: Life Lessons of a Perennial Entrepreneur" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Full%20Circle%3A%20Life%20Lessons%20of%20a%20Perennial%20Entrepreneur&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Ffull-circle-life-lessons-perennial-entrepreneur%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Full Circle: Life Lessons of a Perennial Entrepreneur" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Ffull-circle-life-lessons-perennial-entrepreneur%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%2Ffull-circle-life-lessons-perennial-entrepreneur%2F&title=Full+Circle%3A+Life+Lessons+of+a+Perennial+Entrepreneur" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Full Circle: Life Lessons of a Perennial Entrepreneur"></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/full-circle-life-lessons-perennial-entrepreneur/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/120716-150x150.jpg&description=Full Circle: Life Lessons of a Perennial Entrepreneur" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Full Circle: Life Lessons of a Perennial Entrepreneur"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/full-circle-life-lessons-perennial-entrepreneur/" title="Full Circle: Life Lessons of a Perennial Entrepreneur"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/full-circle-life-lessons-perennial-entrepreneur/">Full Circle: Life Lessons of a Perennial Entrepreneur</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, 07 Dec 2016 12:30:19 +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:19:"Jackie D&#8217;Elia";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:87:"WPTavern: Pantheon’s $100K WordCamp US Sponsorship Revoked the Night Before the Event";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=64248";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"https://wptavern.com/pantheons-100k-wordcamp-us-sponsorship-revoked-the-night-before-the-event";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8493:"<p>Nearly 2,000 people descended on Philadelphia, PA to attend WordCamp US last week. On the night before WordCamp US took place, <a href="https://pantheon.io/">Pantheon&#8217;s</a> sponsorship was revoked and advertising materials, including the company&#8217;s booth, were hidden in a storage room inside the venue. The move generated a <a href="https://twitter.com/danielbachhuber/status/804721149900890112">lot of controversy</a> on social media and at the event. It cost Pantheon $100K to sponsor WordCamp US, but the company received a refund.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Our booth disappeared but the team's still here! Look for us in yellow! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WCUS?src=hash">#WCUS</a> <a href="https://t.co/lnF5aI36oy">pic.twitter.com/lnF5aI36oy</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Pantheon (@getpantheon) <a href="https://twitter.com/getpantheon/status/804715506674626560">December 2, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Prior to WordCamp US Matt Stodolnic, Pantheon&#8217;s Vice President of Marketing, contacted the <a href="http://www.sheratonphiladelphiadowntown.com/">Sheraton Downtown Philadelphia</a> and inquired about advertising opportunities. The Sheraton <a href="http://www.sheratonphiladelphiadowntown.com/philadelphia-meetings">hosts a number of meetings</a> and has a couple of different advertising packages available. Stodolnic purchased advertising space on the hotel&#8217;s elevators. The advertising material was simple and didn&#8217;t make unprovable claims, such as the world&#8217;s best or fastest host. This is in line with the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/planning-details/fundraising/wordcamp-sponsorship/#wordcamp-sponsorship-rules-for-2016">sponsorship rules</a>.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/PantheonElevatorAdvertising.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64262" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/PantheonElevatorAdvertising.png?resize=629%2C806&ssl=1" alt="Pantheon's Elevator Advertising" /></a>Pantheon&#8217;s Elevator Advertising
<p>On December 1st late at night, Stodolnic received an email from WCUS organizers requesting that the advertising material be removed. Stodolnic pushed back as the sponsorship agreement does not specifically prohibit advertising in the hotel. At one point during the exchange of emails, the WCUS organizing team threatened to take the banners down themselves. Stodolnic responded with anger as the purchase had already been made but he quickly apologized.</p>
<p>The issue was eventually escalated to Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of the WordPress open source software project, who revoked the company&#8217;s sponsorship of the event for violating the code of conduct. Later that night, WCUS organizers deconstructed Pantheon&#8217;s booth and moved it to a storage room along with 600 T-shirts printed by the company.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/PantheonsBoothBefore.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64259" src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/PantheonsBoothBefore.png?resize=981%2C734&ssl=1" alt="Pantheon's Booth at WCUS Before Being Taken Down" /></a>Pantheon&#8217;s Booth at WCUS Before Being Taken Down
<p>Day one of WordCamp US went off without a hitch but it was slightly overshadowed by the sudden removal of Pantheon. A few Pantheon employees published unfavorable messages on Twitter about the situation. Those tweets have since been deleted. At the conclusion of day two, Cami Kaos, one of the lead organizers of WordCamp US, published a post on the <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/">event&#8217;s blog</a> highlighting what happened.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SponsorUpdatePost.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64261" src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SponsorUpdatePost.png?resize=1004%2C739&ssl=1" alt="Archived Image of The Post Published on the WCUS Blog Explaining The Situation" /></a>Archived Image of The Post Published on the WCUS Blog Explaining The Situation
<p>The post doesn&#8217;t specifically name Pantheon and says the sponsor in question violated the event&#8217;s <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/code-of-conduct/">code of conduct</a>. I spoke to a number of Pantheon employees who read the post and couldn&#8217;t identify the violation in question. Within hours of being published, the post was removed from the site without an explanation.</p>
<h2>Cooler Heads Prevail</h2>
<p>During day two of WCUS, Stodolnic and Pantheon Co-founder Josh Koenig, spoke to Mullenweg face-to-face in a closed-door meeting at the venue. What was said is unknown but when I asked Mullenweg what the result of the meeting was, he said, &#8220;I think we&#8217;re in a much better place.&#8221; He also didn&#8217;t comment when asked how Pantheon violated the code of conduct.</p>
<p>After the meeting, Stodolnic told me that both sides agreed that communication could have been handled better and that cooler heads prevailed. Mullenweg wouldn&#8217;t comment when asked whether Pantheon was banned from sponsoring WordCamps in 2017.</p>
<p>We now know that the official hotel for WordCamp US is an extension of the venue allowing organizers to enforce the code of conduct and sponsorship and principles agreements. It&#8217;s likely that due to this incident, the sponsorship agreement will be amended to specifically prohibit advertising in the official hotel at next year&#8217;s event.</p>
<p>Pantheon is a six-year old company making inroads in the managed WordPress hosting space. Not being able to sponsor WordCamps in 2017, <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/news/2016/03/28/pantheon-joins-the-wordpress-global-community-sponsorship-program-in-2016/">as they did in 2016,</a> could derail their momentum in building brand awareness.</p>
<h2>Is It Worth It to Sponsor WordCamps?</h2>
<p>Many of the sponsors I spoke to at WordCamp US described what Pantheon did as genius and were disappointed that they didn&#8217;t think of it first. This opens the door to a wider conversation. Is it financially worth it to sponsor WordCamps and are there enough opportunities to see a return on investment?</p>
<p>Earlier this year, Tony Perez, <span class="st">CEO of Sucuri, started a <a href="https://twitter.com/perezbox/status/749283708209799168">passionate discussion</a> on Twitter around the value of sponsoring WordCamps. As the costs of sponsoring and the number of WordCamps increases, businesses will need to be more selective of which camps they sponsor.<br />
</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">I think <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wordcamp?src=hash">#wordcamp</a> sponsorships and today's businesses will be coming to a cross roads in the the not so distant future.. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wordpress?src=hash">#wordpress</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Tony Perez (@perezbox) <a href="https://twitter.com/perezbox/status/749283708209799168">July 2, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>One of the <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2016-mullenweg-pushes-calypso-as-future-of-wordpress-interface-proposes-major-changes-to-release-cycle">major announcements at WordCamp US</a> is that WordCamps will now run finances through a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/first-steps/budget-and-finances/running-the-money-through-wpcs/">Public Benefit Corporation</a>. Previously, finances were run through the <a href="http://wordpressfoundation.org/">WordPress Foundation</a>, a 501(c) non-profit entity which <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/03/02/transitioning-to-wordpress-community-support/">severely limited</a> what sponsors were able to do at events due to IRS regulations. When the switch occurred earlier this year, the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer-handbook/planning-details/fundraising/wordcamp-sponsorship/#wordcamp-sponsorship-rules-for-2016">sponsor rules were updated</a> to be less restrictive.</p>
<p>As WordCamps grow in size, especially WordCamp US, perhaps its time to rethink the benefits that are offered to sponsors to increase the sponsorship&#8217;s value. What sponsorship opportunities would you like to see considered or added for WordCamps?</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, 07 Dec 2016 03:00:33 +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: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: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:99:"WPTavern: WordPress 4.7 Introduces Twenty Seventeen Default Theme and WP REST API Content Endpoints";s:7:"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=64226";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:110:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-introduces-twenty-seventeen-default-theme-and-wp-rest-api-content-endpoints";s: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:7624:"<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/sarah-vaughan.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/sarah-vaughan.jpg?resize=1025%2C645&ssl=1" alt="photo credit: Wikimedia Commons" class="size-full wp-image-64229" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarah_Vaughan_-_William_P._Gottlieb_-_No._1.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>
<p>WordPress 4.7 &#8220;Vaughan&#8221; was <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/12/vaughan/" target="_blank">released</a> today, named in honor of American jazz vocalist Sarah &#8220;Sassy&#8221; Vaughan. This release makes significant improvements to the new theme setup experience, inspiring the tagline: &#8220;Your site, your way.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/new-wordpress-default-theme-twenty-seventeen-merged-into-4-7" target="_blank">Twenty Seventeen is making its debut in 4.7</a> as the first default theme designed for business websites. It beautifully showcases new features for theme developers and demonstrates many improvements to the setup process. Twenty Seventeen offers four customizable panels on the front page for displaying existing content, custom logo upload, fullscreen featured images, and brand new core support for video headers.</p>
<div class="wp-video"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');</script><![endif]--><br />
<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2016/10/panels-ui-small.mp4">https://make.wordpress.org/core/files/2016/10/panels-ui-small.mp4</a></div>
<h3>Starter Content and Edit Shortcuts</h3>
<p>WordPress 4.7 gives theme developers the ability to provide <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/30/starter-content-for-themes-in-4-7/" target="_blank">starter content</a>, such as a business info widget or a sample social icons menu. The content serves as a placeholder but doesn&#8217;t appear on the live site until the user has customized and published it.</p>
<p>New <a href="https://wptavern.com/visible-edit-shortcuts-in-wordpress-4-7-makes-customizing-sites-easier" target="_blank">visible edit shortcuts</a> display a pencil icon on areas of a theme that can be customized. Clicking the icons will automatically open the correct panel for the setting, which saves users time that might otherwise have been spent hunting around for the right setting to adjust. Theme authors will need to add theme support as well as support for selective refresh in order to take advantage of this new feature.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CustomizerShortcutButtons.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CustomizerShortcutButtons.png?resize=1025%2C544&ssl=1" alt="Visible Edit Shortcut Buttons" class="size-full wp-image-63883" /></a>Visible Edit Shortcut Buttons
<p>The new starter content and edit shortcuts features, especially when combined, give theme authors the ability to make customization easier and faster for their users. Themes with dozens of customizer options that may have previously seemed complicated to set up may now be more approachable.</p>
<h3>Improved Menu Building and Custom CSS with Live Previews</h3>
<p>WordPress 4.7 <a href="https://wptavern.com/new-wordpress-feature-proposal-adds-content-authorship-to-menus-in-the-customizer" target="_blank">adds content authorship to menus in the Customizer</a>. Users can now create new pages while setting up menus, without having to navigate back to the admin. This makes for a smoother workflow when setting up a brand new site.</p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/a-preview-of-the-custom-css-editor-added-to-the-customizer-in-wordpress-4-7" target="_blank">Custom CSS with live previews</a> is also new in this release. Users can now tweak the appearance of themes and plugins and see the results instantly. Those who have been using Jetpack&#8217;s Custom CSS module should have a seamless migration. The new feature is fairly basic but extensible so <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/26/extending-the-custom-css-editor/" target="_blank">plugin developers can add additional functionality</a> on top of it.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/WP47CustomizerCSSEditor.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/WP47CustomizerCSSEditor.png?resize=1025%2C394&ssl=1" alt="CSS Editor in The WordPress 4.7 Customizer" class="size-full wp-image-63483" /></a>CSS Editor in The WordPress 4.7 Customizer
<p>WordPress 4.7 is packed full of many other user-facing improvements that make managing and editing content easier:</p>
<ul>
<li>PDF thumbnail previews for better document management</li>
<li>User admin languages</li>
<li>Media library is now searchable by file name</li>
<li>Improved Custom Background Properties UI (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/22058" target="_blank">#22058</a>)</li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/28/editor-changes-in-4-7/" target="_blank">Editor changes</a>: easier access to most-used buttons, improved discovery for keyboard shortcuts in tooltips and dropdowns</li>
<li>Customizer sliding panels UI is now faster, smoother, and more accessible</li>
<li>oEmbed support for Facebook posts/activities/photo/videos/media/questions/notes</li>
</ul>
<h3>WP REST API Content Endpoints Added to 4.7</h3>
<p>One of the most exciting improvements to WordPress for developers is the addition of the <a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-rest-api-officially-approved-for-merge-into-wordpress-4-7" target="_blank">WP REST API content endpoints</a> for posts, comments, terms, users, meta, and settings. This API opens up new ways of accessing and presenting WordPress content in themes, plugins, and applications &#8211; both inside and outside of the traditional WordPress interface. The WP REST API now has an <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/" target="_blank">official reference for documentation</a> on WordPress.org.</p>
<p>A few highlights of additional improvements for developers include the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-brings-custom-page-template-functionality-to-all-post-types" target="_blank">Post Type Templates</a> &#8211; custom page template functionality is now available to all post types</li>
<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-will-allow-developers-to-register-custom-bulk-actions-in-admin-list-tables" target="_blank">Custom bulk actions</a> &#8211; developers can register custom bulk actions for admin list tables</li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/26/registering-your-settings-in-wordpress-4-7/" target="_blank">Expanded Settings Registration API</a> via register_setting()</li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/09/08/wp_hook-next-generation-actions-and-filters/" target="_blank">WP_Hook overhaul</a></li>
</ul>
<p>WordPress lead developer Helen Hou-Sandí led the 4.7 release with deputies Jeff Paul and Aaron Jorbin. A record-breaking 482 contributors had props on 4.7 and 205 of them were first-time contributors. More than 100 of those volunteers contributed to the Twenty Seventeen theme. Community translators made it possible for WordPress 4.7 to be available in 52 languages at release time and they also captioned the release video included below in 44 languages. Check out the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.7" target="_blank">4.7 codex page</a> for a full rundown of all the new features and improvements in this release.</p>
<p></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, 06 Dec 2016 21:25:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:51:"Post Status: WordPress 4.7, “Vaughan”, released";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=30979";s:7:"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://poststatus.com/wordpress-4-7-released/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10113:"<p>WordPress 4.7, “Vaughan”, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/12/vaughan/">has been released</a>. It’s named, as always, after a famous jazz musician, and this release is named after <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Vaughan">Sarah “Sassy” Vaughan</a>, an American jazz singer.</p>
<p>The Release Lead for WordPress 4.7 was <a href="https://helen.blog/">Helen Hou-Sandí</a> &#8212; who is also a WordPress Lead Developer, and the Director of Platform Experience at 10up. The Deputy Release Leads were <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jbpaul17">Jeff Paul</a>, a Team Lead at XWP, and <a href="https://daily.jorb.in/">Aaron Jorbin</a>, the Director of Engineering at Some Spider. There were more than 475 total contributors to this release, and more than 200 were first time contributors!</p>
<p>As always, there&#8217;s a <a href="http://wordpress.tv/2016/12/06/introducing-wordpress-4-7-vaughan/">release video</a> that showcases the release highlights. This year, it was produced by Rami Abraham.</p>
<div id="v-AHz0Ca46-1" class="video-player"><div><img alt="Introducing WordPress 4.7" src="https://videos.files.wordpress.com/AHz0Ca46/wp4-7-vaughan-r8-mastered_scruberthumbnail_0.jpg" width="1024" height="576" /></div><p>Introducing WordPress 4.7</p></div>
<p>WordPress 4.7 includes so many changes and new features worth highlighting, I will note a few of what I consider the most important and noteworthy, but it is not all-encompassing. This has been the most productive release in a very long time.</p>
<h3>WordPress REST API Content Endpoints</h3>
<p>WordPress is now more extensible than ever before, thanks to the WordPress REST API and the Content Endpoints that have shipped with 4.7. The Content Endpoints are stage two of the REST API rollout, after the infrastructure was included <a href="https://poststatus.com/wordpress-4-4/">in WordPress 4.4</a>.</p>
<p>The Content Endpoints make it so developers can interact with all major content objects of WordPress: posts (including default and custom post types), terms, users, and comments.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve ever wanted to completely bypass the WordPress templating engine, now you can. You can use WordPress as a content store, and create a custom writing interface, or so many other things, thanks to this API that standardizes interfacing with WordPress.</p>
<p>The implications for external applications are enormous. Third parties can now reliably anticipate how to work with any WordPress site.</p>
<p>The WordPress REST API has reached a huge milestone, and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/19/wordpress-rest-api-success-metrics/">success metrics</a> have been created to track how things are going with it. But the core team already knows there is much left to do.</p>
<p>With the <a href="https://poststatus.com/matt-mullenweg-state-word-2016/">new development cycle</a> Matt Mullenweg announced at WordCamp US just last week, the REST API will be one of three parts of WordPress that will have a major release dedicated to enhacing it. The goal is to expand the endpoints to include all site management features of WordPress, so that someone (or WordPress itself) could completely rebuild the WordPress administration experience from scratch, using the WordPress REST API.</p>
<p>I sincerely believe the REST API is a gamechanger for WordPress. Now, it&#8217;s your turn. Build stuff. Show the world what you&#8217;ve made! There will be official WordPress REST API showcase efforts underway soon to capture what folks are building.</p>
<p>This project would absolutely not have happened without the following people: Ryan McCue and Rachel Baker for leading the effort, Daniel Bachhuber and Joe Hoyle for their constant work and guidance, K. Adam White for a huge 4.7 effort in project management and wrangling, and Helen Hou-Sandí for making the call to include the API in the release.</p>
<p>Ready to get started with the WordPress REST API? The new <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/">REST API Handbook</a> will be the home for documentation going forward.</p>
<h3>Twenty Seventeen</h3>
<p>Twenty Seventeen is the latest default theme for WordPress, and I believe the best since at least Twenty Twelve. The new default theme has a great multi-section front page feature that offers a great solution for small businesses to highlight their work in a single page format, with large featured images throughout.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-26479 size-large" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/twenty-seventeen-promo-752x313.png" alt="twenty-seventeen-promo" width="752" height="313" /></p>
<p>Twenty Seventeen was designed by Mel Choyce.</p>
<h3>Adjusted editor layout</h3>
<p>Many folks would consider it a minor change, but any change to the WordPress editor is a big one to me. As Andrew Ozz <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/28/editor-changes-in-4-7/">highlights in the Make Core post</a>, some of the buttons in the default editing toolbar have been moved around, based on statistics of usage.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-30984" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Screen-Shot-2016-12-06-at-1.24.48-PM-752x447.png" alt="editor-toolbar-rearrangement" width="752" height="447" /></p>
<p>Most notably, the headings drop down has been moved to the top row, and strikethrough and horizontal rule buttons have moved down. This is a good step in the right direction in supporting a better and easier to use editor.</p>
<h3>New Customizer features</h3>
<p>The WordPress Customizer is another of the three feature focus areas moving forward in WordPress development. And there&#8217;s a lot of new stuff in the Customizer with WordPress 4.7 that you should know about.</p>
<h4>Video Headers</h4>
<p>The new default theme supports <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/26/video-headers-in-4-7/">video headers</a>, a new feature in WordPress, managed within the customizer.</p>
<h4>Visible Edit Shortcuts</h4>
<p>The new visible edit shortcuts allow for someone using the customizer to see an icon next to the part of the page that is eligible to be edited in the customizer. It&#8217;s perhaps a small UX addition, but will be very helpful for folks customizing their websites.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-30982" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Screen-Shot-2016-12-06-at-1.01.09-PM-752x405.png" alt="customize-icon" width="752" height="405" /></p>
<h4>Create a Page Within a Menu</h4>
<p>Finally, you can create pages from within the Menu Customizer. One of the most common site setup steps is to build your menu. But if you haven&#8217;t already created the pages you want to put there, you have to go do that and come back.</p>
<p>Now users can create a page draft while in the Menu Customizer so that they don&#8217;t have to take unnecessary steps or understand the order WordPress expects. Small wins like this are invaluable for the new user experience.</p>
<h4>Custom CSS</h4>
<p>Creating custom CSS straight from the editor has long been a popular Jetpack feature, and it was ported to WordPress core.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-30981" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Screen-Shot-2016-12-06-at-12.59.04-PM-752x438.png" alt="wordpress-edit-css" width="752" height="438" /></p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t exactly what I&#8217;d call a best practice, but it&#8217;s a common one. I&#8217;ve used custom CSS myself many times, especially for small sites where I just wanted to get something small done quickly. This feature brings a common request to core, and helps someone customize their sites quicker and without a third party plugin.</p>
<h4>Starter content for themes</h4>
<p>I&#8217;m really excited about the new starter content that WordPress themes can now include. This allows for smarter demos, so that the user better sees what the theme is designed for.</p>
<p>Helen has a whole post <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/30/starter-content-for-themes-in-4-7/">describing exactly how it works</a>, but this is another feature that takes something that was not great in WordPress (especially for free themes in the WordPress directory) and drastically improves it.</p>
<p>I really look forward to seeing this in action, and look forward to see how adoption of this feature impacts both free and commercial WordPress theme ecosystems.</p>
<h3>Post type templates</h3>
<p>Pages have long support custom templates for WordPress themes to define, and now this feature has been <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/03/post-type-templates-in-4-7/">extended to all post types</a>, with opt-in support.</p>
<p>Now it&#8217;s simple for theme authors to create a variety of templates so that content creators can pick and choose from a layout they want to utilize, just like they&#8217;ve always done for pages.</p>
<h3>Check out the full field guide</h3>
<p>WordPress 4.7 packs a lot of punch, and I highly recommend looking through the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/12/05/wordpress-4-7-field-guide/">full field guide</a> on the various changes. I have not covered many of the developer focused features in this post, because Aaron has curated the Make Core posts that do a better job of it.</p>
<p>Also check out the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.7">Codex page for WordPress 4.7</a> for more information on features and links to specific tickets.</p>
<hr />
<p>WordPress 4.7 is a monumental achievement and is the result of the efforts of hundreds.</p>
<p>Congratulations to Release Lead Helen Hou-Sandí, the core team, and all contributors. While the scheduled and strict-date releases worked really well and kept WordPress coming out on time every four months or so, I&#8217;m excited to see how the new setup mixes things up for WordPress.</p>
<p>This was a heck of a way to go out with the previous method.</p>
<p>Go <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/">download WordPress 4.7</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 06 Dec 2016 19:28:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Brian Krogsgard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:37:"Dev Blog: WordPress 4.7 “Vaughan”";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4596";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/12/vaughan/";s: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:40344:"<p>Version 4.7 of WordPress, named “Vaughan” in honor of legendary jazz vocalist Sarah &#8220;Sassy&#8221; Vaughan, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. New features in 4.7 help you get your site set up the way you want it.</p>
<div id="v-AHz0Ca46-1" class="video-player"><div><img alt="Introducing WordPress 4.7" src="https://i1.wp.com/videos.files.wordpress.com/AHz0Ca46/wp4-7-vaughan-r8-mastered_scruberthumbnail_0.jpg?resize=632%2C354&ssl=1" /></div><p>Introducing WordPress 4.7</p></div>
<hr />
<h2>Presenting Twenty Seventeen</h2>
<p>A brand new default theme brings your site to life with immersive featured images and video headers.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone wp-image-4618 size-large" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/4.7-—-Twenty-Seventeen-1.jpg?resize=632%2C356&ssl=1" /></p>
<p>Twenty Seventeen focuses on business sites and features a customizable front page with multiple sections. Personalize it with widgets, navigation, social menus, a logo, custom colors, and more. Our default theme for 2017 works great in many languages, on any device, and for a wide range of users.</p>
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<h2>Your Site, Your Way</h2>
<p>WordPress 4.7 adds new features to the customizer to help take you through the initial setup of a theme, with non-destructive live previews of all your changes in one uninterrupted workflow.</p>
<h3>Theme Starter Content</h3>
<div class="wp-video"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');</script><![endif]-->
<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/starter-content.mp4">https://wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/starter-content.mp4</a></div>
<p>To help give you a solid base to build from, individual themes can provide starter content that appears when you go to customize your brand new site. This can range from placing a business information widget in the best location to providing a sample menu with social icon links to a static front page complete with beautiful images. Don’t worry &#8211; nothing new will appear on the live site until you’re ready to save and publish your initial theme setup.</p>
<div>
<h3>Edit Shortcuts</h3>
<div class="wp-video"><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/edit-shortcuts.mp4">https://wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/edit-shortcuts.mp4</a></div>
<p>Visible icons appear to show you which parts of your site can be customized while live previewing. Click on a shortcut and get straight to editing. Paired with starter content, getting started with customizing your site is faster than ever.</p>
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<div>
<h3>Video Headers</h3>
<div class="wp-video"><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/video-headers.mp4">https://wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/video-headers.mp4</a></div>
<p>Sometimes a big atmospheric video as a moving header image is just what you need to showcase your wares; go ahead and try it out with Twenty Seventeen. Need some video inspiration? Try searching for sites with video headers available for download and use.</p>
</div>
<div></div>
<div>
<h3>Smoother Menu Building</h3>
<p><img class="wp-image-4606 size-medium alignright" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/4.7-—-Nav.jpg?resize=300%2C158&ssl=1" /></p>
<p>Many menus for sites contain links to the pages of your site, but what happens when you don’t have any pages yet? Now you can add new pages while building menus instead of leaving the customizer and abandoning your changes. Once you’ve published your customizations, you’ll have new pages ready for you to fill with content.</p>
</div>
<div>
<h3>Custom CSS</h3>
<p><img class="wp-image-4607 size-medium alignright" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/4.7-—-CSS.jpg?resize=300%2C158&ssl=1" /></p>
<p>Sometimes you just need a few visual tweaks to make your site perfect. WordPress 4.7 allows you to add custom CSS and instantly see how your changes affect your site. The live preview allows you to work quickly without page refreshes slowing you down.</p>
</div>
<div></div>
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<div>
<h3>PDF Thumbnail Previews</h3>
<p><img class="wp-image-4609 size-medium alignright" src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/4.7-—-PDF.jpg?resize=300%2C158&ssl=1" /></p>
<p>Managing your document collection is easier with WordPress 4.7. Uploading PDFs will generate thumbnail images so you can more easily distinguish between all your documents.</p>
</div>
<div>
<h3>Dashboard in your language</h3>
<p><img class="wp-image-4608 size-medium alignright" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/4.7-—-Language.jpg?resize=300%2C158&ssl=1" /></p>
<p>Just because your site is in one language doesn’t mean that everybody helping manage it prefers that language for their admin. Add more languages to your site and a user language option will show up in your user’s profiles.</p>
</div>
<div></div>
<hr />
<h2>Introducing REST API Content Endpoints</h2>
<p>WordPress 4.7 comes with REST API endpoints for posts, comments, terms, users, meta, and settings.</p>
<p><img class="size-large wp-image-4600 alignnone" src="https://i2.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2016/12/4.7-—-API.jpg?resize=632%2C205&ssl=1" alt="" /></p>
<p>Content endpoints provide machine-readable external access to your WordPress site with a clear, standards-driven interface, paving the way for new and innovative methods of interacting with sites through plugins, themes, apps, and beyond. Ready to get started with development? <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/reference/">Check out the REST API reference.</a></p>
<hr />
<h2>Even More Developer Happiness <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/72x72/1f60a.png" alt="?" class="wp-smiley" /></h2>
<h3><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/03/post-type-templates-in-4-7/">Post Type Templates</a></h3>
<p>By opening up the page template functionality to all post types, theme developers have even more flexibility with the WordPress template hierarchy.</p>
<h3>More Theme API Goodies</h3>
<p>WordPress 4.7 includes <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/09/09/new-functions-hooks-and-behaviour-for-theme-developers-in-wordpress-4-7/">new functions, hooks, and behavior</a> for theme developers.</p>
<h3><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/04/custom-bulk-actions/">Custom Bulk Actions</a></h3>
<p>List tables, now with more than bulk edit and delete.</p>
<h3><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/09/08/wp_hook-next-generation-actions-and-filters/"><code>WP_Hook</code></a></h3>
<p>The code that lies beneath actions and filters has been overhauled and modernized, fixing bugs along the way.</p>
<h3>Settings Registration API</h3>
<p>register_setting() <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/26/registering-your-settings-in-wordpress-4-7/">has been enhanced</a> to include type, description, and REST API visibility.</p>
<h3><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/12/customize-changesets-technical-design-decisions/">Customize Changesets</a></h3>
<p>Customize changesets make changes in the customizer persistent, like autosave drafts. They also make exciting new features like starter content possible.</p>
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<h2>The Squad</h2>
<p>This release was led by <a href="https://helen.blog">Helen Hou-Sandí</a>, backed up by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jbpaul17">Jeff Paul</a> and <a href="http://aaron.jorb.in/">Aaron Jorbin</a> as Release Deputies, and with the help of these fine individuals. There are 482 contributors with props in this release—the most ever—with 205 of them contributing for the first time. Pull up some sassy Sarah Vaughan on your music service of choice, and check out some of their profiles:</p>
<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aaroncampbell">Aaron D. Campbell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/abrightclearweb">abrightclearweb</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ibachal">Achal Jain</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/achbed">achbed</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/acmethemes">Acme Themes</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/adamsilverstein">Adam Silverstein</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/adammacias">adammacias</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mrahmadawais">Ahmad Awais</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ahmadawais">ahmadawais</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/airesvsg">airesvsg</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ajoah">ajoah</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/akibjorklund">Aki Bj&#246;rklund</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/akshayvinchurkar">AkshayVinchurkar</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/xknown">Alex Concha</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/xavortm">Alex Dimitrov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ironpaperweight">Alex Hon</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/alex27">alex27</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/allancole">allancole</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/arush">Amanda Rush</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/afercia">Andrea Fercia</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/andrewp-2">Andreas Panag</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nacin">Andrew Nacin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/azaozz">Andrew Ozz</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rarst">Andrey "Rarst" Savchenko</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/andizer">Andy Meerwaldt</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kelderic">Andy Mercer</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/andy">Andy Skelton</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aniketpant">Aniket Pant</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/anilbasnet">Anil Basnet</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ankit-k-gupta">Ankit K Gupta</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ahortin">Anthony Hortin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/antisilent">antisilent</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/atimmer">Anton Timmermans</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zuige">Antti Kuosmanen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/apokalyptik">apokalyptik</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/artoliukkonen">artoliukkonen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ideag">Arunas Liuiza</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/attitude">attitude</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/backermann">backermann</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/b-07">Bappi</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bcole808">Ben Cole</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kau-boy">Bernhard Kau</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/binarymoon">BinaryMoon</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/birgire">Birgir Erlendsson (birgire)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bjornw">BjornW</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bobbingwide">bobbingwide</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/boblinthorst">boblinthorst</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/boboudreau">boboudreau</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gitlost">bonger</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/boonebgorges">Boone B. Gorges</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bradyvercher">Brady Vercher</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/brainstormforce">Brainstorm Force</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kraftbj">Brandon Kraft</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/brianhogg">Brian Hogg</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/krogsgard">Brian Krogsgard</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bronsonquick">Bronson Quick</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sixhours">Caroline Moore</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/caseypatrickdriscoll">Casey Driscoll</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/caspie">Caspie</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaos-engine">Chaos Engine</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cheeserolls">cheeserolls</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chesio">chesio</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ketuchetan">chetansatasiya</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/choongsavvii">choong</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chouby">Chouby</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chredd">chredd</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chrisjean">Chris Jean</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cmmarslender">Chris Marslender</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chris_d2d">Chris Smith</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chrisvanpatten">Chris Van Patten</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chriswiegman">Chris Wiegman</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chriscct7">chriscct7</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chriseverson">chriseverson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/needle">Christian Wach</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/christophherr">Christoph Herr</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/clarionwpdeveloper">Clarion Technologies</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/claudiosmweb">Claudio Sanches</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/claudiosanches">Claudio Sanches</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/claudiolabarbera">ClaudioLaBarbera</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/codemovementpk">codemovement.pk</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/coderkevin">coderkevin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/codfish">codfish</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/coreymcollins">coreymcollins</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/curdin">curdin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cgrymala">Curtiss Grymala</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cwpnolen">cwpnolen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cdog">Cătălin Dogaru</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/danhgilmore">danhgilmore</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/danielbachhuber">Daniel Bachhuber </a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/danielkanchev">Daniel Kanchev</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mte90">Daniele Scasciafratte</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/danielpietrasik">danielpietrasik</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dllh">Daryl L. L. Houston (dllh)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davepullig">Dave Pullig</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/goto10">Dave Romsey (goto10)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidakennedy">David A. Kennedy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/turtlepod">David Chandra Purnama</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dlh">David Herrera</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dglingren">David Lingren</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidmosterd">David Mosterd</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dshanske">David Shanske</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbhayes">davidbhayes</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/folletto">Davide 'Folletto' Casali</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/deeptiboddapati">deeptiboddapati</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/delphinus">delphinus</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/deltafactory">deltafactory</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/denis-de-bernardy">Denis de Bernardy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/valendesigns">Derek Herman</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pcfreak30">Derrick Hammer</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/derrickkoo">Derrick Koo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dimchik">dimchik</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dineshc">dineshc</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dd32">Dion Hulse</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dipeshkakadiya">dipeshkakadiya</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dmsnell">dmsnell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ocean90">Dominik Schilling</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dotancohen">Dotan Cohen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dougwollison">Doug Wollison</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/doughamlin">doughamlin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/drewapicture">Drew Jaynes</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/duncanjbrown">duncanjbrown</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dungengronovius">dungengronovius</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dylanauty">DylanAuty</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hurtige">Eddie Hurtig</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/oso96_2000">Eduardo Reveles</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chopinbach">Edwin Cromley</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/electricfeet">ElectricFeet</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/eliorivero">Elio Rivero</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/iseulde">Ella Iseulde Van Dorpe</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/elyobo">elyobo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/enodekciw">enodekciw</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/enshrined">enshrined</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ericlewis">Eric Andrew Lewis</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pushred">Eric Lanehart</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/eherman24">Evan Herman</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/flixos90">Felix Arntz</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fencer04">Fencer04</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/florianbrinkmann">Florian Brinkmann</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mista-flo">Florian TIAR</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/foliovision">FolioVision</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fomenkoandrey">fomenkoandrey</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/frank-klein">Frank Klein</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fjarrett">Frankie Jarrett</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/frankiet">frankiet</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/akeif">Fred</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/frozzare">Fredrik Forsmo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fuscata">fuscata</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gma992">Gabriel Maldonado</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/garyj">Gary Jones</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pento">Gary Pendergast</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/geekysoft">Geeky Software</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/georgestephanis">George Stephanis</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/goranseric">goranseric</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/grahamarmfield">Graham Armfield</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/grantderepas">Grant Derepas</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/greatislander">greatislander</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tivnet">Gregory Karpinsky (@tivnet)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hardeepasrani">Hardeep Asrani</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/henrywright">Henry Wright</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hiddenpearls">hiddenpearls</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hnle">Hinaloe</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hugobaeta">Hugo Baeta</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/polevaultweb">Iain Poulson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/iamjolly">iamjolly</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/iandunn">Ian Dunn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ianedington">ian.edington</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/idealien">idealien</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/igmoweb">Ignacio Cruz Moreno</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/imath">imath</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/imnok">Imnok</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/implenton">implenton</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ionutst">Ionut Stanciu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ipstenu">Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/krstarica">Ivan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ivdimova">ivdimova</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jdgrimes">J.D. Grimes</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jakept">Jacob Peattie</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/whyisjake">Jake Spurlock</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jnylen0">James Nylen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jamesacero">jamesacero</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/japh">Japh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jaredcobb">Jared Cobb</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jayarjo">jayarjo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jdolan">jdolan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jdoubleu">jdoubleu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cheffheid">Jeffrey de Wit</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeremyfelt">Jeremy Felt</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jpry">Jeremy Pry</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jimt">jimt</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jipmoors">Jip Moors</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jmusal">jmusal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joedolson">Joe Dolson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joehoyle">Joe Hoyle</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joemcgill">Joe McGill</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joelcj91">Joel James</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johanmynhardt">johanmynhardt</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion">John Blackbourn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zyphonic">John Dittmar</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnjamesjacoby">John James Jacoby</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnpbloch">John P. Bloch</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnregan3">John Regan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnpgreen">johnpgreen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kenshino">Jon (Kenshino)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jonathanbardo">Jonathan Bardo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jbrinley">Jonathan Brinley</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/daggerhart">Jonathan Daggerhart</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/spacedmonkey">Jonny Harris</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jonnyauk">jonnyauk</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jordesign">jordesign</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorritschippers">JorritSchippers</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joefusco">Joseph Fusco</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jjeaton">Josh Eaton</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/shelob9">Josh Pollock</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joshcummingsdesign">joshcummingsdesign</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joshkadis">joshkadis</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joyously">Joy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jrf">jrf</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jrgould">JRGould</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/juanfra">Juanfra Aldasoro</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/juhise">Juhi Saxena</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nukaga">Junko Nukaga</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/justinbusa">Justin Busa</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/justinsainton">Justin Sainton</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jshreve">Justin Shreve</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jtsternberg">Justin Sternberg</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kadamwhite">K.Adam White</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kacperszurek">kacperszurek</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/trepmal">Kailey (trepmal)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kalenjohnson">KalenJohnson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/codebykat">Kat Hagan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/keesiemeijer">keesiemeijer</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kellbot">kellbot</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryelle">Kelly Dwan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wraithkenny">Ken Newman</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/khag7">Kevin Hagerty</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kwight">Kirk Wight</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kitchin">kitchin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ixkaito">Kite</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kjbenk">kjbenk</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kkoppenhaver">kkoppenhaver</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/knutsp">Knut Sparhell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/koenschipper">koenschipper</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kokarn">kokarn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kovshenin">Konstantin Kovshenin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/obenland">Konstantin Obenland</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kouratoras">Konstantinos Kouratoras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kuchenundkakao">kuchenundkakao</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kuldipem">kuldipem</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/laurelfulford">Laurel Fulford</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/leewillis77">Lee Willis</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/leobaiano">Leo Baiano</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/littlebigthing">LittleBigThings</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lucasstark">Lucas Stark</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lukecavanagh">Luke Cavanagh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lgedeon">Luke Gedeon</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lukepettway">lukepettway</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lyubomir_popov">lyubomir_popov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mageshp">mageshp</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mahesh901122">Mahesh Waghmare</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mangeshp">Mangesh Parte</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/manishsongirkar36">Manish Songirkar</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mantismamita">mantismamita</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mbootsman">Marcel Bootsman</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tyxla">Marin Atanasov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mariovalney">Mario Valney</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/clorith">Marius L. J. (Clorith)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/markjaquith">Mark Jaquith</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mrwweb">Mark Root-Wiley</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mapk">Mark Uraine</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/markoheijnen">Marko Heijnen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/markshep">markshep</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matrixik">matrixik</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mjbanks">Matt Banks</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jaworskimatt">Matt Jaworski</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt">Matt Mullenweg</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/veraxus">Matt van Andel</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mattwiebe">Matt Wiebe</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mattheu">Matthew Haines-Young</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mattking5000">mattking5000</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mattyrob">mattyrob</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/maxcutler">Max Cutler</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/maximeculea">Maxime Culea</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mayukojpn">Mayuko Moriyama</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mbelchev">mbelchev</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mckernanin">mckernanin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/melchoyce">Mel Choyce</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mhowell">mhowell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/michaelarestad">Michael Arestad</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/michael-arestad">Michael Arestad</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/michalzuber">michalzuber</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mauteri">Mike Auteri</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mihai2u">Mike Crantea</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mdgl">Mike Glendinning</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mikehansenme">Mike Hansen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mikelittle">Mike Little</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mikeschroder">Mike Schroder</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mikeviele">Mike Viele</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dimadin">Milan Dinić</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/modemlooper">modemlooper</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/batmoo">Mohammad Jangda</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/deremohan">Mohan Dere</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/monikarao">monikarao</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/morettigeorgiev">morettigeorgiev</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/morganestes">Morgan Estes</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mor10">Morten Rand-Hendriksen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mt8biz">moto hachi ( mt8.biz )</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mrbobbybryant">mrbobbybryant</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/natewr">NateWr</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nathanrice">nathanrice</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nazgul">Nazgul</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/celloexpressions">Nick Halsey </a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nikeo">nikeo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nikschavan">Nikhil Chavan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nikv">Nikhil Vimal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nbachiyski">Nikolay Bachiyski</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rabmalin">Nilambar Sharma</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nnaimov">nnaimov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/noplanman">noplanman</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nullvariable">nullvariable</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/odie2">odie2</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/odysseygate">odyssey</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hideokamoto">Okamoto Hidetaka</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/orvils">orvils</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/oskosk">oskosk</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ottok">Otto Kek&#228;l&#228;inen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ovann86">ovann86</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/swissspidy">Pascal Birchler</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/patilvikasj">patilvikasj</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pbearne">Paul Bearne</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/paulwilde">Paul Wilde</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sirbrillig">Payton Swick</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pdufour">pdufour</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/piewp">Perdaan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/peterwilsoncc">Peter Wilson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/phh">phh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/php">php</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/delawski">Piotr Delawski</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pippinsplugins">pippinsplugins</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pjgalbraith">pjgalbraith</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pkevan">pkevan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pratikchaskar">Pratik</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pressionate">Pressionate</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/presskopp">Presskopp</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/procodewp">procodewp</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/quasel">quasel</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rachelbaker">Rachel Baker</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rahulsprajapati">Rahul Prajapati</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/superpoincare">Ramanan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ramiy">Rami Yushuvaev</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ramiabraham">ramiabraham</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ranh">ranh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/redsand">Red Sand Media Group</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rianrietveld">Rian Rietveld</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/iamfriendly">Richard Tape</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rpayne7264">Robert D Payne</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rnoakes3rd">Robert Noakes</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/d4z_c0nf">Rocco Aliberti</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rodrigosprimo">Rodrigo Primo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rommelxcastro">Rommel Castro</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/fronaldaraujo">Ronald Ara&#250;jo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/magicroundabout">Ross Wintle</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/guavaworks">Roy Sivan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryankienstra">Ryan Kienstra</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rmccue">Ryan McCue</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryanplas">Ryan Plas</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/welcher">Ryan Welcher</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/salcode">Sal Ferrarello</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/samikeijonen">Sami Keijonen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/solarissmoke">Samir Shah</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/samuelsidler">Samuel Sidler</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sandesh055">Sandesh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pollyplummer">Sarah Gooding</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sayedwp">Sayed Taqui</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/schlessera">schlessera</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/schrapel">schrapel</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code">Scott Reilly</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wonderboymusic">Scott Taylor</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/scrappyhuborg">scrappy@hub.org</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/scribu">scribu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/seancjones">seancjones</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sebastianpisula">Sebastian Pisula</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov">Sergey Biryukov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sgr33n">Sergio De Falco</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/shayanys">shayanys</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/shprink">shprink</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/simonlampen">simonlampen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/skippy">skippy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/smerriman">smerriman</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/smyoon315">smyoon315</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/snacking">snacking</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/soean">Soeren Wrede</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/solal">solal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sstoqnov">Stanimir Stoyanov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/metodiew">Stanko Metodiev</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sharkomatic">Steph</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sswells">Steph Wells</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sillybean">Stephanie Leary</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/netweb">Stephen Edgar</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/stephenharris">Stephen Harris</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/stevenkword">Steven Word</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/stevenlinx">stevenlinx</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/stubgo">stubgo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sudar">Sudar Muthu</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/patilswapnilv">Swapnil V. Patil</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/takahashi_fumiki">Takahashi Fumiki</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/miyauchi">Takayuki Miyauchi</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/karmatosed">Tammie Lister</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tapsboy">tapsboy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tlovett1">Taylor Lovett</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/team">team</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tg29359">tg29359</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tharsheblows">tharsheblows</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/the">the</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/themeshaper">themeshaper</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/thenbrent">thenbrent</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/thomaswm">thomaswm</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tfrommen">Thorsten Frommen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tierra">tierra</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tnash">Tim Nash</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/timmydcrawford">timmydcrawford</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/timothyblynjacobs">Timothy Jacobs</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tkama">Tkama</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tnegri">tnegri</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tomauger">Tom Auger</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tjnowell">Tom J Nowell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tomdxw">tomdxw</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/toro_unit">Toro_Unit (Hiroshi Urabe)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zodiac1978">Torsten Landsiedel</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/transl8or">transl8or</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/traversal">traversal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wpsmith">Travis Smith</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nmt90">Triet Minh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/trishasalas">Trisha Salas</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tristangemus">tristangemus</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/truongwp">Truong Giang</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tsl143">tsl143</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tywayne">Ty Carlson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/grapplerulrich">Ulrich</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/utkarshpatel">Utkarsh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/valeriutihai">Valeriu Tihai</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vishalkakadiya">Vishal Kakadiya</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/voldemortensen">voldemortensen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vrundakansara-1">Vrunda Kansara</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webbgaraget">webbgaraget</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webmandesign">WebMan Design &#124; Oliver Juhas</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/websupporter">websupporter</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter">Weston Ruter</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/earnjam">William Earnhardt</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/williampatton">williampatton</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wolly">Wolly aka Paolo Valenti</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/yale01">yale01</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/yoavf">Yoav Farhi</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/yogasukma">Yoga Sukma</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/youknowriad">youknowriad</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/oxymoron">Zach Wills</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tollmanz">Zack Tollman</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vanillalounge">Ze Fontainhas</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zhildzik">zhildzik</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zsusag">zsusag</a>.
<p>&nbsp;<br />
Special thanks go to <a href="https://ramiabraham.com/">Rami Abraham</a> for producing the release video and the many fine haiku we saw in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/10/wordpress-4-7-beta-1/">beta</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-release-candidate/">RC</a> announcement posts.</p>
<p>Finally, thanks to all the community translators who worked on WordPress 4.7. Their efforts bring WordPress 4.7 fully translated to 52 languages at release time with more on the way. Additionally, the WordPress 4.7 release video has been captioned into 44 languages.</p>
<p>If you want to follow along or help out, check out <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/">Make WordPress</a> and our <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">core development blog</a>. Thanks for choosing WordPress &#8211; we hope you enjoy!</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 06 Dec 2016 19:27:41 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Helen Hou-Sandi";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:135:"WPTavern: State of the Word 2016: Mullenweg Pushes Calypso as Future of WordPress’ Interface, Proposes Major Changes to Release Cycle";s:7:"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=64185";s:7:"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/state-of-the-word-2016-mullenweg-pushes-calypso-as-future-of-wordpress-interface-proposes-major-changes-to-release-cycle";s: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:14793:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/sotw-2016.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/sotw-2016.jpg?resize=1025%2C487&ssl=1" alt="photo credit: WordCamp US organizing team" class="size-full wp-image-64217" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://twitter.com/WordCampUS/status/805156416935882752">WordCamp US organizing team</a>
<p>Philadelphia welcomed 1,923 attendees to WordCamp US this weekend with an additional 2,028 enthusiasts watching via live stream. Matt Mullenweg delivered his 11th annual State of the Word address to a rapt audience ready to celebrate WordPress&#8217; progress over the past year and hear the project leader&#8217;s vision for 2017.</p>
<p>He began by thanking sponsors and volunteers who made the event possible by covering the bulk of the $516 actual cost per person. Mullenweg said sponsors cover roughly 85-95% of the cost of WordCamps worldwide. In 2016, the events sold a total 36,000 tickets, with costs subsidized by more than 1,000 sponsors.</p>
<p>Mullenweg said meetups are the leading indicator for WordCamps and these events have had the fastest growth the community has seen in five or six years. More than 62,566 people attended a local meetup in 58 countries and roughly one third of those were new members.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">It’s been a great year for WordCamps and meetups &#8211; 115 total WordCamps hosted in 41 different countries. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wcus?src=hash">#wcus</a> <a href="https://t.co/yVGkT0j52C">pic.twitter.com/yVGkT0j52C</a></p>
<p>&mdash; WordCamp US (@WordCampUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/WordCampUS/status/805156784763715584">December 3, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h3>WordPress Foundation to Create WordPress Community Support Subsidiary</h3>
<p>In order to better accommodate the extraordinary growth of the global community, the WordPress Foundation will be restructuring its management of WordCamps. In 2016 the Foundation took in an estimated $4.3 million, up from $2.8 million in 2015, with 99.9% of those funds related to WordCamps. Mullenweg announced that the 501c nonprofit will move WordCamps to its own company, WordPress Community Support, forming a PBC (Public Benefit Corporation) that is fully owned by the Foundation.</p>
<p>He explained that if certain things happened at WordCamps it could endanger the overall Foundation, so WordCamps will now be managed under their own entity where the events will have a little more flexibility in how they do things. The Foundation plans to support some like-minded nonprofits that are aligned with the overall education mission of the organization, including <a href="http://www.hackthehood.org/" target="_blank">Hack the Hood</a>, <a href="https://archive.org/index.php" target="_blank">Internet Archive</a>, and <a href="http://www.blackgirlscode.com/" target="_blank">Black Girls Code</a>. In 2017 the Foundation will also begin promoting hackathons to help nonprofits and NGO&#8217;s.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Foundation will focus on supporting like-minded non-profits, education/workshops, and hackathons that benefit non-profits/NGOs. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wcus?src=hash">#wcus</a> <a href="https://t.co/6VfdP82KuM">pic.twitter.com/6VfdP82KuM</a></p>
<p>&mdash; WordCamp US (@WordCampUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/WordCampUS/status/805158678353608704">December 3, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h3>Internationalization is Driving an Increase in Plugin Usage</h3>
<p>Mullenweg shared a few stats about the plugin directory, which will soon be launching a new design with revamped search functionality. This year has seen a 20% increase in active plugin usage and a 34% increase in plugin downloads totaling 1.48 billion, which Mullenweg attributed to a spike in internationalization efforts over the past year. The number of translation contributors has grown from 5,000 in April 2015 to 17,000 as of November 2016.</p>
<p>This year there were 1,598 plugins with language packs (up from 314 last year) and 1224 themes with language packs (up from 641 last year). Mullenweg noted that 2/3 of the world speaks one of 12 languages with native fluency and that WordPress covers all of these and many more. In fact, the 4.6 release shipped with support for 50 available languages. WordPress&#8217; top 10 plugins are now 82% complete in the top 12 languages.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The top 10 plugins are 82% complete in the top 12 languages. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wcus?src=hash">#wcus</a> <a href="https://t.co/LnpEGv0p7o">pic.twitter.com/LnpEGv0p7o</a></p>
<p>&mdash; WordCamp US (@WordCampUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/WordCampUS/status/805161007349985280">December 3, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h3>Mullenweg Continues to Push Calypso as the Future of the WordPress Interface</h3>
<p>During the <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2015-javascript-and-api-driven-interfaces-are-the-future-of-wordpress" target="_blank">2015 State of the Word</a>, Mullenweg gave attendees a homework assignment to &#8220;learn JavaScript deeply&#8221; and <a href="https://youtu.be/TX6dXRL-jPU?t=59m14s" target="_blank">promised to submit a JavaScript patch before 4.7</a> came out. He submitted his first pull request to Calypso yesterday, Automattic&#8217;s from-scratch rewrite of WP admin using Node and React.</p>
<p>WordPress.com users have widely adopted the new interface for publishing. Mullenweg shared statistics showing that 68% of posts went through Calypso since its launch, 17% via mobile, and 15% through the traditional wp-admin. Mobile app and mobile browser usage are also up. &#8220;We now need to start thinking about mobile devices as the primary way people are going to interact with WordPress in the future,&#8221; Mullenweg said.</p>
<p>From the time it launched, Mullenweg has said that Calypso, or something like it, would be the future of the WordPress interface. He reiterated this in his 2016 address and has committed some of Automattic&#8217;s JavaScript developers from the Calypso team to contribute full-time to core.</p>
<p>If Calypso has a chance at becoming a promising replacement for the WordPress admin, its creators will need to broaden its interoperability with the WordPress plugin ecosystem. Mullenweg announced that Calypso is now plugin aware and is open to plugins with over 1M active sites.</p>
<p>The next step on Calypso&#8217;s roadmap is to bring in support for Automattic&#8217;s plugins &#8211; WooCommerce, Akismet, Jetpack, and VaultPress. Mullenweg said the big focus for 2017 is to make plugins Calypso-aware, starting with a handful of the most popular ones before opening it up to all plugins.</p>
<p>&#8220;The hope is that Calypso, or something like it, is actually what becomes the interface that drives WordPress,&#8221; Mullenweg said. Since no one is currently building anything like Calypso and targeting core, it looks like the technology behind WordPress.com will be driving the evolution of WordPress in 2017.</p>
<p>If Mullenweg&#8217;s goal is to make Calypso the primary publishing engine for core WordPress, one of the major challenges will be getting plugin developers on board with building compatibility for what is currently an Automattic product. What are the implications of contributing to greater Calypso adoption? If core brings in the Calypso interface in the future, would Automattic push to include its Reader and other WordPress.com functionality, as it has in the mobile apps? These are questions developers will need to weigh when considering whether to pursue a more application-type experience via the Calypso interface.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">What's next for Calypso? We'll start bringing <a href="https://twitter.com/automattic">@Automattic</a>'s plugins in. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wcus?src=hash">#wcus</a> <a href="https://t.co/RL8ZduRczM">pic.twitter.com/RL8ZduRczM</a></p>
<p>&mdash; WordCamp US (@WordCampUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/WordCampUS/status/805165388006887424">December 3, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h3>WordPress Recommends Hosts Offering PHP 7+ and HTTPS by Default</h3>
<p>WordPress core continues to update its recommendations and requirements with the help of hosts who are adopting the latest technologies. The <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/" target="_blank">official recommendation for WordPress hosting</a> is now PHP 7 or higher. After WordPress.com switched to be 100% on PHP 7, Mullenweg said the network&#8217;s performance doubled and CPU load fell in half. Just 4% of self-hosted sites are on PHP 7, but the new recommendation should help move more hosts towards getting their customers updated.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/VrQffeOtG0">https://t.co/VrQffeOtG0</a> has been 100% switched over to PHP7, bringing significant performance improvements. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wcus?src=hash">#wcus</a> <a href="https://t.co/MChiS9QBJh">pic.twitter.com/MChiS9QBJh</a></p>
<p>&mdash; WordCamp US (@WordCampUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/WordCampUS/status/805164029371158528">December 3, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Beginning in 2017, WordPress will have progressive enhancement for certain features that are only available for encrypted sites. Mullenweg announced that WordPress.org is now tracking HTTPS adoption. So far 11.45% of active WordPress websites are on HTTPS and <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-will-only-recommend-hosting-companies-offering-ssl-by-default-in-2017" target="_blank">the project will no longer recommend hosts that do not offer it by default</a>. &#8220;We want to bring more of the web to be secure, which is especially important in the post-Snowden era,&#8221; he said.</p>
<h3>Trying New Things: Major Changes Coming to WordPress&#8217; Core Release Cycle</h3>
<p>WordPress 4.7 release lead Helen Hou-Sandí joined Mullenweg on stage to highlight a few of the features and improvements that will be coming in the official release on Tuesday. The release is arguably one of the most exciting and successful updates for WordPress in some time, but Mullenweg has a new strategy for core development in 2017.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re at a junction for WordPress where what got us here wont get us there,&#8221; Mullenweg said, after highlighting how the software&#8217;s market share has grown from 13.1% to 27.2% in the past five years.</p>
<p>Mullenweg proposed a new structure for WordPress releases where design and user testing will lead the way. &#8220;I&#8217;m putting back on the &#8216;product lead&#8217; hat for 2017,&#8221; he said. The upcoming year will have no set release schedule. Mullenweg is upending WordPress&#8217; predictable release cycle in favor of tackling some larger items on the to-do list. He said the focus will be on performance and fixes to existing functionality in three main focus areas: WP REST API, the Editor, and the Customizer.</p>
<p>Mullenweg said he is particularly interested in getting first-party usage of the REST API in the admin, in hopes of having it evolve to something the project can use for the next decade. If it doesn&#8217;t, he said core will consider bringing it back into a plugin specifically for developers.</p>
<p>Mullenweg said he feels the editor does not represent the core of WordPress publishing, a sentiment that many users agree with. He hopes to steer it toward a more block-based approach that unifies widgets and includes an interface for shortcodes.</p>
<p>Mullenweg&#8217;s vision for the Customizer is to see all aspects of WordPress become more instant and provide the same interface and UI affordances as the editor. He announced that Ephox, the company behind TinyMCE, has agreed to work with the project to improve the core editing experience.</p>
<p>Shifting from a time-based release cycle to one that is more project-based is a major departure from WordPress&#8217; previous release philosophy of &#8220;Deadlines are not arbitrary.&#8221; The project&#8217;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/philosophy/" target="_blank">philosophy page</a> identifies the practice of delaying releases for one more feature as a &#8220;rabbit hole&#8221; that has been tested and found to be unpleasant. The new approach to core development makes no guarantee that WordPress will have any releases in 2017.</p>
<p>If the experiment is not a success, the project&#8217;s days of frequent and fast iteration may be over for awhile. Mullenweg is willing to risk it in hopes of being able to provide more product-based leadership that will distinguish WordPress from its proprietary competitors.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Words of wisdom from <a href="https://twitter.com/kristatippett">@kristatippett</a>: "We only learn to walk when we risk falling down&#8211;" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wcus?src=hash">#wcus</a> <a href="https://t.co/6t5sD6Xjbm">pic.twitter.com/6t5sD6Xjbm</a></p>
<p>&mdash; WordCamp US (@WordCampUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/WordCampUS/status/805170327726780416">December 3, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>&#8220;I think we&#8217;re trying to counter stagnation,&#8221; Mullenweg said when asked about the new approach to releases in the Q&amp;A segment. &#8220;Even though we&#8217;ve had lots of releases, certain parts of WordPress have stagnated and haven&#8217;t made the leaps that they could.&#8221;  He suggested that being part of a feature plugin team will give developers a way to be involved in more active releases and continue to build momentum for eventual inclusion of their projects in core.</p>
<p>Mullenweg plans to identify a tech lead and a design lead and will be working with them as the overall product lead. He envisions that when one area of WordPress gets to the point where the software can ship significant user-facing improvements, a release will be born.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re at the point now where the steps WordPress needs to take are more significant to get the other 73% of the web it doesn&#8217;t have yet,&#8221; Mullenweg said.</p>
<p>In a return to WordPress&#8217; poetic roots, he concluded by reading a poem called <a href="https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/praise-song-day" target="_blank">Praise Song</a> for the Day by Elizabeth Alexander.</p>
<p>The video of the State of the Word address will soon be available on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpJf6LGZ0a4n9Lj4aVt9spg" target="_blank">WordPress&#8217; new YouTube channel</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:"Sun, 04 Dec 2016 18:50:17 +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: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:51:"Post Status: Matt Mullenweg State of the Word, 2016";s:7:"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=30865";s:7:"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://poststatus.com/matt-mullenweg-state-word-2016/";s: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:16802:"<p>Matt Mullenweg just completed the 2016 State of the Word presentation at WordCamp US 2016.</p>
<p>This year, Matt focused on a variety of important topics, including the state of user experience in WordPress today, goals for future interface improvements, a WordPress growth council, internationalization gains, the further proliferation of secure websites, and important changes to the WordPress development process.</p>
<h3>WordCamp US in Philadelphia</h3>
<p>Matt began his talk by thanking the city of Philadelphia for being a great host of the first two WordCamp US events, as well as the sponsors, organizers, and volunteers that helped make WordCamp US one of the most successful and smoothest run WordCamps ever.</p>
<p>He also said the per person cost for WordCamp US is over $500 per person, and that only the sponsors make that happen. And next year, WordCamp US is making its way to Nashville.</p>
<h3>WordCamps and meetups in 2016</h3>
<p>There were 116 WordCamps in 2016, and over 36,000 attendees, 2,056 speakers, 1,036 sponsors, and 750 organizers.</p>
<p>There were 3,193 meetup events in 58 countries. These were attended by more than 62,000 people, or nearly double WordCamps.</p>
<p>Matt says it&#8217;s the fastest growth there has been for these events in around five or six years. WordCamp Europe actually had more people than WordCamp US this year, which Matt took as a personal challenge for Nashville.</p>
<p><a href="http://wordpress.tv/">WordPress.tv</a> published 26% more talks this year than the previous year, and now there is an official <a href="https://www.youtube.com/wordpress">WordPress channel on YouTube</a>, so more and more videos will begin to be available wherever people want to watch them.</p>
<h3>WordCamp public benefit corporation and the WordPress Foundation</h3>
<p>More than a year ago, work began to separate WordCamps from the <a href="http://wordpressfoundation.org/">WordPress Foundation</a>, in order to make WordPress event organizing more flexible and to better protect the WordPress trademarks that the foundation holds.</p>
<p>One of the things the foundation is going to start doing is support like minded non-profits, and in 2017 will be sponsoring three: Hack the Hood, the Internet Archive, and Black Girls Code.</p>
<p>Also, the foundation will start to promote hackathons for non-profits and NGOs.</p>
<h3>WordPress&#8217;s extended family</h3>
<p>Matt gave a shoutout to WordPress&#8217;s &#8220;cousins&#8221; like BuddyPress and bbPress, highlighting a lot of features that have gone into the software in the last year.</p>
<h4>BuddyPress and bbPress</h4>
<p>WordPress.org itself uses BuddyPress and bbPress. For ages, it&#8217;s used outdated versions of bbPress, and in the past year launched a new support form that uses modern bbPress and WordPress profiles use bbPress. Matt says projects like these will get new support and engagement over the next year.</p>
<h4>HackerOne</h4>
<p>HackerOne is a security website that allows software organizations to offer bounties to hackers for responsibly disclosing security bugs.</p>
<h4>GlotPress</h4>
<p>GlotPress has had a big transformation in the last year, as it is no longer standalone software on top of BackPress, but rather a plugin for WordPress. If you&#8217;ve never been to <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/">translate.WordPress.org</a>, you&#8217;ve seen GlotPress in action, and it&#8217;s pretty amazing.</p>
<h4>WordPress.org</h4>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org">WordPress.org</a> is a central hub for the WordPress community. Matt highlighted some of the work that&#8217;s been going on this past year around languages, support forums, and more. He also says that new work will be going into P2/O2, which are used for the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org">Make WordPress</a> blogs.</p>
<p>And he gave attention to the new WordPress plugin repository, which finally uses WordPress itself, and has a whole new design. You can see the new design in action on the new <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins-wp/">demo site</a>, which should role out to the main Plugins directory soon.</p>
<h3>WordPress in all languages</h3>
<p>WordPress 4.6 was available in 50 languages the day it was released. And the top 10 plugins are 82% translated in the top 12 languages used in WordPress.</p>
<p>Language packs have been a huge help in helping translate plugins as a community project on Translate.WordPress.org, rather than having to ship translations inside the plugin itself.</p>
<p>1,598 plugins are now using language packs, and 1,224 themes use them. This is huge for the future of WordPress working great in every language.</p>
<p>Also, in WordPress 4.7, we&#8217;ll see per-user language choices.</p>
<h3>Learning JavaScript Deeply</h3>
<p>Last year&#8217;s homework for the community was to learn JavaScript deeply. He says that WordPress is 28% JavaScript now, which hasn&#8217;t changed, but he says we&#8217;ve still made a lot of progress.</p>
<p>Matt gave himself a personal challenge to learn JavaScript, and he said that 364 days into this challenge, he submitted his first patch to Calypso (Automattic&#8217;s WordPress administration interface). He said, learning JavaScript and becoming as native with JavaScript as with PHP is going to be really important &#8212; especially as the REST API gets included in WordPress 4.7.</p>
<h3>WordPress Growth Council</h3>
<p>Matt recently posted about a WordPress Growth Council to help WordPress grow and maintain marketshare.</p>
<p>He says that what got WordPress to where it is today, won&#8217;t get WordPress to where it can be tomorrow. He blogged about this <a href="https://ma.tt/2016/12/wp-growth-council/">new growth council</a>, which folks can apply for, which will help guide product direction in WordPress going forward.</p>
<p>Matt actually said in Post Status Slack recently that if WordPress doesn&#8217;t make changes to the interface and otherwise, he&#8217;d expect WordPress marketshare would begin to decline by 2018.</p>
<h3>HTTPS &amp; PHP7</h3>
<p>11.45% of WordPress websites are now served via HTTPS. Matt talked last year about how LetsEncrypt and PHP7 were going to be a big deal, but they&#8217;ve turned out to be, &#8220;huge.&#8221; And WordPress will now start applying progressive enhancement techniques for WordPress websites.</p>
<p>WordPress.com is now fully on PHP7, which he says was an enormous accomplishment. He&#8217;s also announced that <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/">WordPress.org will now recommend</a> PHP7 by default.</p>
<h3>Calypso</h3>
<p>Matt gave some updates on <a href="https://developer.wordpress.com/calypso/">Calypso&#8217;s</a> adoption since it was released last year. He says that 68% of posts on WordPress.com are now written in Calypso. 17% of posts are written via a mobile device, and only 15% of users are using the WordPress admin. For reference, Calypso is the default method of publishing on WordPress.com now, so that includes the desktop website, desktop app, and mobile app.</p>
<p>Matt says that building Calypso is like, &#8220;building a plane while it&#8217;s flying.&#8221; And while it&#8217;s hard, he says it&#8217;s worth it, but it&#8217;s like rebuilding WordPress &#8212; which took 13 years to do &#8212; in only two years.</p>
<p>The future of Calypso includes making it &#8220;plugin aware&#8221;, so that prominent plugins (most Automattic plugins included) would be recognized and manageable via Calypso.</p>
<p>In fact, Calypso is plugin aware today, as the merge has just happened. So now plugins can include custom code to be manageable via Calypso. This is an interesting move to me, especially since Calypso &#8212; while open source &#8212; isn&#8217;t an official WordPress project, but rather an Automattic-owned interface.</p>
<p>Matt says that someday he&#8217;s like to see Calypso, &#8220;or something like it,&#8221; eventually to become the WordPress interface.</p>
<h3>Core releases in 2016</h3>
<p>WordPress 4.5-4.7 will have been released by the end of 2016. Matt says, &#8220;this is very much a year about doing things differently.&#8221; And in that spirit, he&#8217;s pre-announcing the jazz musician in the release. I&#8217;m sure Jeffro will be pleased <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/72x72/1f609.png" alt="?" class="wp-smiley" /> WordPress 4.7 will be named &#8220;Vaughan&#8221;, after jazz musician Sarah &#8220;Sassy&#8221; Vaughan.</p>
<p>Helen Hou-Sandi came to the stage to discuss WordPress 4.7 in more detail.</p>
<h3>WordPress 4.7</h3>
<p>WordPress 4.7 will include a variety of features, and will be released on Tuesday, December 6th.</p>
<h4>New default theme</h4>
<p>WordPress includes a new default theme that with a multi-section home page that&#8217;s a brand new WordPress feature. And generally Twenty Seventeen has a lot more broad base appeal for businesses and non-blogging applications than many past themes.</p>
<h4>Theme setup process</h4>
<p>Helen really wanted to focus on user interactions in WordPress 4.7. She used the example of her &#8220;tweet storm&#8221; about what it&#8217;s like to change a theme, which took dozens of steps and included a lot of unclear processes.</p>
<p>Themes in 4.7 can define content that ships with the theme, such as a nav menu setup, sample page content, a password protected page, and other content that would be utilized in the theme. This will be a massive improvement in the initial theme setup experience that I love to see in 4.7.</p>
<h4>Better menu handling</h4>
<p>WordPress 4.7 includes better menu building that will also assist the new user experience. Now when you are building a menu in the customizer, you can add a page right from the menu screen, so that if you haven&#8217;t yet written your &#8220;about&#8221; page or whatever else, you&#8217;ll be able to create that draft straight from the menu screen, so the user doesn&#8217;t have to know exactly which flow is necessary to setup their site.</p>
<h4>&#8220;Sleeper hits&#8221;</h4>
<p>Helen highlights sleeper features, like thumbnail previews for PDFs and user dashboard languages so a user can use a different language than is set by the site administrator.</p>
<h4>The WordPress REST API</h4>
<p>To big applause, Helen noted the inclusion of the WordPress REST API Content Endpoints in 4.7. She says that she&#8217;s excited to take the momentum and excitement around the API and turn it into more real-world projects where people test and put it to practice.</p>
<h4>Deputy leads</h4>
<p>Jeff Paul and Aaron Jorbin were the deputy release leads for 4.7, and more than 475 contributors submitted code to 4.7. Over 200 of those contributors are first time contributors.</p>
<h4>Sneak preview video</h4>
<p>To end the preview of WordPress 4.7, Helen shared a sneak preview of the WordPress 4.7 video, created by friend Rami Abraham, that highlights &#8220;Carly&#8221;, who is a small business owner building her business website. The video shows a couple more great sleeper hits, like customizer preview icons to help editing, and video headers.</p>
<h4>That&#8217;s WordPress 4.7</h4>
<p>WordPress 4.7, I believe, is going to be one of the best releases we&#8217;ve seen in a long, long time. It&#8217;s jam packed, and while I&#8217;m sure we&#8217;ll have plenty of follow-on work, there&#8217;s been a hugely ambitious effort with tons of awesome contributors. None of it would&#8217;ve happened without Helen.</p>
<h4>WordPress REST API and examples</h4>
<p>After the video, Matt came back on stage.</p>
<p>Matt highlighted some of the REST API examples, including the new <a href="https://www.guggenheim.org/">Guggenheim Museum</a> website and <a href="http://www.vocativ.com/">Vocativ</a>, which both use the new API, and are powered by Content Endpoints.</p>
<h3>A look at the past and future</h3>
<p>Matt spent a few minutes reflecting over this past, and busy, year; but also spent time discussing the past few years and what&#8217;s in store in the future.</p>
<p>Matt recognized the &#8220;predictable&#8221; release cycle that we moved to around WordPress 3.8, and how that&#8217;s been a huge benefit for the platform in general.</p>
<p>In the past five years, we&#8217;ve seen WordPress go from 13.1% to 27.2%, and this kind of marketshare for a CMS is &#8220;unprecedented.&#8221;</p>
<p>He says, &#8220;What can we try next?&#8221; In other words, he wants to do things differently going forward: &#8220;What got us here, won&#8217;t get us there.&#8221; In order to do this, he&#8217;s proposing a new structure for core development.</p>
<p>Matt said he wants to see a simpler, faster UX, while simultaneously making it more powerful. This has been my number one goal for WordPress the last few years, so I&#8217;m thrilled to see him highlight it. In the coming releases, he, &#8220;wants to see design leading the way.&#8221;</p>
<p>In 2017, Matt says he&#8217;s going to be a heavily involved project lead again.</p>
<h3>No set major releases in 2017</h3>
<p>Matt made a huge announcement by saying that there will be no set releases in 2017. WordPress Core will continue to move forward, managing maintenance and other items, but will shift to three main focuses for features that will dictate the next several major releases:</p>
<h4>1) The WordPress REST API</h4>
<p>He says we need shift from thinking about the input, to measuring the output. He wants the conversation of success metrics to get beyond the &#8220;thousands&#8221; when, &#8220;WordPress is in the tens of millions.&#8221;</p>
<p>Matt sees powering the WordPress admin with the REST API as a core focus for 2017. In addition, this effort will include shipping authentication tools in WordPress core, so that external applications can connect to WordPress websites. He says if we can&#8217;t move forward with this goal, then we need to consider making the API a plugin again.</p>
<h4>2) The Editor</h4>
<p>Matt wants to see a lot of work on the WordPress editing experience. Matt says he showed &#8220;block-baced editor&#8221; (some may remember this as &#8220;content blocks&#8221;) in a State of the Word slide a few years ago, and calls the WordPress editor his &#8220;white whale&#8221;.</p>
<p>He says we need to be candid about our shortcomings with WordPress so that we can more effectively move forward. Andrew Ozz and Ella Iseulde Van Dorpe have been massively influential on the editor improvements we&#8217;ve seen over the past few years, and their contributions will be huge for moving this goal forward.</p>
<h4>3) The Customizer</h4>
<p>&#8220;The customizer is not yet fast enough, and flexible enough, to meet our current needs.&#8221; He&#8217;s excited to see all the new work going into the customizer, but knows there&#8217;s a lot of work to do to take the customizer to the next step.</p>
<h3>How to get these goals accomplished</h3>
<p>He says that new major versions of WordPress will not be released until these features are ready. He says that as each project is completed, there will be a major release to go around it.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m fascinated by this new approach. It&#8217;s like taking the current feature project framework and taking it multiple levels up. It&#8217;s definitely a way to shake things up, and that may be great, considering so many people in the WordPress space enjoy complaining about the slow process that is WordPress feature development.</p>
<p>Matt, as project lead, says he&#8217;ll personally be taking these on as the lead. And work will begin immediately to make it happen.</p>
<p>So, I don&#8217;t know if the next release will be called WordPress 4.8, or when it will be, but I&#8217;d be shocked if it&#8217;s four months like past releases. But I guess we&#8217;ll see a lot of minor releases for all the other aspects of core development.</p>
<p>Matt says he thinks we&#8217;ll fall while we learn to walk in this new way, and that&#8217;s okay.</p>
<hr />
<p>I have to admit, these are some pretty surprising announcements. I&#8217;m excited to dig more into the particulars over the coming weeks, but I do think this serves as a worthwhile and important jolt into WordPress core development. That&#8217;s not to say I think WordPress development has been bad, I think it&#8217;s been great.</p>
<p>Matt finished by reading a poem by Elizabeth Alexander, titled, &#8220;<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/52141">Praise Song For The Day</a>&#8221; that marked a fitting end to the talk.</p>
<p>I think the key takeaway should be like he said: &#8220;what got us here, won&#8217;t get us there.&#8221; Let&#8217;s see how this goes.</p>
<p><em>Photo credit: Brian Richards for Post Status.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 03 Dec 2016 22:20:17 +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:15:"Brian Krogsgard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:26:"Matt: WordCamp Live Stream";s:7:"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=46945";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"https://ma.tt/2016/12/wordcamp-live-stream/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:298:"<p>Later today (3:45pm ET) I&#8217;ll deliver my annual State of the Word speech, which I&#8217;m very excited about. If you&#8217;d like to watch remotely, this year live stream tickets are <strong>free</strong> and <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/live-stream/">you can tune in here</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 03 Dec 2016 11:54:15 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:72:"WPTavern: DigitalCube Launches Shifter, Serverless Hosting for WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=64157";s:7:"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/digitalcube-launches-shifter-serverless-hosting-for-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3811:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/shifter-logo.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/shifter-logo.png?resize=1025%2C419&ssl=1" alt="shifter-logo" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-64169" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://en.digitalcube.jp/" target="_blank">DigitalCube</a> launched <a href="https://getshifter.io/" target="_blank">Shifter</a> at WordCamp US today, the first serverless hosting product for WordPress. The Japanese development company specializes in WordPress and AWS integrations. Shifter was built by the same team behind the company&#8217;s <a href="https://amimoto-ami.com/" target="_blank">Amimoto</a> cloud hosting platform.</p>
<p>Shifter converts WordPress sites into a series of static HTML files and serves them up via a global CDN (AWS) for high performance hosting, eliminating the burden of software maintenance and server updates. The product targets websites that have a low frequency of updates, such as business or portfolio sites, as well as maintenance and support providers.</p>
<p>Shifter allows site owners to turn WordPress on or off in its administration center. The service is a hybrid of a WordPress static site generator and a hosting solution. Shifter hosts the static files it creates and allows users to connect their domains. It leaves the standard WordPress management and administration workflow intact and compiles a new version of the static files anytime users update content inside WordPress. The service starts at $30/month and offers support for unlimited sites.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/shifter-dashboard.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/shifter-dashboard.png?resize=1025%2C652&ssl=1" alt="Shifter dashboard" class="size-full wp-image-64166" /></a>Shifter dashboard
<p>As the first commercial product to provide serverless WordPress hosting, Shifter offers a unique way to tackle the security concerns that plague WordPress and its plugins and themes. Because the software is used by more than 27% of all websites, it has become a big target for hackers and spammers alike. Shifter&#8217;s creators see WordPress as a prime candidate for serverless architecture.</p>
<p>DigitalCube team members met the Philadelphia-based <a href="http://j2made.com/" target="_blank">J2 Design</a> company at last year&#8217;s WordCamp US and partnered with them to improve their branding, copy writing, and approach.</p>
<p>&#8220;At that time, we were having problems in design, branding, and communication,&#8221; product liaison Shinichi Nishikawa said. &#8220;The name &#8216;Amimoto&#8217; was originally a Japanese word and was difficult for people to pronounce or remember. We saw their work and asked them if we could form a partnership.&#8221;</p>
<p>Together the Amimoto and J2 Design teams took the project from concept to launch in about three months. They built Shifter with AWS, Docker, and the Serverless Framework. The development team behind the project also supports and manages sites such as The Japan Times, AOL Japan, and Mazda. They frequently contribute to open source projects, including WordPress, Serverless Framework, and WP-CLI.</p>
<p>Shifter has exited beta and the company has <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/225627578/shifter-serverless-hosting-for-wordpress" target="_blank">launched a Kickstarter campaign</a> with a $10,000 goal to fund future development on the project&#8217;s <a href="https://getshifter.io/blog/development-roadmap/" target="_blank">roadmap</a>, including domain mapping, a way to visualize usage of bandwidth and storage, multi-factor authentication, advanced scheduling, and WP-CLI support.</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, 03 Dec 2016 03:44:56 +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:"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:23:"Matt: WP Growth Council";s:7:"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=46933";s:7:"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:40:"https://ma.tt/2016/12/wp-growth-council/";s: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:1594:"<p>In the WordPress world, when we look back an 2016 I think we&#8217;ll remember it as the year that we awoke to the importance of marketing. WordPress has always grown organically through word of mouth and its passionate community, but the hundreds of millions being spent advertising against WP has started to have an impact, especially for folks only lightly familiar with us.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve started to hear about a number of folks across many WordPress companies and industries working on this from different angles, some approaching it from an enterprise point of view and some from a consumer point of view. There&#8217;s an opportunity for learning from each other, almost like a mastermind group. As the survey says:</p>
<blockquote><p>Never have there been more threats to the open web and WordPress. Over three hundred million dollars has been spent in 2016 advertising proprietary systems, and even more is happening in investment. No one company in the WP world is large enough to fight this, nor should anyone need to do it on their own. We&#8217;d like to bring together organizations that would like to contribute to growing WordPress. It will be a small group, and if you or your organization are interested in being a part please fill out the survey below.</p>
<p>By working together we can amplify our efforts to bring open source to a wider audience, and fulfill WordPress&#8217; mission to truly democratize publishing.</p></blockquote>
<p>If this sounds interesting to you, <a href="http://mcm.polldaddy.com/s/wordpress-growth-council">apply using this survey</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, 02 Dec 2016 16:22:51 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:89:"WPTavern: WordPress Will Only Recommend Hosting Companies Offering SSL by Default in 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=64081";s:7:"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-will-only-recommend-hosting-companies-offering-ssl-by-default-in-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:3276:"<p>In October, <a href="https://twitter.com/letsencrypt/status/788449815986262016">Let&#8217;s Encrypt</a> was managing more than 10 million active SSL certificates. That <a href="https://twitter.com/letsencrypt/status/802972766525865984">number doubled to 20 million</a> in November as large  providers continue to partner with the organization to manage their customers&#8217; certificates.</p>
<p>In 2014, Google announced that HTTPS <a href="https://security.googleblog.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal_6.html">is a ranking factor</a>. Earlier this year, the Google Chrome security team <a href="https://wptavern.com/chrome-to-add-security-warning-to-http-sites-beginning-2017">announced</a> that Chrome 56 will mark HTTP sites that transmit passwords or credit cards as insecure.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-60902 size-full" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/chrome-http-warning.png?resize=640%2C251&ssl=1" alt="chrome-http-warning" /></p>
<p>In 2017, managed WordPress hosting companies will have one more reason to enable SSL by default for new accounts. In a <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/12/moving-toward-ssl/">post on the WordPress.org blog</a>, Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of the open source WordPress project, explains what the project is going to do to encourage HTTPS by default across the web.</p>
<p>&#8220;Early in 2017, we will only promote hosting partners that provide a SSL certificate by default in their accounts,&#8221; Mullenweg said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Later we will begin to assess which features, such as API authentication, would benefit the most from SSL and make them only enabled when SSL is there.&#8221;</p>
<p>Unrelated to SSL, Mullenweg also commented on the significant performance improvements in PHP7 and will consider whether hosting partners use PHP7 by default for new accounts in 2017.</p>
<p>These moves are a continued effort by Mullenweg to secure and encrypt as much of the web as possible. Earlier this year, WordPress.com <a href="https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/https-everywhere-encryption-for-all-wordpress-com-sites/">encrypted all of its sites</a> using Let&#8217;s Encrypt.</p>
<p><a href="https://letsencrypt.org/">Let&#8217;s Encrypt</a> is an initiative which aims to encrypt 100% of the web by making trusted certificates available to everyone at no cost. It&#8217;s a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and recently launched a <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/2016/11/01/launching-our-crowdfunding-campaign.html">crowdfunding campaign</a> to cover the cost of one month of operations totaling $200K.</p>
<p>Josh Aas, ISRG Executive Director, explains the reasons behind the crowdfunding campaign, &#8220;First, there is a gap between the funds we’ve raised and what we need for next year,&#8221; Aas said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Second, we believe individual supporters from our community can come to represent a significant diversification of our annual revenue sources, in addition to corporate sponsorship and grants.&#8221;</p>
<p>To learn more about the campaign and to contribute, visit <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/2016/11/01/launching-our-crowdfunding-campaign.html">Let&#8217;s Encrypt&#8217;s Indiegogo</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:"Thu, 01 Dec 2016 21:10:54 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"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: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:27:"Dev Blog: Moving Toward SSL";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4588";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/12/moving-toward-ssl/";s: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:1626:"<p>We’re at a turning point: 2017 is going to be the year that we’re going to see features in WordPress which require hosts to have HTTPS available. Just as JavaScript is a near necessity for smoother user experiences and more modern PHP versions are critical for performance, SSL just makes sense as the next hurdle our users are going to face.</p>
<p>SSL basically means the link between your browser and the server is encrypted. SSL used to be difficult to implement, and often expensive or slow. Modern browsers, and the incredible success of projects like <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/">Let&#8217;s Encrypt</a> have made getting a certificate to secure your site fast, free, and something we think every host should support by default, especially in a post-Snowden era. Google also weighs <a href="https://security.googleblog.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal_6.html">SSL as a search engine ranking factor</a> and will begin <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/google-will-soon-shame-all-websites-that-are-unencrypted-chrome-https">flagging unencrypted sites in Chrome</a>.</p>
<p>First, early in 2017, we will only promote hosting partners that provide a SSL certificate by default in their accounts. Later we will begin to assess which features, such as API authentication, would benefit the most from SSL and make them only enabled when SSL is there.</p>
<p>Separately, I also think the performance improvements in PHP7 are particularly impressive, and major kudos to everyone who worked on that. We will consider whether hosts use PHP7 by default for new accounts next year as well.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 01 Dec 2016 17:20:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";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:71:"WPTavern: Flywheel Acquires WordPress Local Development Tool Pressmatic";s:7:"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=64057";s:7:"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/flywheel-acquires-wordpress-local-development-tool-pressmatic";s: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:3671:"<p>Flywheel has acquired Pressmatic, a local WordPress development application for OS X. The application was created by <a href="https://twitter.com/claygriffiths" target="_blank">Clay Griffiths</a>, who will be joining Flywheel to support the product as part of the acquisition.</p>
<p><a href="https://pressmatic.io/" target="_blank">Pressmatic</a> launched in July 2016 with a $129 price tag but Flywheel is opening it up for free for all users. The company is rebranding the product as &#8220;Local by Flywheel&#8221; and plans to create a Windows application, add off-site backups for local sites, and sell premium support.</p>
<p>“From the start, the application encompassed so many of Flywheel’s core values: speed, simplicity, and allowing designers and developers the freedom to do what they love,&#8221; Flywheel CEO and co-founder Dusty Davidson said. &#8220;It’s a perfect fit.”</p>
<p>Griffiths told the Tavern that he is excited for the opportunities that Flywheel can provide for Local going forward. &#8220;I originally built Pressmatic because I saw the gap that existed for a truly great local WordPress development experience, and now with the resources and team at Flywheel we&#8217;re set to really build something great,&#8221; Griffiths said. &#8220;I certainly could have continued to go at it alone, but after meeting the team it became clear that the right answer was to partner up and really go big.&#8221;</p>
<h3>Griffiths Plans to Continue Headway Themes Support and Development in his Spare Time</h3>
<p>The acquisition comes just months after Griffiths, who is also the co-founder of Headway Themes, was embroiled in the controversy surrounding the company&#8217;s lack of communication and decline in support. Many potential customers were turned off to Pressmatic as the result of Griffith&#8217;s lack of support for Headway Themes&#8217; customers and its mistreatment of employees. They company publicly confirmed its financial troubles and <a href="https://wptavern.com/headway-themes-confirms-financial-difficulties-issues-apology-to-customers" target="_blank">apologized to customers</a> after <a href="https://wptavern.com/former-headway-themes-employee-goes-public-staff-has-not-been-paid-and-customers-are-not-receiving-support" target="_blank">a former employee went public</a> about not having been paid and customers not receiving support.</p>
<p>When asked how the Pressmattic acquisition affects Headway Themes customers, Griffiths confirmed that he will continue to be involved with support and development of Headway.</p>
<p>&#8220;This acquisition and employment will provide myself and my family much more stability than we&#8217;ve had in a long time, and will allow me to better focus on Headway in my spare time,&#8221; Griffiths said. &#8220;This includes rolling out the upcoming 4.1 release, and working hard to make sure the support and other outstanding issues are resolved for all our customers.&#8221;</p>
<p>Pressmatic is used by hundreds of WordPress developers and is Flywheel&#8217;s first acquisition. The application was built on top of <a href="http://electron.atom.io/" target="_blank">Electron</a>, an app framework that enables developers to build cross-platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It allows users to run apache or nginx, switch between PHP versions for any site, create multisite installations (including subdomain setups), and create remote tunnels to share local development. Mac users can download the new Local by Flywheel application at <a href="http://local.getflywheel.com" target="_blank">local.getflywheel.com</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:"Thu, 01 Dec 2016 15:03:52 +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:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:46:"HeroPress: WordPressing The Hard Way In Malawi";s:7:"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=1502";s:7:"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://heropress.com/essays/wordpressing-hard-way-malawi/";s: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:12291:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/113016-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: WordPress has allowed me to find income I otherwise would not have any way in hopes of earning." /><p>I am a self-taught graphic designer/ motion designer turned web designer and aspiring web developer from Malawi, Africa. I am a digital tinkerer who has fallen in love with and currently gone steady with WordPress. Still, the journey is rough.</p>
<p>A little about my home country before you hear my story…</p>
<h3>Malawi</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=malawi"><img class="alignright wp-image-1507" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/googleit.gif" alt="Gif of guy reading book, another guy slapping it away, saying Google It" width="295" height="166" /></a>Malawi, is at the time of my writing, the poorest country in the world. A tiny land locked country with a population of 17 million, AND still largely rural (about 75%) and struggling to develop.</p>
<blockquote><p>The average entry level monthly pay for skilled jobs is about $110.</p></blockquote>
<p>You are really fortunate if you are employed, young, working in the creative industry and earning somewhere near $300 a month. I doubt if anybody <em>actually</em> <strong>employed</strong> by someone in the design, creative and web services industry earns this much.</p>
<p>That being said, I have been a freelance graphic designer since about 2011, doing gigs from my dorm room in college and my bedroom at home. Earnings from my freelance gigs increased my interest in entrepreneurship and I soon started entertaining the thought of starting my own creative agency or media powerhouse.</p>
<h3>HOW I FIRST CAME INTO CONTACT WITH WORDPRESS</h3>
<p>I first came into contact with WordPress in 2014 when a friend of mine from University were planning to start a local tech blog. Before WordPress, all I had was basic and outdated HTML knowledge I learned from high school and some knowledge in Adobe Dreamweaver.</p>
<p>In 2014 very few websites in Malawi actually ran on WordPress as far as I remember. Most of the websites made in Malawi looked pretty archaic. With what to me was my partners expertise with WordPress Our blog looked like it came from the future. My partner knew where to get the themes (I did not know how he did it then, and still understood very little about WordPress).</p>
<p>In a little while, ecstatic from the praise and positive feedback from the blog we decided to pursue the idea of opening our own content and media publishing outfit.</p>
<p>Because our blog looked spectacular we got a few web redesign jobs thanks to the exposure the blog brought. We were ecstatic.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, we both had very little administrative and business skills we could not maintain the business and we ended up going our separate ways.</p>
<p>Fast forward post college, out of my first real job that I got in the TV industry ( terrible pay, overworked, and not being paid for about 5 months!) and failing to get more rewarding gigs as my creative agency start up side was cash strapped.</p>
<p><img class="alignright wp-image-1509" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/rowan.gif" alt="Rowan Atkinson looking shocked" width="355" height="200" />I finally took it upon myself to learn the ins and outs of WordPress. I learned how to install WordPress on a server and did some research on customising Themes. That knowledge alone and presto: I got my first web design clients and started making earning nearly as much as I did at my first job, sometimes a little more, when I get fortunate  some times I even earn three times as much as I used to in a month.</p>
<blockquote><p>It only took a very short while for me to realise that free WordPress themes can only go so far, especially with my limited code skills.</p></blockquote>
<p>For most WordPress designers in Malawi, all we did was get nulled themes and customise them. This is the way most WordPress designers in developing countries survive. This is also why I would like to build my own themes from scratch, to avoid the situation where I have to use pirated themes that are not only unsafe for clients but unethical. In addition, I know learning to code will also set me apart from my competition.</p>
<p>Which leads me to the next bit….</p>
<h3>HOW THE LACK OF AN ONLINE PAYMENT SOLUTIONS AFFECTS DESIGNERS/DEVELOPERS IN COUNTRIES LIKE MINE</h3>
<p>My country apparently has PayPal “available”, but the truth is you cannot get yourself a credit card to be able to join creative markets, and do online courses in order to improve your WP skills. The banks here only issue out credit cards to people who travel overseas or apparently have millions in their bank account.</p>
<p><a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/city.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-1510 size-large" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/city-1024x576.png" alt="City Street in Malawi" width="960" height="540" /></a></p>
<p>Even so, most of the bank personnel themselves know very little about credit cards and let alone online payment solutions. It is often very frustrating to talk to bank personnel concerning this. Wire transfer and Western Union is still the most popular way to make transactions for goods and services. So many services that we would like to access: plugins, features, etc related to the WP community are far from our reach. The learning and growth often stops the moment you see the “$” sign on websites offering WP solutions and themes.</p>
<h3>THE CHALLENGES OF BEING SELF TAUGHT IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD</h3>
<p>As I mentioned earlier, I do not have any programming background, I have always been more of a creative and artsy kind of person. Sure I have an eye for design but in order to grow, I need to learn to code PHP, and PHP hard and it is not easy to do so as premium online courses are inaccessible.</p>
<p>When you are in a position like mine, you are already deep in freelancing and getting a job is currently not the best option because the pay is terrible for people in your industry, and you have to keep on earning, plus make time to learn code. Getting to actually code well is a chore as you have to mind all the other obligations.</p>
<p>Between the time to make pitches to clients, finish up graphic design projects, deal with our current load shedding program (we only have about 5 hours of power a day on average now! ) is something I am barely managing.</p>
<p>Teaching myself code, HTML, CSS,  JavaScript, and PHP for WordPress is something I am determined to do and always in the process of. I try my best to make time to learn. I reckon this would have been easier if I studied a programming course in college but well, here I am.</p>
<h3>WHAT THE WORDPRESS COMMUNITY LOOKS LIKE TO ME</h3>
<p>I will be honest, I have only gotten in touch with the actual WordPress community only very recently. Of course I search for solutions from blogs about WordPress but never actually talked to or asked anyone from the community for a solution. The most personal interaction I have ever had with anyone from the WordPress community is when I talked to <a href="https://twitter.com/topher1kenobe">Topher</a> when I applied to write a post for HeroPress.</p>
<p>I often just isolated myself from any attempt to interact at all because of the glass ceiling. There are these feelings you get; these things you tell yourself when you know you can never truly harness the power of WordPress because of your lack of a way to pay for stuff online: You could never be half as good as anyone in developed countries, you will never ever get premium support, you can never be eligible for premium support. I reckon these feelings are worse for people teaching them self how to code like me.</p>
<p>So when I came across a tweet from <a href="https://twitter.com/heropress">@HeroPress</a> about a post that talked about how WordPress marginalises some, it piqued my interest. It was a post from a WordPress developer in India, and it detailed how people from developing countries could never paid the same way someone from the developed countries would for the same skills or services. I totally relate and knew right away I need to sign up to tell my story.</p>
<blockquote><p>WordPress designers and wanna-be developers like me (who cannot access online pay systems) often feel side lined.</p></blockquote>
<p>When it comes to classes, we stop at the freebies portion, often than not our Google Searches look like this</p>
<p>“Free image slider plugins for WordPress” “Free WordPress tutorials”</p>
<p>I wish more developers, or people with more global privilege would consider alternate ways for users who cannot pay for courses, themes, or plugins would make. We may not seem to be present, but we are there. I would love to see more WordPress tutors and developers open up ways to accommodate aspiring learners like me who cannot access plugins, courses and themes, to be able to give back and to participate at another level.</p>
<p>Many wannabe developers who come from situations similar to mine often shy away from participating with the WordPress community or getting deeper with WordPress because in the ways I have mentioned above, the WordPress community feels like it belongs to those only privileged enough on the internet.</p>
<p>WordPress has allowed me to find income I otherwise would not have any way in hopes of earning. Sure it is lower by global standards, but it makes a huge difference where I live. This is about to be my second year with WordPress, and coming across members of the community with varying backgrounds through HeroPress’ stories tells me there is hope for WordPress users like me.</p>
<blockquote><p>I believe through sharing stories like these not only will WordPress products/services be more accessible but aspiring self-taught developers like me will also find more courage in reaching out to connect with others out there.</p></blockquote>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: WordPressing The Hard Way In Malawi" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=WordPressing%20The%20Hard%20Way%20In%20Malawi&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fwordpressing-hard-way-malawi%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: WordPressing The Hard Way In Malawi" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fwordpressing-hard-way-malawi%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%2Fwordpressing-hard-way-malawi%2F&title=WordPressing+The+Hard+Way+In+Malawi" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: WordPressing The Hard Way In Malawi"></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/wordpressing-hard-way-malawi/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/113016-150x150.jpg&description=WordPressing The Hard Way In Malawi" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: WordPressing The Hard Way In Malawi"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/wordpressing-hard-way-malawi/" title="WordPressing The Hard Way In Malawi"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/wordpressing-hard-way-malawi/">WordPressing The Hard Way In Malawi</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, 30 Nov 2016 12:00:57 +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:15:"Robert Cheleuka";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:73:"WPTavern: Elizabeth Shilling Awarded the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship";s:7:"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=64044";s:7:"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/elizabeth-shilling-awarded-the-kim-parsell-memorial-scholarship";s: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:1621:"<p>The WordPress Foundation <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/2016/11/24/announcing-the-kim-parsell-memorial-scholarship-winner-elizabeth-shilling/">has announced</a> that <a href="http://www.orcawebperformance.com/">Elizabeth Shilling</a>, one of three co-founders of the <a href="https://womenwhowp.org/">Women Who WP </a>meetup group, is the second recipient of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2015/01/15/remembering-kim-parsell/">Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship</a>.</p>
<p>The scholarship was created in 2015 to remember Kim Parsell and provide an opportunity for a woman who may not have the financial means to attend the largest WordCamp in the US.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bridget-elizabeth.jpeg?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64047" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/bridget-elizabeth.jpeg?resize=1025%2C769&ssl=1" alt="Bridget Willard on the left with Elizabeth Shilling on the right" /></a>Bridget Willard on the left with Elizabeth Shilling on the right
<p>Shilling is a former biology teacher, business owner, plugin developer, and feminist leader. According to the <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/2016/11/24/announcing-the-kim-parsell-memorial-scholarship-winner-elizabeth-shilling/">announcement</a>, Shilling was chosen for her dedication to open source and being a champion for women in leadership. The scholarship covers the cost of a WordCamp ticket, flight, and lodging. If you see Shilling at WordCamp US this weekend, be sure to congratulate her.</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, 29 Nov 2016 22:48:47 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:77:"WPTavern: PDF Image Previews Among the Improvements to Media in WordPress 4.7";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=64026";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"https://wptavern.com/pdf-image-previews-among-the-improvements-to-media-in-wordpress-4-7";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:1840:"<p>Among the many enhancements in WordPress 4.7 are improvements to the media component. Previous to 4.7, users who uploaded files to the media library and changed the title could not search for them by file name. Four years since the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/22744">ticket was created</a>, users will be able to search for media by filename.</p>
<p>PDFs are <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/15/enhanced-pdf-support-4-7/">easier to preview</a> as the media library will create an image preview of the first page. This image is used throughout the library and media attachment screens.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/PDFpreviews.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-64027" src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/PDFpreviews.png?resize=864%2C317&ssl=1" alt="PDF Preview Images in the WordPress Media Library" /></a>PDF Preview Images in the WordPress Media Library
<p>In order to generate the previews, the webhosting server needs to support Imagick, ImageMagick, and Ghostscript. If support is not detected, WordPress will fall back and save the attachment without adding a preview image.</p>
<p>WordPress 4.7 also removes the <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-improves-accessibility-by-removing-alternative-text-fallbacks">caption text and the image title fallbacks</a> to generate alternative text. Developers are encouraged to read the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/15/enhanced-pdf-support-4-7/">detailed notes</a> surrounding PDF previews to ensure compatibility with WordPress 4.7. There&#8217;s also a handful of other changes to media that users and developers can <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/22/media-changes-in-4-7/">read here</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:"Tue, 29 Nov 2016 01:41:53 +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: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:41:"Dev Blog: WordPress 4.7 Release Candidate";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4579";s:7:"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:67:"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-release-candidate/";s: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:4302:"<p>The release candidate for WordPress 4.7 is now available.</p>
<p>RC means we think we’re done, but with millions of users and thousands of plugins and themes, it’s possible we’ve missed something. We hope to ship WordPress 4.7 on <strong>Tuesday, December 6</strong>, but we need <em>your</em> help to get there. If you haven’t tested 4.7 yet, now is the time! To test WordPress 4.7, you can use the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin or you can <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-4.7-RC1.zip">download the release candidate here</a> (zip).</p>
<p>WordPress 4.7 is a jam-packed release, with a number of features focused on getting a theme set up for the first time. Highlights include a <a href="http://2017.wordpress.net/">new default theme</a>, video headers, custom CSS, customizer edit shortcuts, PDF thumbnail previews, user admin languages, REST API content endpoints, post type templates, and more.</p>
<p>We’ve made <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/trunk/src?action=stop_on_copy&mode=stop_on_copy&rev=39353&stop_rev=39263&limit=200&verbose=on&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=">quite a few refinements</a> since releasing Beta 4 a week ago, including usability and accessibility enhancements for video headers, media and page template support in starter content, and polishing of how custom CSS can be migrated to and extended by plugins and themes. The REST API endpoints saw a number of bugfixes and notably now have anonymous comment off by default.</p>
<p>Not sure where to start with testing? Try setting up a fresh site on a new installation with Twenty Seventeen (hint: head into customizing your site before touching any pages or widgets) and taking notes on what you enjoyed and what got you stuck. For more details about what&#8217;s new in version 4.7, check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/10/wordpress-4-7-beta-1/">Beta 1</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-2/">Beta 2</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-3/">Beta 3</a>, and <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-4/">Beta 4</a> blog posts.</p>
<p><strong>Think you’ve found a bug?</strong> Please post to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta support forum</a>. If any known issues come up, you’ll be able to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/report/5">find them here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Developers</strong>, please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 4.7 and update your plugin’s <em>Tested up to</em> version in the readme to 4.7. If you find compatibility problems please be sure to post to the support forums so we can figure those out before the final release – we work hard to avoid breaking things. An in-depth field guide to developer-focused changes is coming soon on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">core development blog</a>.</p>
<p>Do you speak a language other than English? <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev">Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!</a> And if you haven&#8217;t yet done so, now is a great time to <a href="https://wordpressdotorg.polldaddy.com/s/wordpress-2016-survey">take the Annual WordPress Survey</a> and send it on to your friends.</p>
<p>Happy testing! And now for another <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ramiabraham">Rami Abraham</a> haiku break.</p>
<p><em>Select your language</em><br />
<em>Then let your users choose theirs</em><br />
<em><code>get_user_locale()</code></em></p>
<p><em>Theme authors rejoice</em><br />
<em>Any option may employ</em><br />
<em>Selective refresh</em></p>
<p><em>Custom header video</em><br />
<em>Make sure to <code>add_theme_support</code></em><br />
<em>Bling above the fold</em></p>
<p><em>A new template dawns</em><br />
<em>A hierarchy member</em><br />
<em>Post-type templates live</em></p>
<p><em>PDF updates</em><br />
<em>Pack a parade of polish</em><br />
<em>Prettier previews</em></p>
<p><em>Template Post Type: New</em><br />
<em>Template Post Type: And Useful</em><br />
<em>Template Post Type: Thing</em></p>
<p><em>Let lists live lively</em><br />
<em>Laud <code>wp_list_sort()</code></em><br />
<em>Less laconic lists</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 24 Nov 2016 04:26:23 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Helen Hou-Sandi";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:45:"WPTavern: Why Are You Thankful for WordPress?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=64012";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"https://wptavern.com/why-are-you-thankful-for-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3841:"<p>Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US. It&#8217;s a time of reflection and an opportunity to express gratitude for the good things in life. In <a href="http://kitchensinkwp.com/podcast-e143-thankgiving-wordpress-2016/">episode 143</a> of the KitchensinkWP podcast, host Adam Silver asked his two sons why they&#8217;re grateful for WordPress.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am thankful for WordPress because it gives you a job for the household that we live in and it makes you happy which also makes me happy and smile,&#8221; Parker said. &#8220;I am thankful for WordPress because it makes you happy and it makes me happy and it provides a roof over our heads,&#8221; Carson said.</p>
<p>Inspired by the episode, <a href="https://twitter.com/josheby">Josh Eby</a> created the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thankful4WP?src=hash">#Thankful4WP</a> hashtag on Twitter. Here are a few reasons why people are thankful for WordPress.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">My <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thankful4WP?src=hash">#Thankful4WP</a> List:<br />* Life I enjoy because of WP<br />* Lifelong, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Iceberg?src=hash">#Iceberg</a> friendships<br />* Passionate <a href="https://twitter.com/ithemes">@ithemes</a> team<br />* Customers who support us</p>
<p>&mdash; Cory Miller (@corymiller303) <a href="https://twitter.com/corymiller303/status/801458665790304256">November 23, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">My <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thankful4WP?src=hash">#Thankful4WP</a> list: the awesome community, resources, WordCamps, building websites w/ WP, the people, oh and did I mention the people? ❤️</p>
<p>&mdash; Justine Pretorious (@jpretorious) <a href="https://twitter.com/jpretorious/status/801334701306875905">November 23, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’m <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thankful4WP?src=hash">#Thankful4WP</a> and particularly for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GenesisWP?src=hash">#GenesisWP</a> because it’s afforded me opportunities I didn’t have before and awesome friendships.</p>
<p>&mdash; Susan Ramsey (@onehappystudio) <a href="https://twitter.com/onehappystudio/status/801226653435396096">November 23, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">I am <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thankful4WP?src=hash">#Thankful4WP</a> &#8211; People. Connections. A New Career. Teaching. Learning. Ah-ha Moments. WordCamps. Friends. Support. Good Times.</p>
<p>&mdash; BobWP (@bobWP) <a href="https://twitter.com/bobWP/status/801202449180524544">November 22, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">I am <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thankful4WP?src=hash">#Thankful4WP</a> because it gave me opportunity to leave the 9to5 job and start something of my own <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/myownbusiness?src=hash">#myownbusiness</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/wfanzine">@wfanzine</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordPress?src=hash">#WordPress</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Sanjeev Mishra (@sonziv) <a href="https://twitter.com/sonziv/status/801164921861902336">November 22, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>I&#8217;m thankful for WordPress because of the opportunities it has provided me and I&#8217;ve met some amazing people because of it. If you&#8217;re thankful for WordPress please let us know why in the comments. From all of us at the Tavern, have a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving.</p>
<blockquote><p>Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy &#8211; Fred De Witt Van Amburgh</p></blockquote>
<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, 24 Nov 2016 00:05:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:30:"HeroPress: Building Confidence";s:7:"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=1457";s:7:"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://heropress.com/essays/building-confidence/";s: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:5817:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/112316-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: The WordPress community give me confidence to talk to people & in front of people." /><p>I can clearly divide my life in two parts before and after marriage. Before I got married, I was staying in Chapra, a small city in Bihar. I had graduated in Botany, we only had electricity for 5-6 hours a day and no easy access to internet or computers.</p>
<p>After my marriage, I came to Pune, a bigger city compared to Chapra and things changed for me. I was exposed to exciting world of technology, thanks to my husband who was then working at a startup. I had lot of free time so I decided to learn as much as I could just to see what I can do and started by learning MS Office, then Photoshop a bit and in the process I also learned HTML, CSS. I tried but couldn’t get much hang of JavaScript.</p>
<p>Once I got confident that I can write decent HTML, I switched to learning CMS and first one I tried was Joomla, and for me it was very hard to understand, I had more question then I could find answers to. So on suggestion of my husband I switched to WordPress. I was able to quickly figure things out with WordPress and set up a blog for myself.</p>
<p>In 2010, I joined WPoets as QA. In those days I had some free time.</p>
<blockquote><p>To improve my skills I started looking into old reviews of the themes that were approved on WordPress themes repository.</p></blockquote>
<p>This helped me understand theme file structures and various criteria to check themes for, I used skills acquired to ensure themes built by WPoets were also following these guidelines.</p>
<p>Sometime in 2011, once I was confident that I have understood the process I joined the ‘Theme Review Team’ and started officially reviewing themes in the repository. This was a proud moment for me.  During my journey as theme reviewer I was helped and guided by Emil Uzelac, Chip Bennett &amp; Edward Caissie.</p>
<p>In 2013, very first WordCamp was organised in Pune and I got a chance to talk about theme review process, this was my first ever public talk, and not being very good with English I choose to speak in Hindi. It was well received and many people wanted to know how they can get their themes approved. Again in 2015, I talked about what makes themes good in <a href="https://2015.pune.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp Pune</a>. Thanks to WordCamps, I got to meet <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/making-family/">Topher</a>, <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/breaking-the-silence/">Mahangu</a> &amp; <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/finding-hope-darkness/">Raghvendra</a>.</p>
<p>Now a days, as I get less time between work and kids, instead of doing theme reviews I answer questions on WordPress.org support forum.</p>
<blockquote><p>I&#8217;m an introvert and came from a small city so I&#8217;m always hesitant to talk to new people but the WordPress community give me confidence to talk with new people and in front of people.</p></blockquote>
<p>This is a big achievement for me and my family feels proud of it.</p>
<p>In WP community every one ready to support and help to move forward because of this nature I love to this community. I want to emphasize the support that I have received from WordPress community in general and members of theme review team in specific who helped me gain the knowledge necessary to do my work better. I also want to thank all the organisers of Pune WordPress Knowledge Exchange meetup group, and specially <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/ill-keep-looking-for-a-cms-unless-i-find-wordpress/">Saurabh Shukla</a> who helped in improving my presentation skills for WordCamp Pune.</p>
<p>All these happened because of WordPress community and via HeroPress platform I would like to thank everyone who makes this community rock.</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: Building Confidence" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Building%20Confidence&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fbuilding-confidence%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Building Confidence" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fbuilding-confidence%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%2Fbuilding-confidence%2F&title=Building+Confidence" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Building Confidence"></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/building-confidence/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/112316-150x150.jpg&description=Building Confidence" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Building Confidence"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/building-confidence/" title="Building Confidence"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/building-confidence/">Building Confidence</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, 23 Nov 2016 12:00:44 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Nisha Singh";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:87:"WPTavern: Automattic Clarifies .blog Landrush Process After Bait and Switch Allegations";s:7:"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=63947";s:7:"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/automattic-clarifies-blog-landrush-process-after-bait-and-switch-allegations";s: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:6001:"<p>Earlier this year, Knock Knock Whois There LLC, an Automattic subsidiary in partnership with Primer Nivel, <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-to-oversee-the-sale-and-registration-of-top-level-blog-domains">won an auction</a> for around $19 million dollars to offer top-level .blog domains. On August 18th, an email was sent to users who signed up to <a href="https://dotblog.wordpress.com/">Dotblog.WordPress.com</a> notifying them that they could apply and secure a .blog domain name before November 21st.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ApplyForBlogDomain.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-63953" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ApplyForBlogDomain.png?resize=480%2C781&ssl=1" alt="Applying For a Domain Name" /></a>Applying For a Domain Name
<p><a href="http://chrisschidle.com">Chris Schidle</a> took advantage of the opportunity and secured chris.blog for $30 per year with a $220 application fee. People who apply for a domain only receive it if no one else applies for it. If there are multiple applications, the domain goes through an auction process between November 14-17.</p>
<p>As the auction dates drew nearer and Schidle didn&#8217;t receive any information concerning the auction, he contacted support. Support confirmed that his application was not successful and he received a refund on November 15th. After asking support about the auction process, Schidle was informed that chris.blog ended up on a list of reserved domains that were not available for registration.</p>
<p>In a blog post entitled &#8220;<a href="http://chrisschidle.com/the-dot-blog-bait-and-switch/">The .blog Bait and Switch&#8221;</a>, Schidle expressed disappointment in Automattic&#8217;s lack of communication. &#8220;Perhaps it&#8217;s not fair to call this bait and switch,&#8221; Schidle said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Really it was bait and refund, and certainly the situation would be far worse had they chosen to not make the application fee refundable. But still, I thought I had a chance at securing the domain. That was the logical conclusion given the terms they outlined via a successful application or winning an auction.&#8221;</p>
<p>Other applicants <a href="https://twitter.com/cschidle/status/799287789430849536">shared similar experiences</a> on Twitter.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/cschidle">@cschidle</a> i feel your pain. they also took my $250 for my app for <a href="https://t.co/8H0dBZfKny">https://t.co/8H0dBZfKny</a> &#8211; surprisingly poor handling for a comm's company</p>
<p>&mdash; Chris Yim (@cyim) <a href="https://twitter.com/cyim/status/799343938024968193">November 17, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/cschidle">@cschidle</a> I've got stood up in the same manner for <a href="https://t.co/wqDOQWyF2X">https://t.co/wqDOQWyF2X</a> Full-refund and no invitation to auction</p>
<p>&mdash; Octavian Cioaca (@octasimo) <a href="https://twitter.com/octasimo/status/799295000240648192">November 17, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/cschidle">@cschidle</a> Same thing happened to me with <a href="https://t.co/1bRlWkdtmy">https://t.co/1bRlWkdtmy</a>. Not cool.</p>
<p>&mdash; Mark Barrera (@mark_barrera) <a href="https://twitter.com/mark_barrera/status/799366369733210114">November 17, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>In response to Schidel&#8217;s post, Paolo Belcastro <a href="https://my.blog/2016/11/17/about-reserved-domains/">published an explanation</a> of the process behind activating some domains in the Founder’s Program while reserving others. Belcastro says that as a registrar, they&#8217;re able to activate up to 100 domain names. Some of the domains were given to <a href="https://my.blog/founders/">third-parties</a> and 25 generic domains were given to WordPress.com to be shared for free with millions of users.</p>
<p>The registrar reserved all one, two, and three-character domains from being registered. They also allowed Automattic employees to reserve a single domain each, some of which were first names.</p>
<p>On behalf of .blog, Belcastro apologized to those who filed applications in August and later discovered the domains were not available.</p>
<blockquote><p>Many registrars started taking pre-registrations for the Landrush period as early as last August. We do realize that some users were disappointed when they discovered that the domain names they had applied for were in fact attributed as part of the Founder’s program, or reserved, and wouldn’t be possible to register or auction at the end of Landrush.</p>
<p>We would like to apologize to these users, but as the lists of Founder domains and Reserved ones weren’t final until just before Landrush, we couldn’t communicate them to registrars in advance (there is nothing registrars hate more than ever-changing lists of reserved domains).</p>
<p>In addition, domains were removed as well as added to the lists, and we didn’t want to take the risk for registrars to refuse applications in September for domains that would be released in October.</p></blockquote>
<p>To mitigate the uncertainty surrounding domain availability, fees were set up in a way so that only successful registrations would be charged. This provided a way to give full refunds to those with failed applications.</p>
<p>Schidle appreciates the company&#8217;s apology, &#8220;It&#8217;s unfortunate that their reserved domain list wasn&#8217;t finalized prior to accepting applications, and that affected applicants like myself weren&#8217;t notified sooner (auctions were scheduled to begin on November 14th),&#8221; he said. &#8220;But I think they realize their mistake in handling that communication and their apology is appreciated.&#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:"Sat, 19 Nov 2016 00:03:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"WPTavern: WordPress Passes 27% Market Share, Banks on Customizer for Continued 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:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63735";s:7:"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/wordpress-passes-27-market-share-banks-on-customizer-for-continued-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:18467:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/paint-brushes.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/paint-brushes.jpg?resize=960%2C510&ssl=1" alt="photo credit: Luis Llerena" class="size-full wp-image-63978" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/265GAALCWG">Luis Llerena</a>
<p>WordPress now powers <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress/all/all" target="_blank">27.1% of all websites on the internet</a>, up from 25% last year. While it may seem that WordPress is neatly adding 2% of the internet every year, its percentage increase fluctuates from year to year and the climb is getting more arduous with more weight to haul.</p>
<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/wordpress-market-share.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/wordpress-market-share.png?resize=1025%2C256&ssl=1" alt="credit: w3techs.com" class="size-full wp-image-63933" /></a>credit: <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/history_overview/content_management/all/y">w3techs.com</a>
<p>In January 2015, Mullenweg said the next goal for WordPress was <a href="https://wptavern.com/how-important-is-jetpack-on-wordpress-road-to-50-market-share" target="_blank">to achieve 50% market share</a> (the majority of websites) and he identified Jetpack as a key factor in preventing WordPress&#8217; decline, a controversial statement delivered at Pressnomics. At that time Automattic was secretly working on <a href="https://wptavern.com/early-reviews-show-applications-like-calypso-are-the-future-of-wordpress" target="_blank">Calypso</a>, WordPress.com&#8217;s JavaScript-powered interface, but did not unveil the project until November 2015.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s difficult to say what effect Calypso has had on WordPress&#8217; market share, as the w3tech&#8217;s 27% stat covers mostly self-hosted sites. Following up with him a year later, Mullenweg estimates that less than 10% of those sites are hosted on WordPress.com.</p>
<p>&#8220;It does look like about a quarter of it is using Jetpack, though, and that has grown since Calypso was released,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Remember &#8211; Calypso is for Jetpack sites as well as WP.com.&#8221;</p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-240-interview-with-matt-mullenweg-2016" target="_blank">interview on WPWeekly</a>, Mullenweg said he is also optimistic that the WooCommerce acquisition and <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-to-oversee-the-sale-and-registration-of-top-level-blog-domains" target="_blank">Automattic&#8217;s sale and management of the .blog domain</a> extension will contribute &#8220;another 5-10% each to that market share.&#8221; In fact, there is a team inside Automattic called Team 51 that works on strategies for getting the market share to 51%.</p>
<p>&#8220;For getting to 51% and beyond &#8211; it&#8217;s more than just blogs and more than just websites,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;We need to do stores well, we need to do wikis well, we need to do real estate sites well, we need to do restaurants well &#8211; all these things that may be outside what you normally think of as a core WP experience.&#8221;</p>
<p>In order to provide the best content-creation experience on the market, in any niche, WordPress has some major work to do. The software is in imminent danger of being eclipsed by newer competitors if its core features don&#8217;t improve, especially when it comes to customizing a new site. Jetpack cannot single-handedly solve WordPress&#8217; onboarding problem.</p>
<h3>WordPress&#8217; Weakest Link Is Also Its Greatest Opportunity</h3>
<p>In the past Mullenweg has identified customization as the weakest link in WordPress but also one of its most important areas for improvement, saying, &#8220;The Customizer is everything.&#8221; During the <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2015-javascript-and-api-driven-interfaces-are-the-future-of-wordpress" target="_blank">2015 State of the Word</a> address he said, &#8220;Customization is the single biggest opportunity for improving the WordPress experience.&#8221; I asked him if he thinks the necessary improvements to make the software more competitive need to come from core itself or if commercial products could introduce game changers for the Customizer, the editor, and other problem areas of WordPress.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think to have an impact on WordPress&#8217; growth improvements to customization have to happen in core or Calypso/Jetpack, otherwise there isn&#8217;t enough reach,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter how great a commercial product is &#8211; being behind a paywall will mean it won&#8217;t reach enough people to make a dent in WP&#8217;s growth curve.&#8221; He outlined how he sees the Customizer as a critical component of WordPress&#8217; future:</p>
<blockquote><p>I think the needed improvements will only come from a customizer and theme system which is flexible, intuitive, and instantaneous, which might also need to break backwards compatibility, and a post editor which leverages the same language, patterns, interface, and concepts. We need to use and adopt a React / Redux approach to the javascript, like Calypso, and rename or make irrelevant concepts like Menus which are just plain confusing to people.</p></blockquote>
<p>Customizer improvements have been a focus throughout 2016 and the feature&#8217;s small team of contributors have made major strides towards improving the underlying architecture to build upon.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s <em>customization</em> that is the key need here, not necessarily the existing &#8216;Customizer&#8217; interface that we have today,&#8221; <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/components/customize/" target="_blank">Customize</a> component maintainer Weston Ruter said. &#8220;The key need WordPress has is to be able to live preview more functionality in WordPress, as Helen tweeted here:&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">What if instead of opposing "shoving more stuff into the customizer" we supported "adding live previews to WordPress functionality"?</p>
<p>&mdash; Helen 侯-Sandí (@helenhousandi) <a href="https://twitter.com/helenhousandi/status/778255682462183424">September 20, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/customizer-responsive-preview-and-selective-refresh-to-be-merged-into-wordpress-4-5" target="_blank">Selective refresh</a> was added earlier this year in 4.5, giving WordPress the ability to preview elements without full page reloads. This is one way the Customize API addresses that &#8220;instantaneous&#8221; aspect Mullenweg outlined above.</p>
<p>&#8220;The <a href="https://make.xwp.co/2016/04/29/customize-posts-v0-5-released/" target="_blank">Customize Posts</a> plugin is an effort to rebuild the post editor from the ground up with live preview for all changes to post data and postmeta at the foundation,&#8221; Ruter said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a JavaScript-first approach to the post editing experience. No more waiting for a full page reload to save a draft. No more clicking a preview button to load the post in a new window. All of the changes are saved as drafts and previewed live. It&#8217;s reusing the TinyMCE editor component.&#8221;</p>
<p>WordPress may be looking at <a href="https://wptavern.com/customize-posts-plugin-and-selective-refresh-are-paving-the-way-for-front-end-editing-powered-by-the-customizer" target="_blank">front-end editing powered by the Customizer</a> in the not-too-distant future. Ruter and contributors are also working towards using the Customize API to power the next generation of widgets in core, which would use JS for UI and open the door for widgets to be managed via the REST API.</p>
<p>&#8220;Changesets, coming in 4.7, is the most far-reaching architectural improvement to the customizer since its inception,&#8221; Ruter said. &#8220;Changesets allow for live preview functionality to be de-coupled from the current Customizer interface. This architecture allows for live preview to be developed in other contexts, namely on the frontend and in REST API-driven apps and headless sites.&#8221; Ruter anticipates the REST API endpoints for managing changesets to come in 4.8.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://github.com/xwp/wp-js-widgets" target="_blank">WP JS Widgets</a> project shifts widgets away from their heavy reliance on PHP and creates a JavaScript foundation in the Customizer that allows for any library to be used to build widget controls.</p>
<p>&#8220;A control can actually be implemented using any JS technology stack,&#8221; Ruter said. &#8220;In the JS Widgets plugin I have a demonstration of widget controls in the customizer being built using the customizer Element, Backbone.js, and also React.&#8221; The plugin currently implements <a href="https://github.com/xwp/wp-js-widgets/tree/master/php/widgets" target="_blank">three core widgets</a> and contributors are working on more.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s somewhat of a &#8216;Widgets 3.0&#8217; in core, focused on what they would look like in the Customizer first,&#8221; Ruter said, &#8220;where the widget instance data is stored in a setting, and the control listens to changes to that setting and updates its UI to reflect the changes in the underlying instance data.&#8221;</p>
<p>Although this particular project is being built to be JavaScript-library agnostic, Ruter said he thinks there would be value in exploring the use of React/Redux in a “Customizer 2.0” interface:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">It would be great to experiment with re-implementing the Customizer UI (pane, panels, sections, controls) in React. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wcus?src=hash">#wcus</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Weston Ruter ⚡ (@westonruter) <a href="https://twitter.com/westonruter/status/672830761872064513">December 4, 2015</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h3>Taking the Customizer Beyond First Impressions</h3>
<p>Ruter said he would have a difficult time proposing to build a client site that depended on the WordPress admin for site management and content authorship.</p>
<p>&#8220;A lot of the work we&#8217;ve done at XWP for the past few years has been building on the Customizer to provide the editorial experiences that I think are lacking in the WP admin,&#8221; Ruter said. &#8220;We invest heavily in the customizer because we see it as the best foundation that WordPress has to offer to provide the experiences we want to deliver to our clients.&#8221;</p>
<p>If the Customizer is so critical to WordPress&#8217; success, it&#8217;s curious that the contributor team remains relatively small and few companies are investing in the feature specifically. <a href="https://xwp.co/" target="_blank">XWP</a> invests heavily in Customizer development and a great deal of that is prototype work in the form of feature plugins such as Customize Snapshots, Customize Posts, and several <a href="https://github.com/xwp?q=wp-customize" target="_blank">other plugin projects</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know for sure why more developers across the WordPress community aren&#8217;t doing more with the customizer,&#8221; said Ruter, who is CTO at XWP. &#8220;It may be in part a perception problem, where it has seemingly been stuck with a negative reputation. Or it could be a technology problem, where the Customizer is vastly different from other areas of WordPress being a JavaScript single-page application.&#8221;</p>
<p>When the Customizer was first introduced it included support for &#8216;option&#8217; and &#8216;theme_mod,&#8217; followed by widgets and navigation menus a bit down the road. The WordPress community didn&#8217;t have a full understanding of the scope and capabilities of the Customizer for addressing some of the project&#8217;s chief concerns, including content authorship with live previews. Users simply saw a constrained UI they didn&#8217;t like using to customize themes. Most users had no concept of the Customizer providing the architectural underpinnings of other aspects of WordPress.</p>
<p>&#8220;Part of the problem is a lack of contributors,&#8221; Ruter said. &#8220;But even more than that, the biggest problem is one of having a shared vision. When the WP community throws hate on customizer improvements with each new release, it&#8217;s somewhat demotivating.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the community realized the vision behind and appreciated a full admin experience that had live preview and staging of changes, then that would make a huge difference,&#8221; Ruter said. He and contributors find it challenging to articulate the scope and they are considerably short-handed.</p>
<p>&#8220;It could be a problem with getting ramped up,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But that&#8217;s been the mandate for the WP community as a whole &#8211; to learn JavaScript deeply. I say, why not learn JavaScript deeply by building on the customizer?&#8221;</p>
<h3>GoDaddy Plans to Invest in Core Customizer Improvements</h3>
<p>GoDaddy is a surprising company to emerge over the past couple of years as another key player on WordPress&#8217; road to 50% market share. WordPress product and service companies, along with hosts, are keenly interested in seeing the software continue its market dominance.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very important to GoDaddy that WP market share increases,&#8221; Gabe Mays, head of WordPress products at GoDaddy, said. &#8220;We&#8217;re deeply invested in the success of the WordPress community, not only because many of our customers use it, but also because of what it represents.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mays reports that approximately 1/3 of all GoDaddy sites and half of all new sites are running on WordPress. With millions of customers using the software, the company took the initiative to create a new <a href="https://wptavern.com/godaddy-launches-new-onboarding-experience-for-wordpress-customers" target="_blank">onboarding experience specifically for WordPress customers</a>. I asked Mays if GoDaddy is concerned about competitors like Wix and Weebly cutting into the WordPress market share.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know if &#8216;worry&#8217; is the right word, because 1) we know the problem and 2) we&#8217;re capable of addressing it,&#8221; Mays said. &#8220;As a community we either care enough to fix it or we don&#8217;t. There are negative consequences associated with the latter that pose an existential threat to the community.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mays has been involved with the WordPress community for the past 10 years and is working with GoDaddy to improve the new user experience.</p>
<p>&#8220;Part of the issue we’re experiencing now is that WordPress benefitted from such strong product market fit and, subsequently, such high growth that there weren’t the typical feedback mechanisms forcing us to make things like the UX better,&#8221; Mays said. &#8220;On the other hand, our competitors fought hard and iterated for every basis point of market share they have. We’re like that natural athlete that got to the top with natural talent, but now need to master the basics, get our form right, etc. to stay on top as the game changes.&#8221;</p>
<p>GoDaddy&#8217;s new onboarding experience is a stab at improving this UX and Mays said the company has significant WordPress core improvements in the works to provide a better first-use experience.</p>
<p>&#8220;I’m happy to say we’ll also be contributing these improvements back to core,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re happy to have had Aaron Campbell join us as our first core contributor earlier this year and we&#8217;re working on more ways to accelerate our core contribution efforts.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mays said GoDaddy is planning to submit core contributions to the Customizer and related core components in the near future but would not disclose any specifics at this time.</p>
<p>&#8220;Hosts benefit immensely from WordPress and as hosts we can collectively do a lot more to move WordPress forward,&#8221; Mays said. &#8220;We want to lead by example here and have big plans for this in 2017.&#8221;</p>
<p>WordPress product and service companies are also deeply invested in the software&#8217;s success and eager to see its market share grow. Cory Miller, CEO of <a href="https://ithemes.com/" target="_blank">iThemes</a>, one of WordPress&#8217; earliest theme companies, said growth is one potential sign of WordPress&#8217; health.</p>
<p>“As WordPress has grown, so have we with it,&#8221; Miller said. &#8220;The opposite of growth is scary — it’s stagnation or decline. Many have predicted that in WordPress for a long time, but it continues to grow and push new limits, like the defiant teenager it is.”</p>
<p>Miller said one of his concerns with competitors in the space is that they have started to cut into the lower  or lowest end of the market, &#8220;the do-it-yourselfers that many of us count as a key part of our customer base.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;WordPress is fantastic, and so are all the innovative tools and services around it, from themes, plugins to hosting,&#8221; Miller said. &#8220;But I&#8217;m increasingly seeing the reason why many, on perhaps the bottom end of the market, say, &#8216;I don’t want to mess with updates, or worrying about security, or pulling 15 separate tools together to do what I need. I just want a simple website, I want everything in one bundle, mostly done for me, and so I’ll just go with SquareSpace or Weebly.'&#8221;</p>
<p>Although WordPress provides so much more in terms of community and extensibility when compared to Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace, getting started is the hardest part for new users. This is where tools like Jetpack and GoDaddy&#8217;s onboarding experience are useful for giving users what they need to succeed with WordPress.</p>
<p>Even with a strong background in HTML and CSS, customizing a WordPress site can be challenging. Your site will never feel like your home on the web if you struggle to customize it to suit your preferences. The good news is that the WordPress project lead, contributors, hosts, and product companies are working together to improve customization in different, complementary ways in order to ensure the future of the project in an increasingly competitive market.</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, 18 Nov 2016 22:48:59 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:97:"WPTavern: 2nd Global WordPress Translation Day Brings 780 Translators Together Across 133 Locales";s:7:"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=63915";s:7:"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:108:"https://wptavern.com/2nd-global-wordpress-translation-day-brings-780-translators-together-across-133-locales";s: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:6921:"<p>The second <a href="https://wptranslationday.org/" target="_blank">Global WordPress Translation Day</a> was held November 12 and the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2016/11/16/notes-from-the-polyglots-chats-on-november-16th/" target="_blank">stats</a> released this week show the event was an even greater success than the first one. In April, <a href="https://wptavern.com/global-wordpress-translation-day-draws-448-participants-from-105-countries" target="_blank">WP Translation Day connected 448 participants</a> through both online and in-person translation events. The second event brought 780 translators together, a 74% increase in participation. Attendance at the local events increased from 39 in April to 67 in November.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Looking at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WPTranslationDay?src=hash">#WPTranslationDay</a> stats I can’t be more grateful to <a href="https://twitter.com/humanmadeltd">@humanmadeltd</a> for supporting my time for the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordPress?src=hash">#WordPress</a> Polyglots. So lucky❤️ <a href="https://t.co/NwSjYOyUBX">pic.twitter.com/NwSjYOyUBX</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Petya Raykovska (@petyeah) <a href="https://twitter.com/petyeah/status/798890778692988929">November 16, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>&#8220;We really wanted to build on top of what was already there, reach more people, and bring more important topics front and center,&#8221; said Petya Raykovska, one of the members of the Polyglots Leadership Team. Participants had the opportunity to discuss the upcoming internationalization features in WordPress with core developers, including a session by Pascal Birchler and a panel led by John Blackbourn. Translators also discussed gender neutral languages in the WordPress UI, prompted by a discussion around gender neutral German.</p>
<p>Raykovska said one of the goals of the second event was to &#8220;bring more people on screen so everyone can feel like they&#8217;re a part of a truly global event.&#8221; Local participation for the live streaming meetups increased from April.</p>
<p>&#8220;The activities in India have kept their strong growth rate &#8211; we had eight events last time, this time they were 14, with Mumbai even having two events,&#8221; Raykovska said. &#8220;For the first time we had events in Russia and in South Africa.&#8221;</p>
<p>Raykovska said she&#8217;s hoping the Polyglots Leadership Team will soon begin developing events in African regions, following patterns of success in Asia and Europe.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/ResellerClub">@ResellerClub</a> for hosting us today for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WPTranslationday?src=hash">#WPTranslationday</a> <a href="https://t.co/vfr9l0D50V">pic.twitter.com/vfr9l0D50V</a></p>
<p>&mdash; WordCamp Mumbai (@WCMumbai) <a href="https://twitter.com/WCMumbai/status/797397743467659264">November 12, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h3>Global WordPress Translation Day Expands Into South Africa</h3>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/cape-town-wptranslation-day.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/cape-town-wptranslation-day.jpg?resize=1025%2C548&ssl=1" alt="Cape Town WP Translation Day - credit: Jon Bossenger" class="size-full wp-image-63927" /></a>Cape Town WP Translation Day &#8211; credit: <a href="https://wpcapetown.co.za/2016/11/14/wordpress-global-translation-day-recap/">Jon Bossenger</a>
<p>South Africa has 11 languages and Raykovska said the event gave a big boost to the translation community there, with Xhosa being translated for WordPress for the first time. Xhosa is spoken by 7.6 million people, which is approximately 18% of the South African population.</p>
<p>&#8220;Africa has a huge potential and a lot of wonderful, enthusiastic people,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There will be more WordCamps there in 2017 and hopefully more activity on the translation side.&#8221;</p>
<p>Jon Bossenger and Hugh Lashbrooke, who co-organized the Cape Town event, had attendees translating WordPress into Xhosa, Sotho, and Setswana.</p>
<p>&#8220;By the end of the day we had two translation files for these languages that we’ll be looking to submit requests to be added as locales for WordPress,&#8221; Bossenger said in his recap <a href="https://wpcapetown.co.za/2016/11/14/wordpress-global-translation-day-recap/" target="_blank">post</a>. &#8220;We’re almost halfway towards adding all 11 official languages, just in one day.&#8221;</p>
<p>Trisha Cornelius, co-organizer the WP Johannesburg Meetup, organized the in-person translation event in Johannesburg where the team made major progress and assisted the Cape Town team in getting their languages started.</p>
<p>&#8220;We managed to get Xhosa approved in time for us to translate some strings for our translation day event,&#8221; Cornelius said. &#8220;We translated into Afrikaans (which is at over 95% so we are pushing to get to 100%) and South African English as well. People who were at the Cape Town event have volunteered to become translators for Tswana and an attendee at our event has volunteered to become GTE for Zulu.&#8221;</p>
<p>Cornelius said the excitement of live streaming and connecting with Cape Town and others around the world could have easily made for an event that spanned longer than three hours.</p>
<p>&#8220;The biggest success was in showing people how easy translation is,&#8221; Cornelius said. She hopes the translations will make WordPress easier for more people in South Africa and help more people get onto the web.</p>
<p>&#8220;South Africa has an interesting case in that we have a clear racial split between being multi-lingual and not,&#8221; Cornelius said. &#8220;The majority of our population speaks English/Afrikaans as a second language and I would love to see WordPress available in all 11 of our official languages so that WP users can choose to use WP in their mother tongue.&#8221;</p>
<p>Cornelius said language accessibility in South Africa is less of a challenge than actual access to computers with the Internet, but they are making progress in Johannesburg to make the internet more widely available.</p>
<p>&#8220;Especially with the prevalence of smart phones, I think having WordPress in more indigenous languages will mean that we are able to hear more of each others voices which we desperately need,&#8221; Cornelius said.</p>
<p>Overall, the WordPress Translation Day participants translated a total of 60,426 strings, up from 40,350 in April. This includes popular plugins and themes in addition to WordPress core. A video replay of the event can be found on <a href="https://www.crowdcast.io/e/gwtd2" target="_blank">Crowdcast.io</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:"Thu, 17 Nov 2016 23:20:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:29:"Ping-O-Matic: Bloglines Added";s:7:"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:59:"http://pingomatic.wordpress.com/2006/04/30/bloglines-added/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"https://blog.pingomatic.com/2006/04/30/bloglines-added/";s: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:839:"<p>A few days ago we added Bloglines to our list of RPC ping receivers, worked out a few issues with them, and now <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/about/news#103">they&#039;ve announced their pinging service</a>.</p>
<p>I&#039;ll be adding them to the web form soon. :)&nbsp;</p><br /><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/categories/pingomatic.wordpress.com/11/" /> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/tags/pingomatic.wordpress.com/11/" /> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/pingomatic.wordpress.com/11/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/pingomatic.wordpress.com/11/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=blog.pingomatic.com&blog=68432&post=11&subd=pingomatic&ref=&feed=1" width="1" height="1" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 17 Nov 2016 21:45:05 +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: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:77:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 254 – WP eCommerce, WordCamp US 2017, and Upvato";s:7:"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=63903&preview=true&preview_id=63903";s:7:"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/wpweekly-episode-254-wp-ecommerce-wordcamp-us-2017-and-upvato";s: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:2450:"<p>In this short episode of WordPress Weekly, <a href="http://marcuscouch.com/">Marcus Couch</a> and I discuss a handful of news stories making headlines. We discuss a recent security update to the WP eCommerce plugin, Upvato disappearing only to reappear in the near future, and Nashville, TN hosting WordCamp US in 2017 and 2018. Last but not least is Marcus&#8217; plugin picks of the week.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-ecommerce-3-11-4-patches-sql-injection-vulnerability">WP eCommerce 3.11.4 Patches SQL Injection Vulnerability</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/upvato-backup-service-confirms-files-are-lost-plans-to-relaunch-on-new-provider">Upvato Backup Service Confirms Files Are Lost, Plans to Relaunch on New Provider</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/nashville-to-host-wordcamp-us-2017-2018">Nashville to Host WordCamp US 2017-2018</a></p>
<h2>Plugins Picked By Marcus:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/show-featured-image-size-in-admin-topbar">Show Featured Image Size in Admin TopBar</a> displays the image size for the featured image in the admin top bar. This makes it convenient to know how large features images need to be without looking it up.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-mqtt/">WP-MQTT</a> connects WordPress to the Internet of Things. This plugin can automatically send MQTT messages to compatible devices when something happens on your site. MQTT is a machine-to-machine (M2M) / Internet of Things connectivity protocol. It was designed as an extremely lightweight publish/subscribe messaging transport.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/hello-trumpy/">Hello Trumpy</a> is a plugin aimed at making WordPress great again!</p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, November 23rd 9:30 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 #254:</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, 17 Nov 2016 09:20:17 +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:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:80:"WPTavern: Visible Edit Shortcuts in WordPress 4.7 Makes Customizing Sites 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=63881";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"https://wptavern.com/visible-edit-shortcuts-in-wordpress-4-7-makes-customizing-sites-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:3913:"<p>Earlier this year, Automattic added visual icons to the WordPress.com customizer after user testing showed users tried clicking on the parts of the page they wanted to edit, rather than searching through the menus in the customizer. In an effort to see if the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/27403">same could be done</a> for the self-hosted version of WordPress, <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/27403#comment:16">Payton Swick open sourced</a> Automattic&#8217;s work into a plugin and <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/customize-direct-manipulation">placed it on GitHub</a>.</p>
<p>The plugin added persistent icons to show users which parts of a site can be customized when the customizer preview pane is open. After months of collaboration between Automatticians and the Customize component maintainers, the icons were merged into WordPress 4.7 and are officially called visible edit shortcuts. The icons visually inform users which elements can be edited in a theme.</p>
<p>The icons appear when the customizer is open and directs users to settings that control an element. For example, clicking the icon next to the site tagline in the image below opens the Site Identity section of the customizer and makes the Tagline field active. Visible shortcuts are an extension of the Shift-click to edit keyboard shortcut that was added in WordPress 3.9.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CustomizerShortcutButtons.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-63883" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CustomizerShortcutButtons.png?resize=1025%2C544&ssl=1" alt="Visible Edit Shortcut Buttons" /></a>Visible Edit Shortcut Buttons
<p>The icon approach was largely inspired by WordPress.com which has a similar feature in its customizer. Nick Halsey, Customize component maintainer, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/10/visible-edit-shortcuts-in-the-customizer-preview/">describes in detail</a> the history of the feature and what theme authors need to do to support it.</p>
<p>Unlike many of the theme specific updates in the past where developers can add support by using add_theme_support, supporting visible edit shortcuts is more comprehensive. Theme authors will need to add support for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/02/16/selective-refresh-in-the-customizer/">selective refresh</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/03/22/implementing-selective-refresh-support-for-widgets/">selective refresh for widgets</a>, and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/07/29/fast-previewing-changes-to-menus-in-the-customizer/">selective refresh for menus</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Edit shortcuts will be enabled by default for all themes, but are contingent on themes supporting selective refresh,&#8221; Halsey said. Additionally, a small amount of CSS may be required to properly position the icons.</p>
<p>Adding visual elements that connect parts of a theme to the customizer should take some of the guesswork out of editing themes. Instead of spending time browsing through various customizer panels to edit a part of a site, users can click a button and the right customizer panel will open automatically with the settings you need. This can be especially useful for themes that have a lot of customizer sections.</p>
<p>I tested visible edit shortcuts using the Twenty Seventeen theme in WordPress 4.7 beta 4 and didn&#8217;t encounter any issues. The team is strongly encouraging users to test with as many themes as possible. If you use a theme where the shortcut icons are not displayed, please contact the theme author, request that they add support, and refer them to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/10/visible-edit-shortcuts-in-the-customizer-preview/">the make core blog post which explains how to do so</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:"Thu, 17 Nov 2016 08:54:19 +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: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:49:"WPTavern: Nashville to Host WordCamp US 2017-2018";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63871";s:7:"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:60:"https://wptavern.com/nashville-to-host-wordcamp-us-2017-2018";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5593:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/nashville.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/nashville.jpg?resize=1015%2C524&ssl=1" alt="photo credit: Viv Lynch Westward - (license)" class="size-full wp-image-63884" /></a>photo credit: Viv Lynch <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68894626@N00/30070498810">Westward</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p><a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/" target="_blank">WordCamp US</a> attendees are counting down the days until the event kicks off in Philadelphia in two weeks but preparations for 2017 and 2018 are already underway. Yesterday Matt Mullenweg <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordcamp-us-2017-2018-in-nashville/" target="_blank">announced</a> that Nashville has won the bid to host WordCamp US for the next two years. According to Randy Hicks, one of the organizers, the new <a href="http://www.nashvillemusiccitycenter.com/" target="_blank">Music City Center</a> venue, which was finished in 2013, has been reserved from Thursday, November 30, 2017, to Sunday, December 3 but the camp will take place Friday &#8211; Sunday. The venue has confirmed the ability to host 3,000 &#8211; 5,000 attendees.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have a brand new venue that is pretty amazing but Nashville is very centrally located to handful of other cities that all have their own WordCamps,&#8221; Hicks said. &#8220;I think there are about seven camps within 4-5 hours. The WP community around Nashville is rather strong.&#8221;</p>
<p>Over the past few years the local WordPress community has grown and WordCamp Nashville sold 325 tickets at its 2016 event.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been coming to the meetups since the very first one and have been an organizer since about the same time as well as John Housholder,&#8221; Hicks said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve seen the community explode every year after WordCamp, but 2014 and 2015 have been huge growth years for Nashville as a whole and the meetup has reflected those numbers.&#8221;</p>
<p>The application process included nailing down a venue, creating a budget, and gathering specific details about wifi capabilities, room capabilities, hotel availability, and date availability. Organizers from both the Nashville team and the Denver team (another finalist) agreed that the application time frame was somewhat constrained.</p>
<p>&#8220;I thought the time frame between start and submission was pretty short, but I think that depends on who is submitting and how informed they are on their local venue,&#8221; Hicks said. &#8220;Ours was really hard to get information from.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Denver team had a similar struggle with locking down a venue without certainty of being able to fully book the reservation.</p>
<p>&#8220;There was what I would consider to be a semi-fanatical obsession with the first weekend in December, which was flatly unavailable at the convention center here,&#8221; said Drew Jaynes, one of the organizers who applied on behalf of Denver.</p>
<p>&#8220;To give you some perspective, at the time that we applied, March 2016, there were two available weekends left for the Colorado Convention Center &#8211; two in all of 2017. The end of August and the middle of December. To organize an event of this size on what would be considered relatively short notice for a city as popular as Denver was essentially a fool&#8217;s errand.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Nashville organizing team was able to secure its venue for early December dates, but a wider range of acceptable dates might be one way for WordCamp Central to improve the process for next year. This would give more cities the opportunity to submit competitive applications, as venues that can accommodate the expected size of WCUS are in high demand in popular cities.</p>
<p>&#8220;We had a great set of communities apply so it was tough to pick just one,&#8221; WordCamp Central representative Cami Kaos said. &#8220;In the end we went with Nashville for WordCamp US 2017-2018 because it seems like a great location for attendees, they had a beautiful venue that could accommodate an event of this size as we grow, and the dynamics between both teams were a natural fit.&#8221;</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re interested in learning more about Nashville, the organizing team has created a <a href="http://wpnashville.com/wcus/" target="_blank">page</a> that includes some favorite local attractions and rankings:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ranked within the top 10 on Cvent ’s list of Top 50 Meeting Destinations in the United States. (August 2015)</li>
<li>Named #3 Best Convention City in the 10 Best USA Today Readers’ Choice Awards</li>
<li>Ranked #1 Friendliest City in America by Travel and Leisure (April 2015)</li>
<li>Listed in Collaborate Magazine’s list of the Top 12 Foodie Cities for Meetings</li>
</ul>
<p>Nashville is centrally located for a relatively short drive or flight from anywhere in the US and should have ample options for accommodation. The city won the bid to host the WordCamp out of six applicants and Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s announcement post indicates that there were multiple local communities capable of hosting the event in the future.</p>
<p>&#8220;Based on the other great applications we got I’m also excited about the pipeline of communities that could host it in future years as WordCamp US travels across the United States and gives us an opportunity to learn and love a new city, as we have with Philadelphia,&#8221; Mullenweg said.</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, 16 Nov 2016 21:50:56 +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:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"HeroPress: Actually, WordPress didn’t change my life.";s:7:"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=1490";s:7:"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://heropress.com/essays/actually-wordpress-didnt-change-life/";s: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:9579:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/111616-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: If we serve the people around what we're doing, we ourselves will grow, develop & change alongside the people we serve." /><p>My story starts in high school as a girl with a technical bent, in a small country town just as computers were becoming mainstream but well before they were in everyone’s home. (I was in high school when Apple came to school and showed off this new fangled thing they called a mouse…). We were taught BASIC and Pascal and I actually really enjoyed tinkering with programming, but no one thought to say, “Dee, you look like you’re good at this, you should pursue it…” I mean, I was a girl (and girls didn’t ‘DO’ computers), and no one in the circles I moved in really had any idea where this technology revolution would take us.</p>
<p>The truth is I wasn’t particularly ambitious, I didn’t have any kind of clue what I wanted to be ‘when I grew up’ so I allowed myself to be gently steered by my parents into leaving school before the end of my final year when I was encouraged to apply for a job in a bank.</p>
<p>I got the job and started in the MICR processing department, encoding cheques with magnetic text, and I finished as a teller 3 years later (and boy was I terrible at balancing the books at the end of the day &#8211; I was much better at chatting to the customers!).</p>
<p>Financial independence was the only name of that game; for me there was very little else to recommend the job, so I saved all the money I could and took off from both the bank, and my homeland (New Zealand) in very short order as a young, naive 20 year old primed to spend the next 3 years exploring the world. And by the world, I mean the US and Europe…</p>
<p>That first mouse had come out in 1983, WordPress was founded in 2003 and in those 20 years the world changed. While it was doing that I was at various times being a nanny, working in child care centres, working in customer support, temping, and generally &#8216;working to live&#8217; in whatever way felt right at the time. However, in 1999 I packed up my bags once again, moved from New Zealand to Australia and took a place at a performing arts school where I honed my singing and performance skills and volunteered my time to our music director who was starting to experiment with sending out HTML newsletters and updates via email.</p>
<blockquote><p>And so my personal revolution began.</p></blockquote>
<p>On what I think was the day after I graduated from that course I walked into a full time role as that music director’s assistant and began my journey back to code. It was part of my job to edit those HTML newsletters and send them out every week. I went from there to buying books about coding for the web, experimenting on my home built PC making web pages. I’m sure like a lot of us, I remember the thrill of creating that first HTML file and seeing a ‘Hello World’ or similar heading rendered in the browser… from there I was completely hooked.</p>
<p>By 2004 I was working full time as a webmaster, by 2005 I was running a small business creating sites on the side of my ‘real job’ and by 2009 that small business became my full time job as I left employment to pursue my Masters Degree in Digital Communication. It was in that year I met WordPress when I moved my old Movable Type blog onto it and within a very short time I was using  WP as the CMS of choice for all my client work…</p>
<p>Then in 2011 I stumbled across WordCamps and by extension the WordPress community. THAT was the thing that changed my world.</p>
<p>I flew on a whim from Sydney to Melbourne to attend this crazy inexpensive conference I had found after a google search for ‘WordPress Conferences’. In doing so I met welcoming people, made friends, connected, and came back to Sydney excited and hopeful about continuing this connection with the wider WP community.</p>
<p>Building a community around WP got off to a slow start in Sydney, but from an inauspicious early WPSyd meetup in the function room of a pub (one we actually held in the dark due to a blackout) my connection and involvement took off. Before long I was helping organise that Sydney meetup and by the time I moved away from that great city it had branched into 2 meetups, and soon after, into 3. Furthermore at the end of that first year, at my second ever WordCamp, I put my hand up to help organise a WordCamp Sydney in 2012 and then as I moved interstate, WordCamp Melbourne in 2013.</p>
<p>Here’s the point.</p>
<p>WordPress, software, technology, the Internet will come and go, morph, and change, evolve. Maybe WordPress will last forever, maybe it will morph into something else, maybe one day it will look completely different than it did when I first started (actually, that’s true now…) the thing that doesn’t change is the humanity around it.</p>
<blockquote><p>WordPress and any other software package exists to serve people.</p></blockquote>
<p>The thing that I have learned, not only through WordPress but in life, is that if we too serve the people around what we’re doing, we ourselves will grow, develop and change alongside the people we serve, and the tools we use to serve them.</p>
<p>In organising meetups, WordCamps, and community events around WordPress,  I have found that at the end of the day it isn’t actually WordPress that matters… it’s those connections, it’s the friendships. It’s the network of work, referrals, support, help, encouragement that has kept me wired into this community and committed to helping other people find that connection and growth for themselves. Even as my career in WP has moved through coding, into team support, into project management, there too it has been the people and my connections to them in the community that have helped fuel that transition.</p>
<p>I believe that the place I’ve found and the opportunities I have had owe as much to my own desire and ambition as they do to the help, support and belief of the community around me; sometimes even more than I’ve felt in myself. In all of this I feel as though I’m living proof that by helping, connecting, and resourcing other people, I myself have been helped, resourced and connected into places I’d have never dreamed of all those years ago as a teenager playing with that first mouse… experimenting with that BASIC code.</p>
<p>Arnold Schwarzenegger said “Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life.” and I completely agree.</p>
<p>Ricky Martin said “A hero is someone who is willing to help others in his or her best capacity.” Here are two very different people giving voice to exactly what I’ve found in working and serving in this great community of diverse people. This is the kind of heroism I see around WordPress, at meetups and WordCamps; it’s the kind of hero whom I want to raise up, and at the end of the day, this is the kind of hero I hope that I am.</p>
<p>Best of all, it’s the kind of hero that absolutely ANY of us can be.</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: Actually, WordPress didn’t change my life." class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Actually%2C%20WordPress%20didn%E2%80%99t%20change%20my%20life.&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Factually-wordpress-didnt-change-life%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Actually, WordPress didn’t change my life." class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Factually-wordpress-didnt-change-life%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%2Factually-wordpress-didnt-change-life%2F&title=Actually%2C+WordPress+didn%E2%80%99t+change+my+life." rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Actually, WordPress didn’t change my life."></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/actually-wordpress-didnt-change-life/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/111616-150x150.jpg&description=Actually, WordPress didn’t change my life." rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Actually, WordPress didn’t change my life."></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/actually-wordpress-didnt-change-life/" title="Actually, WordPress didn’t change my life."></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/actually-wordpress-didnt-change-life/">Actually, WordPress didn’t change my life.</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, 16 Nov 2016 12:00:21 +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:8:"Dee Teal";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:30:"Dev Blog: WordPress 4.7 Beta 4";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4576";s:7:"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://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-4/";s: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:1990:"<p>WordPress 4.7 Beta 4 is now available!</p>
<p><strong>This software is still in development,</strong> so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.7, try the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-4.7-beta4.zip">download the beta here</a> (zip).</p>
<p>For more information on what’s new in 4.7, check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/10/wordpress-4-7-beta-1/">Beta 1,</a> <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-2/">Beta 2</a>, and <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-3/">Beta 3</a> blog posts, along with <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/4-7+dev-notes/">in-depth developer guides on make/core</a>. We’ve made <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/trunk/src?action=stop_on_copy&mode=stop_on_copy&rev=39262&stop_rev=39201&limit=200&verbose=on&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=">about 60 changes</a> in the last few days for beta 4, including tweaks to Twenty Seventeen, custom CSS, and the REST API content endpoints.</p>
<p>Do you speak a language other than English? <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev">Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!</a></p>
<p><strong>If you think you’ve found a bug</strong>, you can post to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta">Alpha/Beta area</a> in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/reports/">file one on WordPress Trac</a>, where you can also find <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">a list of known bugs</a>.</p>
<p><em>We are almost there<br />
Please test your plugins and themes<br />
RC coming soon<br />
</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 16 Nov 2016 01:51:52 +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:15:"Helen Hou-Sandi";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:44:"Dev Blog: WordCamp US 2017-2018 in Nashville";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4571";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordcamp-us-2017-2018-in-nashville/";s: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:995:"<p><img class="aligncenter" src="https://i0.wp.com/wpdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/27492741871_c6fcebcad3_k-e1479248587522.jpg?resize=632%2C253&ssl=1" /></p>
<p>The title says it all. We had some great applications for cities to host <a href="http://us.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp US</a> after we finish up in Philadelphia this year, and the city chosen for 2017-2018 is <strong>Nashville, Tennessee</strong>.</p>
<p>Based on the other great applications we got I&#8217;m also excited about the pipeline of communities that could host it in future years as WordCamp US travels across the United States and gives us an opportunity to learn and love a new city, as we have with Philadelphia.</p>
<p>By the way, if you haven&#8217;t yet, now is a great time to <a href="https://wordpressdotorg.polldaddy.com/s/wordpress-2016-survey">take the Annual WordPress Survey</a> and ask your friends to as well.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/143951935@N07/27492741871">Photo Credit</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 15 Nov 2016 23:24:17 +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:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"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:"Sun, 18 Dec 2016 08:48:43 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Sun, 18 Dec 2016 08:30:11 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:"20131231022340";}