


<p>So we have, WDS has like WebDevStudios has a starter template. We have Next.js starter. So that&#8217;s a headless thing. All you need is your WordPress, and then you can install that on a locally in your laptop or machine, and then you can just test it out, how it looks, compare the performance and everything.</p>



<p>And also, like other developers and writers have their own stuff. Like Colby Fayock is a popular WordPress developer. He has his own Next.js starter. So you can just simply Google WordPress headless starter, and you can find a lot of starter templates. If you are a developer, go this route or if you are a, you know, site owner or you are just hobbyist, you want to just try or understand a little bit more?</p>



<p>You can still do that reading the resources, right? You can actually check our blog as well. WebDevStudios blog. We have, I would say a couple of headless related stuff. That&#8217;s one of the popular article last year. Why headless WordPress is trending. So you can see why it is trending, what to expect. You can read more details in that blog.</p>



<p>[00:48:40] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you very much. And then finally, just to finish this off. Where could people get in touch with you? Are you available on social media? Maybe an email address? Whatever you&#8217;re comfortable with sharing.</p>



<p>[00:48:50] <strong>Lax Mariappan:</strong> Sure. You can find me on, you know, Lax Mariappan. I&#8217;m on all the social media like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and everywhere you can find me. So you can reach out to me as an email as well, laxman.0903@gmail.com. Anywhere like GitHub everywhere is the same. Luckily I got my name on all the social media, so you can find it.</p>



<p>[00:49:10] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Lax Mariappan, thank you so much for chatting to me today. I really appreciate.</p>



<p>[00:49:16] <strong>Lax Mariappan:</strong> Thanks Nathan. It&#8217;s been great. So I&#8217;ve been listening to WP Tavern Podcast for a while. Especially, I like to catch up with what&#8217;s going on. The new stuff with WordPress. So it&#8217;s good to be on the show,</p>



<p>[00:49:28] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well, you are most welcome. It&#8217;s been a really interesting and informative episode. Cheers.</p>



<p>[00:49:34] <strong>Lax Mariappan:</strong> Cheers. Thank you.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today, we have <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/laxmariappan/">Lax Mariappan</a>.</p>



<p>Lax is a web developer based in the Philippines. He’s an Open Source enthusiast, and lover of all things WordPress. Lax has been tinkering with websites since high school, but it all changed when he discovered WordPress in 2010. Lax currently works as a Backend Engineer at <a href="https://webdevstudios.com/">WebDevStudios</a>.</p>



<p>We talk today about Headless WordPress, and it’s a complex topic. Headless is the concept of decoupling the WordPress admin from the frontend of the site. WordPress will continue to work as expected, but the presentation layer will be done by a different technology. React, Gatsby and Remix being some popular choices.</p>



<p>This implementation of WordPress is complex, requiring technical knowledge above and beyond that needed for a more typical WordPress install, but it has its benefits.</p>



<p>Lax talks through all of this in great detail. How keeping on top of all the additional dependencies Headless WordPress requires can be time consuming. How it can create difficulties for content editors who don’t always get to see what their work will actually look like in real time. Why this approach to WordPress can take more time and resources during the build.</p>



<p>Lax explains how these problems typically crop up, and how it’s possible to plan ahead and build in solutions for all the problems that you might encounter.</p>



<p>If you’ve ever thought about going Headless with WordPress, then the podcast today is for you.</p>



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



<p><a href="https://reactjs.org/">React Library</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.com/">Gatsby</a></p>



<p><a href="https://remix.run/">Remix</a></p>



<p><a href="https://webdevstudios.github.io/nextjs-wordpress-starter/">WebDevStudio Next.js WordPress Starter</a></p>



<p><a href="https://graphql.org/">GraphQL</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.wpgraphql.com/">WPGraphQL</a></p>



<p><a href="https://webdevstudios.com/blog/">WebDevStudio Blog</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.colbyfayock.com/">Colby Fayock&#8217;s website</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 11 Jan 2023 15:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:71:"Do The Woo Community: 95% of Websites Have an Issue with Color Contrast";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=74180";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://dothewoo.io/color-contrast/";s: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:379:"<p>Even just by getting your color contrast right, which is very easy, anyone can do it. You just use a contrast checker.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/color-contrast/">95% of Websites Have an Issue with Color Contrast</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</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, 11 Jan 2023 10:43:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"WPTavern: WordPress Performance Team Working Towards Unbundling Performance Lab 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:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=140668";s:7:"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/wordpress-performance-team-working-towards-unbundling-performance-lab-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:4476:"<p>WordPress&#8217; Performance Team met this week with the express purpose of responding to Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s recent request to stop adding functionality to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/performance-lab/">Performance Lab</a> plugin which could otherwise work as a standalone plugin.</p>



<p>At the end of December 2022, the Performance Team published instructions for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/20/help-us-test-the-sqlite-implementation/">how to test the new SQLite implementation</a>, which was bundled into the Performance Lab plugin as a module. Mullenweg commented on the post, indicating he saw the SQLite functionality as better suited to becoming a standalone community plugin:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Can we please make this its own community&nbsp;plugin, hopefully to become a canonical one, and stop putting additional things like this into Performance Lab — it feels like we’re stuffing things into PL unnecessarily.</p>



<p>In mid-October I have requested that we stop this unnecessary bundling before with&nbsp;<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tweetythierry/">@tweetythierry</a>&nbsp;around WebP, which was put into Performance Lab, so it is disappointing that another large function like SQLite was bundled into Performance Lab plugin.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>In an effort to galvanize a base of testers for upcoming performance features, the Performance Team has leaned towards bundling new performance-related functionality into the plugin. Although they are already developed as self-contained modules so they can be easily extracted as individual plugins, the concern is that their visibility would be greatly reduced. The Performance Lab plugin has more than 30,000 active installs. Any standalone plugin would take time to build up to a user base, whereas functionality added to Performance Lab has an instant audience.</p>



<p>&#8220;Agreed that there are definitely valid use cases for stand alone plugins, remaining mindful of some of the advantages of a single hub plugin such as development/maintenance, adoption, promotion, developer onboarding/contribution etc. which the Performance Lab facilitates well today as a central performance focus community hub plugin,&#8221; Performance Team contributor Thierry Muller <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/20/help-us-test-the-sqlite-implementation/#comment-44231">said</a> in response to the unbundling request.</p>



<p>Muller outlined three different options contributors discussed in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/10/performance-team-meeting-summary-10-january-2023/">this week&#8217;s Performance Team meeting</a>:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<ul>
<li>Option 1: Keep PL as is, but additionally&nbsp;deploy&nbsp;modules as individual plugins</li>



<li>Option 2: Make PL a “wrapper” focused on central infrastructure and recommendation of individual plugins</li>



<li>Option 3: Deprecate PL completely in favor of individual plugins</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>



<p>Option 3 seems to be the least attractive to those who participated in this week&#8217;s discussion, as it introduces more hurdles for discoverability. Performance Team contributor Felix Arntz noted that one benefit of option 1 is the plugin would continue to work as-is for the 30K people who currently have it installed and that option 2 &#8220;would require a complex migration that users likely would not understand.&#8221;</p>



<p>WordPress developer Jonny Harris suggested that having each functionality in its own plugin helps with testing but also asked what defines a module.</p>



<p>&#8220;Would the current Site Health checks all be together, for example?&#8221; Harris asked. &#8220;SQLite and WebP are clearly their own modules, but what about smaller things?&#8221;</p>



<p>Arntz suggested contributors continue the discussion regarding the scope of how the current modules could be distributed as plugins. He suggested every module could become its own plugin where some modules become standalone plugins and others would be grouped together into a few &#8220;topic specific&#8221; plugins. </p>



<p>Contributors are discussing the different approaches in more detail on a GitHub issue and will be <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/618#issuecomment-1377598692">voting on the best approach</a>. The vote will be open until Friday, January 20, 2023. </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, 11 Jan 2023 03:34:14 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:49:"HeroPress: Why small can be just the right choice";s:7:"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=5014";s:7:"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:150:"https://heropress.com/essays/why-small-can-be-just-the-right-choice/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-small-can-be-just-the-right-choice";s: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:7334:"<img width="1024" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/011023-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: WordPress has impacted where we live, who our friends are and which destinations we like to visit." />
Here is Ellen reading her own story aloud.



<p>I feel honoured to write an essay for HeroPress. While thinking about what I should write about, I wanted to make sure it will be helpful to others.</p>



<p>Of course, everyone&#8217;s goals are different. My partner Manuel and I started to create WordPress products, because we saw the opportunity to build a small business and keep it a business we both felt comfortable to work in over the years. And that&#8217;s what we did. We love to travel and searched for a way to live the nomad lifestyle long before the term was even a thing. We travelled and worked on our blog and themes. And don&#8217;t get me wrong, it was not easy in the beginning. We had to build an audience first, so we wrote blog posts about everything we learned while keeping financially afloat with small client projects. We put endless hours of work into our blog, before even dreaming of one day earning income just with our themes. But we loved every minute of it. </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>We worked from Thailand, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, and we felt creative and free. </p>
</blockquote>



<p>We went to WordCamps and creative conferences along the way and met so many new people with similar values and goals.</p>



<p>Having these experiences formed our way of thinking about the way we wanted to work moving forward. The benefits of being a small team of two seemed so obvious to us. We could make decisions fast and react to new trends without asking anyone for permission. As long as we built something others liked, we would always be ok. So that&#8217;s what we focused on. We built one theme after the other and loved the creative freedom this work gave us. The positive feedback and listening to the stories our customers shared on how our themes helped them reach their goals kept us going.</p>



<h2 id="h-living-abroad">Living abroad</h2>



<p>As we could work remotely from any location. We didn&#8217;t need an office or a local team. Keeping our business so flexible allowed us to move from Germany to New Zealand in 2015. After about two years working towards it, we were able to apply for a business visa and eventually for permanent residency four years later. Living away from family is never easy, but the opportunity to live in another country surely teaches us so many valuable lessons we would never want to miss. It&#8217;s a true gift, all made possible by our small WordPress business.</p>



<h2 id="h-reacting-to-changes">Reacting to changes</h2>



<p>Fast-forward to 2018 and the WordCamp Tokyo, where we first got the chance to dig deeper into the Gutenberg project during contributor day. We knew changes were coming, and we needed to react with our business. Even before, we felt that building one theme after the other felt a bit tiresome and not like the most effective way for WordPress users to build their site design. We were never convinced by the page builder solutions, as it just seemed too bloated and untrue to WordPress core to bring a wow effect to us. We love to keep things flexible and minimal, and adding an entire framework on top of WordPress never felt like a great idea to us.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>So here comes this Gutenberg thing, a promise to a more flexible, component based way of creating designs for WordPress. </p>
</blockquote>



<p>We felt like this is meant to be for us. So once home from the WordCamp we started to build blocks and explore how this new WordPress would work. We did not realize back then how big these changes would become and how much it would impact our work and our business.</p>



<p>But it felt good to build something new and to try to find a better solution to offer for our theme customers. We struggled to gain footage for quite some time, as there were just so many new technical things to figure out and so much was unclear. But we still never doubted that we are on the right track, as with every new release the opportunities seem to get better and more stable.</p>



<p>And just now we are just about to relaunch our business websites with a brand-new block theme that is solely built with our blocks, WooCommerce blocks and WordPress core blocks. It finally feels like all the work comes together and themes and the Gutenberg project are ready to be merged into one and released for production.</p>



<h2 id="h-opportunity-to-pivot">Opportunity to pivot</h2>



<p>During all these changes, we had the time to think about the future of our WordPress business and what we want our road ahead to look like. Many others around us have sold their independent businesses or took a job at one of the big WordPress businesses. I feel like it&#8217;s also a natural path of WordPress and all of us growing up.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>For us, we feel like we are just getting started again, finally having found a way to have fun creating for WordPress again. </p>
</blockquote>



<p>Building one of our last classic themes, we felt like we had lost the fun in designing for WordPress. We felt like themes were stuck, being either too inflexible and or way too bloated to be any good. It felt like we were trying to build, squeeze out a solution into a product that technically was never meant to be this way.</p>



<p>Block themes, the site editor, patterns, and blocks come as a chance for us to do it better. It&#8217;s a big shift and a difficult project to pull off, for sure. WordPress is used by so many people in so many ways. But block themes make WordPress lighter, and they don&#8217;t stand in the way of other add-ons as much as classic themes felt they were. It&#8217;s amazing how we can take all the components apart and mix and match them together. There are still missing pieces, but we are getting there.</p>



<p>For us, we are taking this shift that we are sort of making together with WordPress, as an opportunity to make things better. We always felt like we wanted to offer more support and help to our customers. But we never found the time. So with our upcoming relaunch, we are taking the chance to change that. We will offer new services and are exploring more ways to offer our customers what they actually need. It feels like a breath of fresh air to us, and we haven’t had so much fun with WordPress in a long time.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>It&#8217;s funny, who would have thought that a piece of software can impact your life in such a big way. </p>
</blockquote>



<p>WordPress has impacted where we live, who our friends are and which destinations we like to visit. We feel more open-minded because of WordPress, we believe in the power of open source projects and we believe that a group of people from all over the world can build something meaningful together.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/why-small-can-be-just-the-right-choice/">Why small can be just the right choice</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, 11 Jan 2023 01:15:30 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Ellen Bauer";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:63:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress is Turning 20: Let’s Celebrate!";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=14155";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/01/wordpress-is-turning-20-lets-celebrate/";s: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:1474:"<p>2023 marks the 20th year of WordPress. Where would we all be without WordPress? Just think of that! While many technologies, software stacks, and fashion trends have come and gone throughout the past two decades, WordPress has thrived. This is due to the fantastic work and contributions of the WordPress community, comprised of thousands of contributors; and millions of users who have embraced the <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/">four freedoms of WordPress</a> and the mission to democratize publishing.</p>



<p>Let’s celebrate!</p>



<p>Throughout the beginning of 2023, leading up to the official anniversary date of WordPress’s launch (May 27, 2003), a number of different events will celebrate this important milestone, reflect on the journey, and look toward the future.</p>



<p>Please join in!</p>



<p>Over the next few months, be sure to check WordPress’s official social media accounts along with the <a href="https://wp20.wordpress.net/">official anniversary website</a> for updates on how you can be involved in this exciting celebration by contributing content, collecting cool anniversary swag, and much more. </p>



<p>Use the hashtag <strong>#WP20</strong> on social media so the community can follow along.</p>



<p>If you have something planned to celebrate that you would like to be considered for inclusion on the official website, please <a href="https://forms.gle/my1yknAJYZ4jFLb79">use this form to share the details</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, 10 Jan 2023 21:38:49 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Dan Soschin";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:88:"Do The Woo Community: WooCommerce, Payments and Crypto with Keala Gaines and Dave Lockie";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=74249";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:52:"https://dothewoo.io/woocommerce-payments-and-crypto/";s: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:416:"<p>Keala Gaines from WooCommerce and Dave Lockie from Automattic chat about the relationship between WooCommerce and Crypto.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/woocommerce-payments-and-crypto/">WooCommerce, Payments and Crypto with Keala Gaines and Dave Lockie</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</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, 10 Jan 2023 10:11:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:85:"WPTavern: Gutenberg Times to Host Webinar on How to Use New WordPress Layout Features";s:7:"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:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=140874";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-times-to-host-webinar-on-how-to-use-new-wordpress-layout-features";s: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:4790:"<p><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/">Gutenberg Times</a> will be hosting a live Q&amp;A webinar titled &#8220;Layout, Layout, Layout&#8221; on January 11, 2023, at 05:00 PM in <a href="javascript:;">Eastern Time (US and Canada)</a> via Zoom. This event is open to WordPress users of all experience levels who are interested to learn more about how to use WordPress&#8217; layout features when building sites with blocks. </p>



<p>Host Birgit Pauli-Haack will be joined by WordPress veterans Isabel Brison, Andrew Serong, and Justin Tadlock. Brison will be demonstrating different layout scenarios during the presentation, and attendees will be able to participate with questions. </p>



<p>Any user who has attempted to layout a design in WordPress has likely tried out container blocks that offer layout settings. These blocks include Columns, the Cover block, and the generic Group block.</p>



<p>The event will cover how to manipulate layouts by defining the width of post content, arranging blocks horizontally or vertically, right or left aligned, and inside container blocks. </p>



<p>&#8220;In terms of block styling, Layout is a complex feature because it affects child blocks in ways that go beyond CSS inheritance,&#8221; Pauli-Haack said. </p>



<p>WordPress 6.1 introduced more layout controls and flexibility in the block editor, but Pauli-Haack said the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/10/updated-editor-layout-support-in-6-1-after-refactor/">dev note on updated layout support</a> was written more for developers.</p>



<p>&#8220;Feedback from users through the FSE program and other connections revealed that handling the layout settings for container blocks is not particularly intuitive and takes some trial and error to find the right combination,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The Live Q &amp; A will bring a better understanding to users and #nocode site builders.&#8221;</p>



<p>When Pauli-Haack started the Live Q &amp; A&#8217;s in 2018, she routinely brought in guests who were building the block editor, with the intention of having users meet them and discuss features like full-site editing, block themes, case studies, and discuss challenges. </p>



<p>&#8220;Since then, quite a few initiatives of the official WordPress project have come to life,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There is the highly successful Full Site Editing outreach program, spearheaded by Anne McCarthy, who now holds regular Hallway Hangouts with community members and contributors.&#8221; </p>



<p>People are also learning the ins and outs of site editing through the efforts of the training team, which began creating courses and lesson plans and hosting workshops on Meetup.com in 2021. These are also recorded and uploaded to WordPress.tv and YouTube. WordPress.org also <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-launches-developer-blog-in-beta">launched a blog for developers</a> in November 2022. With all these new learning opportunities, Pauli-Haack is changing the focus for her live events.</p>



<p>&#8220;For the Gutenberg Times Live Q &amp; As, I am now looking at topics and discussions about more complex concepts, more case studies, and technology on the cutting edge,&#8221; she said. Most recently, the show <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/live-q-a-block-first-approach-at-pew-research-center/">featured the developers and digital strategies of the Pew Research Center</a>, a high profile site that was built with a block-first approach.</p>



<p>&#8220;We are also in planning phase to hold a Live Q &amp; A with the developers of GiveWP who are using Gutenberg as a framework to build the next generation of their popular donations plugin with the components and scripts that Gutenberg uses, but outside the post or site editor,&#8221; Pauli-Haack said.</p>



<p>She also has another Live Q &amp; A planned with the WordPress VIP design team that works on design systems for companies that need a streamlined way to stay within their design standards. Pauli-Haack intends to talk with them about a plugin they created that lets designers automatically create a website&#8217;s theme.json file with all the styling pulled directly from Figma designs.</p>



<p>The upcoming Layouts webinar is free but attendees need to <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7616700808432/WN_IG_fXjzCQymTk62cV9_ocw">register</a> to get the zoom link. An archive of all the <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/live-q-a-archive/">past Live Q &amp; A events</a> is available on the Gutenberg Times website. The best way to stay informed about future events is to <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/subscribe/">subscribe</a> to Gutenberg Times&#8217; Weekend Edition, as subscribers get an early invitation for the next Live Q &amp; A&#8217;s.</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, 10 Jan 2023 03:37:42 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:23:"Matt: State of the Word";s:7:"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=75018";s:7:"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:42:"https://ma.tt/2023/01/state-of-the-word-2/";s: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:365:"<p>A few weeks ago, but what feels like a lifetime ago, I was in New York City with a few dozen extra special people from around the WordPress world. Alongside <a href="https://josepha.blog/">Josepha</a> and the community we presented this review of how WordPress did in 2022, and vision for what&#8217;s coming:</p>



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

</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, 09 Jan 2023 23:25:18 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"Post Status: Support Inclusion in Tech with Winstina Hughes — Post Status Draft 136";s:7:"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://poststatus.com/?p=146189";s:7:"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://poststatus.com/support-inclusion-in-tech-with-winstina-hughes-post-status-draft-136/";s: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:52731:"<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-group eplus-wrapper has-theme-palette-2-color has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-text-color has-background"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container"><div class="wp-block-post-excerpt"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt">In this episode, <a href="https://twitter.com/planningwrite?lang=en">Winstina Hughes</a> joins Cory Miller to talk about the  <a href="https://supportinclusionintech.com/">Support Inclusion in Tech</a> project created to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion in the WordPress community by providing assistance to WordCamp speakers for travel and hotels. </p></div>


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



<p class="yoast-reading-time__wrapper"><span class="yoast-reading-time__icon"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__spacer"></span><span class="yoast-reading-time__descriptive-text">Estimated reading time:  </span><span class="yoast-reading-time__reading-time">59</span><span class="yoast-reading-time__time-unit"> minutes</span></p>
</div></div>







<p><a href="https://poststatus.com/planet/feed/#h-transcript">Transcript</a> ↓</p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/planningwrite?lang=en">Winstina Hughes</a>&nbsp; is a long-term community member and organizer within WordPress. She joins Cory Miller to discuss <a href="https://supportinclusionintech.com/">Support Inclusion in Tech</a>, an effort to increase representation of minority and underrepresented speakers at WordCamp by providing needed financial support. This offers everyone in the WordPress community the chance to share their expertise and contribute resources so everyone has the opportunity to engage.</p>



<p><strong>Top Takeaways:</strong></p>



<ul>
<li><strong>Creativity is our common bond. </strong>WordPress is the playground where we all came to tinker and build for fun or business. It is the software magic where we discover what new things we can do each day, how to make ideas become reality, and how we might leverage what we learn to create a better world.</li>



<li><strong>Ripple effect of inclusion: </strong>When you provide the ability for a large group of people to participate, travel, and network, the impact extends beyond the WordPress community to create the bigger changes we want to see in the world. This is our community magic.</li>



<li><strong>Fifth Freedom in WordPress</strong>: We are all familiar with The Four Freedoms of WordPress. This is the 5th &#8211; full participation. Removing the financial barrier will bring us closer to the reality of being a truly inclusive community.</li>
</ul>



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

</div>



<div class="is-layout-flex wp-container-42 wp-block-columns sponsor has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background" id="Gravity-Forms">
<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column">
<h3><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> Episode Partner: <a href="https://poststat.us/gravity">Gravity Forms</a></h3>



<p><strong><a href="https://poststat.us/gravity">Gravity Forms</a></strong> is a powerful form builder for WordPress and the #1 choice for businesses and web professionals across the globe. Its vast array of features, intuitive drag-and-drop form editor, and extensive ecosystem of add-ons, ensure customers can design beautiful, intelligent, and accessible forms for any project requirement.</p>
</div>



<div class="is-layout-flow wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center"><div class="wp-block-image cloudways-logo">
<a href="https://poststat.us/gravity"><img width="392" height="299" src="https://cdn.poststatus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/gravity-forms-logo-stacked.png" alt="Gravity Forms" class="wp-image-88956" title="Cloudways Logo" /></a><a href="https://poststat.us/gravity">Gravity Forms</a></div></div>
</div>



<h3 class="eplus-wrapper" id="h-mentioned-in-the-show"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f517.png" alt="🔗" class="wp-smiley" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://supportinclusionintech.com/">SUPPORT INCLUSION IN TECH</a></li>



<li><a href="https://twitter.com/sbruner">Steve Bruner</a> </li>



<li><a href="https://twitter.com/kcristiano">Kevin Cristiano</a> </li>



<li><a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp </a></li>



<li><a href="https://twitter.com/WPNYC">WPNYC</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.wordprowiz.com/">WordPro </a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.sustainablejersey.com/">Sustainable New Jersey</a> </li>



<li><a href="https://buddypress.org/">BuddyPress</a> </li>



<li><a href="https://www.godaddy.com/">GoDaddy </a></li>



<li><a href="https://yoast.com/">Yoast</a> </li>



<li><a href="https://masterwp.com/">Master WP</a> </li>
</ul>



<h3 class="eplus-wrapper" id="h-you-can-follow-post-status-and-our-guests-on-twitter"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f426.png" alt="🐦" class="wp-smiley" /> You can follow Post Status and our guests on Twitter:</h3>



<ul class="eplus-wrapper">
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/planningwrite?lang=en">Winstina Hughes</a> </li>



<li><a href="https://twitter.com/corymiller303">Cory Miller</a> (CEO, <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status">Post Status</a>)</li>



<li><a href="https://twitter.com/lemonadecode">Olivia Bisset</a> (Intern, <a href="https://twitter.com/post_status">Post Status</a>)</li>
</ul>



<p class="eplus-wrapper has-background">The <strong>Post Status Draft</strong> podcast is geared toward WordPress professionals, with interviews, news, and deep analysis. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f4dd.png" alt="📝" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><br /><a href="https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Browse our archives</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe via <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">YouTube</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stitcher</a>, <a href="https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Simplecast</a>, or <a href="https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P">RSS</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h2 class="eplus-wrapper" id="h-transcript">Transcript</h2>



<p>Welcome to back to Post Status draft. I'm with a good friend of mine when Winstina hughes. I met with Winstina a couple years ago in the post status community. We've got to meet in person, talk numerous times, and, um, I'm excited about what we're gonna be talking about here. Um, she's got a new, a project called support inclusion in tech.com and we're gonna dive into that today.</p>



<p>But, uh, hi, Winstina. Hi. And pumped to finally have you on,</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> I'm excited to be with you.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Could you tell us what you do in WordPress?</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> Okay. Um, What do I do in WordPress? every time I speak with, you know, every time I have one of these, um, you know, opportunities to speak with someone in the community, I end up like re repeating the question.</p>



<p>Um, cuz it really helps me. I am a community member, um, and I'm also, you know, a, an organizer, um, a meetup organizer and a board camp organizer. I started, um, going to [00:01:00] meetups in New York City and I transitioned into, Speaking, um, at Word Camp, New York City, and then I was invited to become a meetup organizer.</p>



<p>And so, um, my, you know, my participation in the community was, um, you know, like in the early, um, you know, 2010s. And then around 2015, 2016, um, I started, you know, speaking at, at New York City, and then I became an organizer. I meet up organizer. In 2018, I led my first word camp and my only word, camp , hundred twenties, um, a budget of 120,000, a team of 18.</p>



<p>Uh, it was an amazing experience. They were wonderful people and it was. Really tiring .</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Yeah. You know, over the years, Winstina, I've had so many dear friends that have been Word Camp organizers and really I go, oh my God, I love you so much because of what you're doing for the community. But I also go, I hope you [00:02:00] still like word this afterwards because it's a such a labor of love that I think, um, so often we don't really give the credit and thanks to the people, That do this voluntarily.</p>



<p>Yeah, like you're talking about all the stuff you're done. So anyway, I wanna say thank you because I've said it so many times to dear friends over the years going, thank you for what you're doing. I've always shied away from it because it's so much work and I see all the passion and energy that you and other organizers have and I'm really thankful cuz I think that is so critical to the entire community to have these, and now we're talking in 2022.</p>



<p>But we hear WordCamps are back. You and I got to see each other in San Diego at Word Camp US. Yes, yes, yes. So</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> anyway, so Word, word camp Us. I was a co-organizer for Word Camp US this year. Um, and so yeah, you're right. Like we had a chance to teach other again there, and that was like, yay. That was awesome.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> It was, yeah.[00:03:00]</p>



<p>Yeah. A absolutely. Well, okay, so what drew you to, okay, how did you start with WordPress? Were you using WordPress for, uh, your own website, somebody else's website? How'd you get started with the actual software?</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> So I started with WordPress in 2006, 2007. Um, I had a college course that was . Yeah, I, I had a college course.</p>



<p>Um, and our professor required us to add, um, you know, the work that we'd done, uh, into a wordpress.com blog. Um, it was a geographic information systems class. And, uh, we were looking at public health data at the census block level. Um, and so we were actually, you know, looking to see. You know, where, um, there were instances of like, um, I don't wanna say disease, but you know, like different illnesses.</p>



<p>And so what what's really interesting is that you can, that schools get access to that data and you can actually like, You can [00:04:00] essentially imagine, and I don't wanna go too far deep into it, but imagine you have like, you know, Google Maps, right? And like when you have Google Maps open, you can do street view.</p>



<p>So Google Maps lets you like go from that whole, um, like that map into like street view where you jump in as a person. So, uh, this data essentially took you away from just the geographic element, um, and the typography and like really. The census, you know, track level, like essentially, um, you know, looking at neighborhoods and, you know, the instances of disease in those neighborhoods.</p>



<p>And so he, you know, he gave that to us as our final assignment. Um, you know, we did some like, uh, some heat mapping to show where there were greater concentrations of a particular type of illness, , right. Um, or, um, you know, disease or, you know, Uh, I'm not exactly sure like what, what we [00:05:00] were calling it, but that's what our assignment was.</p>



<p>And, uh, he asked us to, you know, take like a picture of the map and to post it in wordpress.com and that's how it all started with that , with that assignment. Um, so we were you.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> We were using WordPress at the same time. That's the same year I started with WordPress when you started. I did not know you went that, that far back with WordPress.</p>



<p>So I love that. Uh, yeah, I do. Thank you. And then you said like in 2010 you started actually, uh, getting involved with community events. And this is relevant to us talking about support, inclusion and tech. So what drew you to start participating in volunteering and contributing to WordPress?</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> So I went to New York City Meetups, um, and, uh, WordPress, New York City, uh, is the one that's in closest proximity to where I lived.</p>



<p>I could just take the train in. Um, and it was, it was great. Like I, I really felt, um, that the community there was, was [00:06:00] open, like the organizers were open and, and they were welcoming. Um, Dana, rendy, uh, those were organizers at the time, Steve Bruner, who was an organizer. Was he is the organizer, , he started it and he's, he's kept it, you know, um, really like strong, like, since its inception.</p>



<p>Um, and so like just going to these events and meeting these, these like wonderful generous people, these kind people, um, you know, meeting Kevin Cre, Christiana there as well. Um, and you know, just that environ. Was what led me to continue attending events. Um, and they really encouraged me to submit a talk to speak at New York City, um, ward Camp, New York City.</p>



<p>And I submitted a talk to speak there and, you know, since that time I've been more engaged in. Event organizing component, [00:07:00] um, or part of the community. So it moved beyond just, you know, um, Like learning, you know, to use Word Pro, you know, building sites and breaking them, uh, the best, right? Yeah. Like, that's the best way.</p>



<p>That's the only way you can really learn. I mean, I, I started, you know, with different hosting plans, I've had like four or five, like I have multiple domains. Like I think when you're in our space, you got a chance to really create. And, um, and that's what I was able to do and what I'm able to continue doing, and.</p>



<p>Now moved from just creating and building with WordPress to assisting with supporting, you know, our community through events like meetups and, uh, word camp organizing and supporting inclusion in tech is, is an extension of, um, of this work, this contribution that I've been doing. It, it, it pieces together so many different elements that I've come to, like I've come to see and I've come to understand [00:08:00] and. It's, it's a solution that I propose to, um, some current challenges that, um, I've heard being expressed. Yeah,</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> I, uh, I wanna scroll back for a second and say that when you're talking about create, I sometimes it, for as long as you and I have been in WordPress sometimes forget that magic of being able to create something on the web or in the, in the world.</p>



<p>See this cool tool called WordPress, so I appreciate that. I think that's what we rally around in the WordPress community and particularly to post status is helping build tools and projects and things on top of this magical thing we call WordPress. So that was a, when you said create, I was like, it's just little tingle of magic came up of that's, that's why we, I think that's our common bond in</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> WordPress.</p>



<p>I agree. I agree. And I think that, uh, when we create as community members, um, and not necessarily [00:09:00] just as. Business owners or, or, um, you know, those who are providing like services. That's a component of creating. But, you know, in the middle of doing all that, I think, you know, I mean, I like to sit down and just literally play and see, you know, what could I do with it today?</p>



<p>and, um, I entered a com competition, um, held by Sustainable New Jersey, um, right around the time I completed graduate school. And there were municipalities that were seeking, um, solutions for challenges that they had. And there was the city of East Orange and they wanted like a marketplace, um, and a place for their planning department to, you know, add their documents and also something for their green team.</p>



<p>And when I saw this, I was like, I could use WordPress and e-commerce. So I created like a WooCommerce marketplace for them to sell, you know, for residents that would sell their products and services. And I demoed it. Um, and then I also had a website and also a Buddy press site. Um, and the buddy press site would be for their green team members.</p>



<p>And I think that [00:10:00] like, when, when we create with WordPress, like we're able to like see like, you know, These asks and really apply like our knowledge of what we know the c m s can do and then provide a solution. And the city was actually really happy with the solution. Um, and I made it to the finals of the competition.</p>



<p>Um, but there was another, uh, but there were other teams that that won it. Um, but it was, it was really exciting to show what WordPress, you know, software and what WooCommerce can. Uh, that's the</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> dream. Um, that, that's so awesome. Thank you for sharing that backstory. As much as we've talked and stuff, I haven't got the chance to ask those questions and, um, it's a good reminder for me about, you know, I think if you go long enough in the community, you start to, well, I, I'll say I start to.</p>



<p>Forget some of these nuances, [00:11:00] like being able to go, here's a project idea, this could be done in WordPress, you know? And that the tools are mostly freely available. Yes. And you can start and build something online.</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> Exactly. Yeah. You just, you know, download . Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> So that leads me to support inclusion and tech. And you mentioned you saw a problem or problems and challenges in our community that you wanted to help make some a solution to toward it that became support, inclusion and tech. But can you talk about that a little bit? Cause I know my, my understanding and you continue to help me expand my understanding of all this is it's not just one particular country with DEI, it's a global thing. But could you talk a little bit about the problems and challenges that you saw in the space.</p>



<p>Okay.</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> Absolutely. Um, absolutely. So I, you know, really wanna, like, I wanna hold true to like, um, to how [00:12:00] I, um, shared it on my website. Um, but really the backstory is that. There was a conversation that erupted on Twitter, um, about the need for more diversity on Word Camp, um, organizing teams. And this started, uh, due to, um, you know, uh, some, some thoughts that were expressed about Word Camp Europe, uh, where WordCamp Europe's organizing team, um, not being.</p>



<p>Very reflective, um, of, you know, more ethnicities or a wider range of them. Um, it was a really difficult conversation that was happening. And my take on it really is that it's not where camp you're specific, right? Like, I mean, let's, you know, let's really step back and think about the fact that, you know, there's so many ethnicities around the world that have a ch [00:13:00] like it's really.</p>



<p>When you're in the minority as a group, Really up to the group that's in the majority to weave you into those experiences and those opportunities. Um, and when that doesn't happen, then you have groups that don't have an opportunity to be, to participate and to be involved and, you know, support inclusion and tech.</p>



<p>I mean, considering this was a conversation about word camps and our participation in them. Support, inclusion and tech really seeks to assist us in solving the challenge of, um, not having as much, you know, ethnic or, um, or just diverse representation within the Word camp experience. It doesn't seek to, you know, um, it doesn't, it doesn't seek, you know, to like solve, um, Like these, you know, the world that we [00:14:00] live in.</p>



<p>And it doesn't seek to solve like, um, you know, diversity and inclusion outside of the WordPress space. Um, but I believe that in, in providing these, um, these opportunities within our community, since we're so large, that the ripple effects can extend well beyond the WordPress community. I believe that when you, Absolut.</p>



<p>When you provide such a large group of people, the ability to, um, to participate in work camps, um, the ability to travel to them, the ability to network to them with, when you attend, um, the ability to like, you know, seek, um, you know, out more relationships, friendships, professional relationships. Then there's this ripple that extends outside of our community and I think.</p>



<p>That level of empowerment can extend outside of WordPress and those ripples can assist us in diversity inclusion beyond, [00:15:00] um, you know, our, our involvement in WordPress. But you know, this, this particular solution is intended to solve the challenge that I saw, you know, um, being expressed, you know, within our community.</p>



<p>And so the thought is really, Since, you know, since there's a take on it. And there's, it's a, I mean, it's an, it's an honest one, right? We don't see enough people of color. We don't see, um, enough, you know, people of, um, other minority groups, um, you know, uh, from other parts of the world. Um, You know, we are seeing an equal, more equal balance of, um, men and women.</p>



<p>Uh, you know, but when it extends beyond that into like, you know, more representation in terms of like, you know, a wide range of religions, which ties to ethnicity often. Um, and when you're looking at representation in terms of those of us who, um, have like neuro [00:16:00] diversion, you know, um, you know, like, uh, characteristics and those of us who, um, you know, who we choose to love, , you know, the what society, um, you know, asks of us , right?</p>



<p>Like, and um, and when we choose to hold true to that or when we're dealing with the physical limitations, um, that, you know, that we were born with or when we're in minority. Groups, you know, that have a harder time, you know, uh, receiving opportunities, um, to participate and to increase, you know, their reach and even, um, you know, the professional opportunities that are available to them.</p>



<p>You know, like this. What can we do to, um, to really like solve. To solve that. Mm-hmm. And I thought, what could I do within our community Yep. To, you know, to integrate, you know, like all of those of us who are, um, Either, you know, disadvantaged [00:17:00] or not as represented into WordPress programming and support, inclusion and tech, um, seeks to, you know, take away that financial barrier, which I believe is really what, you know, can limit our participation.</p>



<p>We want to participate, we want to speak, but if we can't afford to speak , right? I mean, if we can't afford to travel to the conference and if we can't afford a place to stay at the conference, um, then. Like, why would we even think to apply to speak at the conference? Right? Like,</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> yeah. That's, that's really beautiful, Winston, because, um, there's a couple of takeaways I, I got from this.</p>



<p>Number one is, I, I've always believed, um, at least in my world, that WordPress has been. The, an inclusive place, ever growing inclusive community. That's like a mirror to my world, the way I want my physical world here in Oklahoma to be. And I have [00:18:00] so much learned from our community leadership, uh, over the years, um, that there's a cons.</p>



<p>Consistent push and drive from the entire community and the leadership to be truly diverse, truly inclusive in all those words. And I, I learn a lot from this. Um, so the mirror I, and I do think WordPress is, our community is so powerful cuz we're distributed all over the world. So if we make change in our community, in our WordPress, That should be, that should be reflected.</p>



<p>And I think that's another, we talked about the software magic. This is the community magic. Exactly. Uh, the other thing is, I, I love and I respect because I try to take too much on that, you said, Hey, here's something I'm passionate about, being an organizer, being at these community events, how special and valuable they are to you and other people instead.</p>



<p>I'm gonna make this dent first. Yeah. Like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take on this aspect first. You. Beautifully and clearly [00:19:00] shared. This is the thing I'm trying to take on in this bigger, bigger, um, change that you wanna see. We wanna see in the world. Thank you. Okay, so we've got this now we've got a website. Um, you've got a website up to kind of share this.</p>



<p>Now. Take me through, if you would, I am, pretend for a second you're talking to someone that is in an underrepresented, uh, in, in tech. Of, um, situation. Mm-hmm. , how's the process to, to get on the, Hey, I want to go to these WordCamps. I want to speak, but I do need some assistance. What does that process look like for, for support inclusion and tech?</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> So support, inclusion and tech. Um, also weaves into other initiatives in order to, to assist our speakers. Um, and so when you're accepted, support inclusion tech, it become, moves into the position to, to assist you once you're accepted into [00:20:00] Word Camp. Um, as soon as you get that, you know, acceptance, you know, go to https://supportinclusionintech.com/.</p>



<p>Um, and you're simply just, you know, gonna put in the word camp that you were accepted in. And then there are two components, um, in addition that they're suggested , right? Like you're encouraged to do this. Um, you know, uh, we're in the community of consent and so, um, you have, you know, um, You're gonna give, you know, the consent to be included in these other initiatives, um, you're not gonna be forced into it.</p>



<p>Uh, there's underrepresented in tech and there's also the WordPress diversity, speaker channel. Um, both of those, uh, are ways of. Further supporting diversity and inclusion and representation within the WordPress space and creating, you know, um, you know, successful opportunities for us to, um, to, you know, to put together great speaker applications and then to also, um, you know, move beyond just submitting [00:21:00] them. Um, but to being accepted.</p>



<p>The, the ask is that, you know, once you've been accepted to camp and you're starting the process of, you know, receiving funding through supporting inclusion and tech, that you also participate in those other two initiatives as well. Um, because you know, in the process of doing that, it's further supporting the work that we're doing in the WordPress community. Exactly as you said, Corey, that, you know, the word WordPress leadership already has been putting in, um, you know, the work to, you know, to assist us in resolving the challenges that face society as a whole. And so there are initiatives that currently exist and those two in particular, I think.</p>



<p>You know, are ways that we can continue to support underrepresented minority groups in the WordPress community. Um, and so in the process of, you know, uh, applying for the funding, uh, you're encouraged to, you know, to list yourself on underrepresented tech to join the, um, the, the diversity speaker channel [00:22:00] on make WordPress.</p>



<p>Um, and then once you've just put on, put that information in and you've identified the type of support that you're seeking, um, you just like, and it starts from there. Like I start, um, you know, pairing you with, you know, with a partner that you know can, can step in and provide, you know, the funding for you.</p>



<p>And so, you know, they're gonna cover your travel and they're gonna cover your hotel. Um, and that way in order for you to participate, you're not going to be paying anything really that you know, out of pocket. For that participation, um, in that WordCamp. And that's really the goal. Um, the goal is to remove the financial barrier to your participation.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Yeah, that's fantastic. By the way, I wanted to sidebar for a second and say underrepresented in tech, uh, by Allie and Michelle Frechette. If, if you're listening to this and, uh, you also as a be becoming a member of underrepresented in tech, get a free [00:23:00] uh, professional membership at post status?</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> Yes. Yes. I started, I and let's not also forget too, that like there are other opportunities as well as Post Status has been, um, you know, looking into as ways of increasing, you know, diversity and representation within the Post Status community. Um, so underrepresented tech and that membership, and I know that there's some other ways that you're working on it too, Corey.</p>



<p>Um, you know, I think, I think when we can pull all our efforts together. We have a stronger community. Um, and you are, you know, you're, you're offering that and then supporting inclusion and tech, you know, encouraging, you know, speakers to, to register and to participate in those two other programs. Strengthen all our efforts. Yes. Um, and, and that's, you know, that's the process of it. And so once you've submitted, you know, your. once you submitted that form, you know, just letting me know, like the speaker registration that you're seeking, the [00:24:00] support. Um, you're also gonna complete the blind directory listing and that blind directory really.</p>



<p>That Blind directory listing has the word camp that you'll be speaking at. Um, and it has the type of support that you're seeking, whether it's just beach travel or hotel, or both, and that's it. Um, no one in the community, um, you know, needs to know who you are. They don't need to know what your need is. Um, they don't need to know where you come from.</p>



<p>And they don't need to know what makes you underrepresented and what makes you a diverse speaker. Uh, it's simply a way for, um, for companies that are considering sponsoring to see that the need does exist. And it's also a way for our community to see that the need does exist, um, and that we do have members that are seeking the support.</p>



<p>Um, that, that blind directory listing is, is just a way, you know, for our community to see that, um, that our need is there. Um, yeah, and it's also a way of, um, uh, [00:25:00] keeping everyone up to date on the work that's happening.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> So I know we'll have two asks. The first ask is if, um, you need assistance, want assistance to go to a WordCamp to be sure to go to supportinclusionintech.com?</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> Yes. Once you've been accepted, go to supportinclusionintech.com. Complete the form for speaker registration, and you'll, um, you'll be paired currently, um, with four companies, uh, that, um, that have partnered to work on this.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> That comes to our second ask. Yeah, that's right. Okay. So tell me how, um, now this is very relevant for post status because we're a bunch of professional and business members in our community.</p>



<p>So the second ask is, we need someone, one, participants, people that need and want assistance go and speak at Word Camps. And the second part of this is the sponsors and partners. Can you tell me a little bit more, more about that and [00:26:00] how that.</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> Okay, so starting off, partners are sponsors, , um, partners are the first, um, you know, companies that expressed an interest in supporting this project.</p>



<p>Um, you know, this initiative. Uh, and so like that is my way of thanking you, um, by, you know, by acknowledging. that you came into this, um, wholehearted and opened armed. And so thank you to the four companies, um, that have done this, uh, that have stepped forward to say that they will support. Um, you know, it was really exciting once the call went out, um, from Word Camp US that they were seeking, uh, support for underrepresented.</p>



<p>Speakers. It was really exciting because Master wp, um, stepped in at that time, you know, to say that they thought that this was a great project. And, you know, they're the fourth company they joined, um, GoDaddy, Post Status, and Yoast, um, you know, the original three that said that, you know, that they would love to support this initiative.</p>



<p>And so, um, now we have, [00:27:00] we have four of them and there are also several companies as well that are providing in-kind donations. Um, and, you know, they're doing so, makes it possible for support, inclusion and tech, um, you know, to, to function, right? Because like, you have the website and then there are all these different like plugins that make it functional and make it possible, you know, for, um, for, for it to run and function the way that we need to.</p>



<p>Um, so if your company that wants to. Sponsor speakers, you know, you just have to go to the site. Um, there is a section there for you to register your support, um, your register, your desire to support. It'll ask you, um, you know, to provide, you know, like a contact. Um, it'll ask you the type of, uh, How you want to provide this support.</p>



<p>Um, would you prefer to reimburse speakers for their expenses or are you, um, ready and, you know, willing and able to pay for their, um, their travel and their hotel in advance of their trip? [00:28:00] Um, so, you know, once you've identified your contact, you know, your contact is the type of support that you want to provide, you know, then, you know, we'll have an opportunity, I'll have an opportunity, you know, to really. Sit down with you and for us to have a conversation about like, you know what would be your process, you know, what would make it easy or for you to be a part of this initiative? Um, this isn't a cookie cutter means of support for, for companies, because you're all different.</p>



<p>Um, how GoDaddy, you know, is providing support is different from how Post Status is providing support is different from how Yoss is providing support. And it's different from, you know, how, um, Master WP is and, uh, When I started this, and I, you know, I, and I wrote on my blog, like, really this proposal on https://winstinahughes.com/.</p>



<p>I went into it, um, you know, with the understanding, personal understanding is that it's gonna [00:29:00] take a couple years to understand the needs of our community and the ways, you know, companies and our ecosystem can support these needs. And in the last six months, Exactly what I, you know, anticipated, um, is what I've been able to, you know, to, to see.</p>



<p>And, you know, currently, um, there have been three, you know, requests, um, for, you know, to participate, you know, um, for funding, for support, for camps and, um, two unique, you know, individuals have, have made those requests. Um, and you know, so right now it's a question of. You know, like assisting them, you know, with the process of how, you know, our four partners, you know, can support them in that way.</p>



<p>Um, and I think that answers part of your question. Um, the second part of the question is like, so how is this financial component gonna work? Right? [00:30:00] Like, are companies giving me money? No, you're not , like, I'm not receiving, you know, um, any of the money. Is the financial support that you're providing. Um, instead it's looking at your company's processes, um, you know, your, your financial processes, your accounting processes for you to, you know, step back and think like, how could we as a company provide this level of support?</p>



<p>Um, you know, it could be that you already have an existing program. Yoast already has a diversity fund. Um, and so Yoast partnering with me is a way of, um, you know, kind of bringing the need that exists to them as well. Um, and so therefore they're able to like further serve the community, um, you know, through those who are expressing an interest through support inclusion and tech.</p>



<p>Um, the way Post Status, you know, is seeking the support speakers too, is different from Yoast. Um, and, you know, uh, [00:31:00] Yoast has a budget, um, and.</p>



<p>Has their own system and their own ways of support. Um, and so they also have a budget and then Master wp, they also have a budget. And so once that budget has been met, then you know the partners essentially gray out for that year. Um, and they become active the next year. Um, and so. , that is a way of making this sustainable.</p>



<p>You know, you, you pledge how much you can support, um, speakers financially, and once that has been met, then your, I mean, your capacity for the year is, is, is met. And then next year, once you've reallocated your budget, or not re reallocated, but once you've defined, you know, your budget, um, for the year, then you would go, you know, back into the process of supporting [00:32:00] speaker.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> And I wanted to say from personal experience here, that there's many way, there's, there's creative ways to support these speakers, uh, to go, you know, uh, you, you talked about hotel and flights. Yeah. And, um, I, I wanna, I wanted to say that one standard to say this is not an unapproachable. Opportunity to support d uh, diversity inclusion in tech.</p>



<p>Um, this is very manageable for most members at Post Status, by the way. So, you know, flight costs, uh, depending on where it is in the world. Um, I think the first question you asked me was, what's your budget? Yeah. And that's a great way. So as you come in and click sponsor, just be thinking of these things with when st for how you can.</p>



<p>Help support this amazing project. Um, and that there's creative ways to do that. And I, I think Winstina, most members, business members at Post Status can make a meaningful contribution in this way [00:33:00] through this, your project here. And I love the fact also, I know we talked about this too, you wanted to be real careful.</p>



<p>You wanna say you want the support to go to the person as best as possible. A lot of nonprofits have overhead. You have graciously generated your time and your talent to this project, and I, I, I love the way you've done it too, even though I go, gosh, Winston, I love that you have this passion. Um, but thank you so much for this.</p>



<p>But I know you give of your own time. For this particular project, but as you talk to Ena, if you're listening to this now, there's creative options and ENA is so good at helping you, helping understand where you're at, and then pair it with people that need assistance.</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> Thank you. Yes, and that is, that is the goal.</p>



<p>In terms of my contribution to the WordPress community, burnout is so real and because of the fact that I work full-time outside of the WordPress space, the WordPress ecosystem, um, I'm really [00:34:00] cognizant of the fact that I need to perform well. And at a high level , right? Uhhuh , um, at work, you know, and in my personal life.</p>



<p>And WordPress fits into, um, you know, into that. And so I've been able to contribute in different capacities since I was in college and. Graduate school, first attending in college, um, or post-college in graduate school, moving into speaking and organizing, um, and now working, you know, professionally maintaining, you know, organizing as a meetup organizer and a WordCamp organizer, and understanding that this can really lead to burnout.</p>



<p>You know, um, my ultimate decision is, you know, that for the next two years, I'm not gonna be a WordCamp speaker, and I'm also not gonna be a. Organizer, you know, this, these are the ways that I can, you know, I can continue to contribute. I can contribute through support, inclusion and tech. Um, you know, but really pair, pair down all the other ways that I could burn out.</p>



<p>[00:35:00] And so by maintaining, Being a New York City meetup organizer and hosting at least a minimum of six meet meetups a year, and, um, really pivoting and concentrating my energy towards support, inclusion and tech. I can sustainably contribute to the community. And so this is a perfect opportunity to really share with you, um, that, you know, I want to meet with every speaker.</p>



<p>You know, that expresses the interest for support. So as you submit your, you know, your speaker registration and you join the directory listing, I will, um, you know, I'll ask to meet with you, for us to have a conversation, for me to understand your needs and to share. what it is I understand and I've learned over time, and also how our partners seek to support.</p>



<p>So we'll have that conversation. It's gonna be on the weekend. I hope you graciously incorporate that into your schedule. Um, because, you know, I, I work during the week, [00:36:00] um, and so, you know, we'll meet once. Uh, hopefully within a week or two of your registering as soon as possible. Especially it's, it's, it's ideal, uh, not ideal.</p>



<p>It's encouraged to register as soon as possible, um, because the closer you get to your ward camp, you're gonna. Most likely, um, be reimbursed if you apply much sooner, like a, like two or three months in advance. You know, there are companies that will be able to, you know, cover your, your, your costs, um, of participation in advance of your trip.</p>



<p>If you are reaching out like three to two. You know, to the time of, of your support that the time that you need, then you're looking at being reimbursed for your expenses. And so like, you know, that's, that's something to, to keep in mind when it comes to registering, you know, for this is that companies will be able to assist you with removing this.</p>



<p>It just might be [00:37:00] later. When your need is expressed closer to the time that you're speaking that it's more, it'll be a reimbursement instead. Um, and so that's something to keep in mind, the timing in which you submit your interest, and also the fact that, um, you know, that we'll be meeting on a weekend. Um, there's this speaker that just registered and he wanted to meet with me.</p>



<p>Um, On Christmas, he's in another part of the world. I mean, you know, like, so yeah. Um, and so I just, you know, I just like, I think when, and I had a con, you know, I just like responded and let him know that it's, it's Christmas for me. I'm, you know, I'm a Christian and I'm so celebrating my holiday today. Um, you know, and, you know, like, uh, let's, let's meet next week.</p>



<p>Um, so, you know, uh, we'll have like, you know, we'll have these conversations and we'll, we'll see. And you know how. Um, you know, how you and I can, can have that conversation and [00:38:00] meet and how your need can be met. And I'll also meet with, you know, companies that wanna sponsor as well. And I wanna tell you, I want you to tell me what's realistic for you.</p>



<p>Um, I want just, just to, just to give you a sense of how some of the companies are. In fact, um, you have, uh, of the four partner. You have one partner who seeks to provide support, um, you know, within the us. Um, as of our last conversation, you know, the desire is to support minority speakers, um, specifically people of color, um, specifically, you know, black Americans, um, to improve or those of black descent to improve, um, their numbers.</p>



<p>WordCamps in the US. Um, our last conversation was, you know, this is the direction that they wanna go. This is the greatest impact that they think that they can achieve. Um, and [00:39:00] I'm, I'm so glad that I get to listen to what everyone. Hopes to do, you know? Um, because it gives me a sense too that our community is really thinking through, like, this is how we're gonna solve it, right?</p>



<p>Like, this is how we're gonna make the dent that we wanna see. So this company already knows this is how we're gonna make the dent that we wanna see. And there, there. Process too, is that they're just gonna give you a blanket amount of money and they're not gonna micromanage how it is you spend it. Um, they just simply ask, you know, that you, not simply, the requirement is that you put it towards your WordCamp experience and that's where they are with it.</p>



<p>Um, there's, you know, another company host of course, has an established diversity fund and they have processes already in place for the support. And so you're simply gonna go through the existing process that, um, Yoast has established and they have a generous fund. Um, and their support, um, is something [00:40:00] that they've been offering the support for a long time, and they're very, um, they're really respected , you know, for that effort.</p>



<p>And, um, I've had an opportunity to like, you know, to speak with someone who has been a part of their support in the past or received it and they speak so highly of, of Yoast um, and that's, you know, Yoast has already thought it through and they've already walked through. You know, Corey and I, you and I have spoken about, you know, the budget, you know, that you're, that post status is set aside and, and you've already shared.</p>



<p>You know, what is the need? Like, we're not micromanaging, right? Like, let us know what type of support that you need, and we're just gonna provide that to you. Um, and so like you're, you are already thinking about like, how can we make this happen? Like, you know, if you need to, you know, it's a flight, you know, wherever it is.</p>



<p>It doesn't have to be domestic, right? Like, it doesn't have to be in the us it could be anywhere in the world. Um, and, and that's, you know, that's like, [00:41:00] Post Status is thinking, and then GoDaddy is currently working through their process. Um, and I do believe that because of the fact that they have teams around the world that GoDaddy's reach will also be of, um, I think GoDaddy's reach will also extend beyond like the domestic, you know, like within the US and they'll be able to provide support as well toward camps.</p>



<p>you know, around the world. I'm anticipating it's possible that, um, GoDaddy's like impact could, you know, be especially strong with, um, Uh, WordCamps, like Word Camp Asia or Word Camp US or Word Camp Europe. Um, you know, because they'll have team members there and when they have team members there that can help facilitate and smooth the process over for, for those that they're going to be supporting, but they're working through their processes to make this established as well.</p>



<p>And so I think [00:42:00] that, you know, just by me sharing that, you can tell that, you know, each of, you know, my partners are, are working within. Um, you know, like their business processes and their financial processes and also their vision for impact. Um, and I think that's really important.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> So to recap, here's what I've heard.</p>



<p>So support inclusion and tech.com is the bridge between those that want have the desire to share their exper experience and expertise at word camps, but need some financial assistance to get their flights and hotel. That's what f support inclusion and tech.com does. Second, as a participant, as someone.</p>



<p>Um, if you first need to apply and get, uh, approved to speak at work camp, then come to support inclusion and tech.com and, um, sign up, have a conversation.</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> Mm-hmm. , once you've been approved.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Have a conversation with we, Tina. [00:43:00] And then third, the third recap is our ask for, um, well buzzer asked in our community.</p>



<p>Uh, if you're looking to speak to Word Camp, go to support inclu or go apply, get approved, come to support inclusion in tech. And then second for those businesses out there. You know, you have a heart, you wanna support this. That's our community. That's who WordPress is. Uh, go to support inclusion and tech.</p>



<p>Click on the sponsor link and have a conversation with ena. Think about your budget. Think about what you wanna do, uh, when Cena is so creative in helping just make these connections happen so you can really make a difference in our community. Did I get it all right?</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> You did. You did get it right And, okay.</p>



<p>And I think that support inclusion tech also. It goes through vetting process as well to confirm that those who are seeking assistance, you know, to participate actually have been accepted. And that's why, that's why the steps are what they are. Um, partners aren't gonna [00:44:00] question, oh, is this need real? You know, that vetting is gonna happen in advance.</p>



<p>So when you receive a speaker interest, You know that this is someone who has been accepted a Word camp, and they understand the process and they're working within, you know, your, your policies and your procedures, um, in order for them to participate. So it removes all those questions. Um, you know, so that and that, yeah, that's a part of it.</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> Well, Winston, my friend, thank you so much for this important work, uh, holding the banner up. I know this takes a lot of time. I know you've got a full-time gig. I know you've got a life</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> more,</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> um, But I so much appreciate you post. I just appreciate you, our members do for doing this vitally important work and making a difference in our world that can, like we said, can be a reflection in all these thousands of communities we go out to, to say, how can I be more inclusive?</p>



<p>[00:45:00] How can I make sure everybody is represented as at least an opportunity to be represented? So I really appreciate you, <strong>Winstina</strong>, and your work and also just ringing the bell with me and teaching me and sharing, um, how we can make, make that difference. So I appreciate. Thanks for being. I'm thanks for being on.</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> Sorry. No, no. I mean, I absolutely, like, this gives me life and it makes me wanna show up in the world, you know, different and energy. I wanna exercise more like , you know, like this is, this is, this is really in a lot of ways just like giving me energy to contribute. And so, um, to like, just to be able to like, work with you, you're, you're, you know, I'm, I think you're awesome</p>



<p>You know that, ditto. You're, you have a beautiful family. You know, like your energy is like, you have such great energy and so just a chance to work with you and like the amazing people that I've had a chance to, it, it just, it gives me life and it makes me want to live more, you know? So like, let's, let's [00:46:00] see what we can do to continue to support our community so that the four freedoms, you know, I think that it's, , it's creating a fifth freedom, which is, you know, for all of us to be able to participate in a truly inclusive, um, community.</p>



<p>And, you know, that speaks a lot to what the co-founders of WordPress. I think, um, you know, what, what they created and, and where they want, um, what their vision is and, you know, from their vision where we're, um, going and or how we're evolving as a community. I mean, to have 40% plus of a reach on the.</p>



<p>There's so many people around the world that are impacted by this project, you know? So, um, yeah, I love</p>



<p><strong>Cory Miller:</strong> that. Let's, let's add the fifth Freedom. I love that win. Coined by Win, and I love that leadership vision for our community. We need it. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. You have a good rest of your year and we'll see you in the next year.</p>



<p>For everybody listening, thanks for listening. Tune in, go to support inclusion in [00:47:00] tech.com, and also Winstina Hughes is in our post Slack community. So you can go at Wednesday and you can ping her and, um, get the conversation started there. So thank you, Eena.</p>



<p><strong>Winstina Hughes:</strong> Thank you. Thank you, Brent.</p>
<p>This article was published at Post Status — the community for WordPress professionals.</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, 09 Jan 2023 19:17:12 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Olivia Bisset";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:59:"Do The Woo Community: Do the Woo is Headed to WordCamp Asia";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=74283";s:7:"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://dothewoo.io/do-the-woo-is-headed-to-wordcamp-asia/";s: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:373:"<p>We are looking forward to attending WordCamp Asia and also are proud to be a media partner this year.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/do-the-woo-is-headed-to-wordcamp-asia/">Do the Woo is Headed to WordCamp Asia</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</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, 09 Jan 2023 10:19:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:99:"Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog #78 -State of the Word, WordPress 6.2, Gutenberg 14.8 and 14.9";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?post_type=podcast&p=23141";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:114:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-78-state-of-the-word-wordpress-6-2-gutenberg-14-8-and-14-9/";s: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:41325:"<p>Birgit Pauli-Haack and Hector Prieto talked State of the Word, Gutenberg releases 14.8 and 14.9, WordPress 6.2 and beyond.&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-69-gutenberg-releases-wordpress-6-0-1-the-create-block-theme/#shownotes">Show Notes</a> / <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-69-gutenberg-releases-wordpress-6-0-1-the-create-block-theme/#transcript">Transcript</a></p>



<ul>
<li>Music:&nbsp;<a href="https://soundcloud.com/xirclebox">Homer Gaines</a></li>



<li>Editor:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-reed/">Sandy Reed</a></li>



<li>Logo:&nbsp;<a href="https://markuraine.com/">Mark Uraine</a></li>



<li>Production:&nbsp;<a href="https://icodeforapurpose.com">Birgit Pauli-Haack</a></li>
</ul>



<p class="has-larger-font-size" id="shownotes"><strong>Show Notes</strong></p>



<h2>State of the Word</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2022/12/30/matt-mullenweg-state-of-the-word-2022/">Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/12/state-of-the-word-2022-recap/">State of the Word 2022: A Celebration of the Four Freedoms of Open Source</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2022/12/episode-45-state-of-the-word-reflections/">Episode 45:<strong> </strong>State of the Word Reflections</a></li>



<li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/design-system-bridge-to-wordpress-fonts-management-playground-and-more-weekend-edition-239/#1-state-of-the-word">GT 239: State of the Word</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/">Pew Research Center</a></li>



<li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/live-q-a-block-first-approach-at-pew-research-center/">Live Q &amp; A: Block-First Approach at Pew Research Center</a></li>
</ul>



<h2>Gutenberg Times Live Q &amp; A </h2>



<p><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7616700808432/WN_IG_fXjzCQymTk62cV9_ocw">Gutenberg Times Live Q &amp; A: January 11th at 5 pm ET / 22:00 UTC Layout, Layout, Layout.</a></p>



<p><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2023/session/layout-layout-layout/">Isabel Brison’s talk at WordCamp Asia</a></p>



<h2>WordPress and Gutenberg Releases</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/27/wordpress-6-2-planning-schedule-proposal/">WordPress 6.2 Planning Schedule Proposal</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/22/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-8-21-december/">What’s new in Gutenberg 14.8? (21 December)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-14-8-overhauls-site-editor-interface-adds-style-book">Gutenberg 14.8 Overhauls Site Editor Interface, Adds Style Book</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-9-4-january/">What’s new in Gutenberg 14.9? (4 January)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-14-9s-new-magic-push-block-changes-to-global-styles">Gutenberg 14.9’s New Magic: Push Block Changes to Global Styles</a></li>
</ul>



<p class="has-large-font-size">Stay in Touch</p>



<div class="wp-block-group is-layout-flow"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<ul>
<li>Did you like this episode? <a href="https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog"><strong>Please write us a review </strong></a></li>



<li>Ping us on Twitter or send DMs with questions. <a href="https://twitter.com/gutenbergtimes">@gutenbergtimes </a>and <a href="https://twitter.com/bph">@bph</a>.</li>



<li><em>If you have questions or suggestions, or news you want us to include, send them to <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. </em></li>



<li><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></li>
</ul>
</div></div>



<p class="has-large-font-size" id="transcript"><strong>Transcript</strong></p>



<p> </p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Hello, and welcome to the 78th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast. In this first episode of 2023, I wish all our listeners a wonderful, happy, prosperous and healthy new year. In today&#8217;s episode, we will talk about Gutenberg releases 14.8, 14.9, WordPress 6.2 and beyond. I&#8217;m your host, Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times and WordPress developer advocate, a full-time contributor to WordPress Open Source project. My guest today is Hector Prieto, full-time contributor on the WordPress Core team, coordinating multiple WordPress and Gutenberg releases. And it&#8217;s a great pleasure to finally have you on the show, Hector. Having a conversation about Gutenberg and WordPress with you is a wonderful way for me to start this new year. Happy New Year, feliz año nuevo, Hector. How are you today?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Happy New Year. Hi, Birgit. I&#8217;m excited to join you on the podcast. It&#8217;s my pleasure.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh, the pleasure is really all mine. Where are you right now? Did you have a great holiday break?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: I&#8217;m currently in Alicante in Spain, very close to the Mediterranean Sea. And today we have a lovely sunny winter day with nearly 20 degrees Celsius. I had a few days to recharge and spend time with the family. What about you, did you enjoy your holidays?</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Well, that&#8217;s some warm weather there in Alicante. I would love to have that. But here in Florida it&#8217;s balmy, too. It&#8217;s about 27 degrees, so we are in the air conditioning right now. Yes, my husband and I, we spent the week in Mexico City between Christmas and New Year&#8217;s. We saw some great art, powerful murals from the &#8217;50s and &#8217;70s and &#8217;60s. And we had fantastic food and a fabulous New Year&#8217;s event. It was great, at a restaurant over the roofs of Mexico City, so we really liked it.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Wow, sounds really nice.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Well, Hector, as you are the first time on the show, maybe you can share briefly with our listeners your WordPress origin story. When did you come across WordPress the first time and what do you work on now?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Well, my first time working with WordPress was around 2015 when I worked at the startup agency building sites. However, it wasn&#8217;t until 2020 that I first moved into the contributor space, and here we are. I am currently sponsored by Automattic to work full-time in Core in project management-related duties and supporting the development of WordPress.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: That&#8217;s wonderful. Well, thank you. So 2015, that&#8217;s just about two years before Gutenberg was introduced into the community. Did you, at your agency, have Gutenberg on the radar already, or did you heed the call to learn JavaScript deeply?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: It wasn&#8217;t until 2018 that we started using Gutenberg for the first time, when it was first released in 5.0.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Then the time between learning about WordPress and then starting contributing, that&#8217;s about five years. That&#8217;s pretty much the time that it took me to really embrace the contributing on WordPress, but I started at the Community Project in 2014.&nbsp;</p>



<h3><strong>Announcements</strong></h3>



<p>All right, so there are a few announcements that were happening since the last podcast episode. If you haven&#8217;t watched it yet, the recording of Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s State of the Word is available on WordPress TV. The transcript and answers to the questions that didn&#8217;t make it into the recording can be read on the follow-up post, State of the Word Reflections. Josepha Haden Chomphosy kicked off the State of the Word with a reminder on the four freedoms of WordPress, that you are free to run the program, you&#8217;re free to study and change the code, you&#8217;re free to distribute your code and also redistribute WordPress.</p>



<p>She also recorded a separate WP briefing with her reflections in episode 45, State of the Word Reflections in which she highlights, among other things, learn WordPress, that 12,000 students actually went through the courses and the workshops already since the inception. And she also highlighted the WordPress Playground, which is a tool to run WordPress in the browser. You don&#8217;t need a server, you don&#8217;t need a database. You can run it in the browser and test plugins and themes. I think that changes how we approach some of the discovery for WordPress. We talked about it on the show here as well, but it&#8217;s definitely something that will have so many ramifications in the WordPress space later on when it&#8217;s still very raw and very not production ready. It&#8217;s just an idea that has already a proof of concept. And then the recap posts from the community are linked in the Gutenberg Weekend Edition 239 from December 17th, and you can check it out from there.</p>



<p>I also have a side note that the Pew Research Center received a shoutout for the politology quiz that they built with blocks and had one million people already taking it. Seth Rubenstein is the lead developer and was a guest on a Gutenberg Times Live Q&amp;A last year. And he gave a great demonstration about their team&#8217;s work with the block editor, so as they went for the Gutenberg first approach building the website. The recording is available on the Gutenberg Times YouTube channel, and also we have a post here on the Gutenberg Times website as well. So as always, all these links are in the show notes of the 78th episode. So Hector, do you have any comments on this? What is your most exciting topic from the State of the Word? You had a few takeaways?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Yeah, there were a handful of them. I would actually highlight everything, starting with WordPress Playground. It&#8217;s such amazing technology and it&#8217;s going to open so many doors. But if I had to pick something, maybe for me because it is the thing I&#8217;m the closest to, it was a great recap about the progress WordPress made in the site editing front during the last year, to the point nowadays we can create themes directly in the editor just with blocks and patterns. This brings us very close to wrapping phase two and starting exploration around phase three in 2023. So it&#8217;s great to see that all these progress.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, you&#8217;re right, you&#8217;re right. And it&#8217;s been such a long journey as well. I look back at some of the history on the Gutenberg Times and the Gutenberg podcasts, and we first started talking about full-site editing in January of 2020. That was even pre-pandemic, and we had quite a few developers on our live Q&amp;A talking about the first concepts about that. So now, three years later, it&#8217;s almost finished and it&#8217;s really cool. There are still some things to be done, but I am really excited about the start of phase three of collaboration and I have been constantly trying to unify all the various tools and methods and interfaces to streamline my workflow to produce content for the web. And if I don&#8217;t have to use multiple tools to collaborate with people, I will have arrived on internet nirvana. Yeah, it&#8217;s a high calling of course, but yeah, we are all in a space where we could maybe make it happen. So I&#8217;m really excited about that.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Yeah. Also, it&#8217;s worth noting that even when we move to phase three and we can call a wrap on phase two, phase two will not be fully finished because there&#8217;s always going to be things to do related to site editing improvements, new tools. So I can see contributors working in new features for phase three and also iterating on phase two items. Another big takeaway for me during State of the Word was seeing how much Gutenberg itself has matured. And it&#8217;s now been used in more projects such as Tumblr, bbPress, and even in some mobile apps like Day One. Also, let&#8217;s not forget how WordCamps have made a comeback after COVID hit and stopped all the in-person events. And we went from one single WordCamp in 2021 to up to 22 in the last year, in 2022. That&#8217;s amazing.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, that&#8217;s a nice iteration of the numbers. 22 WordCamps in &#8217;22.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Exactly. Especially since the community is what makes WordPress what it is, it&#8217;s the most important part of WordPress. So that&#8217;s really good to see.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Absolutely. Having the first WordPress in-person event in WordCamp Europe, I realized how much I missed interacting with everybody else in the community and seeing new faces and interacting with old friends. I looked up the number of WordCamps that were done in 2019, in-person WordCamps, and there were 148, or 145, something like that. So there is quite a bit of time to go between 22 to 142 or something like that.</p>



<p>But it&#8217;s coming back especially because all those WordPress meetups, the local meetups, are all coming back as well. I think there was a note in the State of the Word that out of the 500, 260 have already come back to in-person events. And we know that WordPress meetups are actually the prerequisite to actually have local WordCamp organizers together to organize a WordCamp. So yeah, it&#8217;s all coming back and I&#8217;m glad that it&#8217;s coming back because of the connection that you have in the community. Yeah.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: As I mentioned earlier, I came to the contributing space in 2020. It was during the pandemic, so actually my first WordCamp was the only WordCamp in 2021. And my second WordCamp was for computer ware in last year. So it was really nice and refreshing for me to meet all the other contributors. It is something special, for sure.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Absolutely, yeah. It was great to meet you, Hector, although we had so many meetings with people on Zoom. Yeah.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Fun times.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Well, circling back to State of the Word, I would also like to point out that, last but not least, it&#8217;s really cool to see how Openverse has grown since joined WordPress about a year and a half ago. And I&#8217;m super excited to see that coming, Openverse integration in WordPress that will allow users to directly search and add images from Openverse into their WordPress site without leaving the editor at all. That&#8217;s super cool.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, that&#8217;s super cool. And I think it would also be really cool to have that also go back to if somebody uploads an image to WordPress and checks the check mark, also put it into Openverse. I think that part would really make it to a 360 kind of integration. I also love that there&#8217;s not only for images, but there is a lot of audio already uploaded to the Openverse that you can use on podcasts or on videos, and add free without having to think about royalties and buying for it and all that. Yeah, so free to the community.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: There&#8217;s so many possibilities there. The future is exciting.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, it&#8217;s really exciting. And I&#8217;m glad that it&#8217;s all happening in conjunction with WordPress. The same with the WordPress photos library, where people can just upload their photos and have it be it in the public domain and make it available to the broader community. It&#8217;s really cool.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Yeah.</p>



<h3><strong>WordPress 6.2</strong></h3>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: All right. So between Christmas and New Year&#8217;s, Hector, you published the release schedule proposal for 6.2. I think it was something we were all waiting for. Kind of, okay, how do we plan first quarter when we don&#8217;t know when the release is coming? So you provided. So if the release team concurs, what&#8217;s the plan? When will we see the first Beta?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: If the proposed plan is approved, the first Beta release will be on February 7th, which is 10 days before the first of our WordCamp Asia takes place.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Excellent. In the planning schedule, you also have a call for contributors to volunteer for the release squad. So if you, dear listeners, are inclined to take part in it and you already have a little experience in contributing, throw your hat in the ring by commenting on the release post on the scheduled proposal post. And also throw your hat in the ring also means for those who English is their second language, also means raise your hand, you want to volunteer to be part of it, and then the release team is coming together. When do you expect that you will have a final plan?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: The call for volunteers is open as we speak. Considering the end of the year vacation people are taking, contributors taking, I think we won&#8217;t have anything until end of next week or the following one. We&#8217;re leaving some extra time for people to come back from the holidays and chime in.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: All right. Okay. Yeah, so there are only two more Gutenberg releases before the feature freeze, if I calculate that correctly. We better get started in reviewing all the great new features that are coming in, in a more consolidated way.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Definitely. I encourage all of our listeners to start testing and giving feedback. It&#8217;s always super helpful. Also, compared to the past releases, the proposed 6.2 schedule both include a fourth Beta release compared to the previous three ones to leave some extra buffer time between WordCamp Asia and release candidate one, which will be on March 7th for a final release on March 28th.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh, okay. Yeah, so contributor day at WordCamp Asia is definitely going to be part of it and that is really cool to have. Maybe we need to organize some tables that do some testing there. I don&#8217;t know how far the work of Asia contributor day team is about that, but having that plan definitely gives us all focus on that contributor day. All right, cool. So to repeat that, final release could be March 28th, so that&#8217;s about three months from today. And we will have a 6.2 release, provided everything works out as we anticipate now.</p>



<p>And I have a reminder for our listeners now for next week. The Gutenberg Times Live Q&amp;A, Layout, Layout Layout will be happening on January 11th at 5:00 PM Eastern. That&#8217;s 22:00 UTC. And in this show, Isabel Brison, Andrew Serong, Justin Tadlock and I will discuss the opportunities and challenges for all the layout features for site builders. And we will be available for questions and answer them.</p>



<p>And Isabel Brison will also give us a demo of the various layout scenarios to use. She has, with Andrew, been instrumental in building all the features into the site editor and the blocks, and it&#8217;s going to be a very interesting show. It&#8217;s also going to be a little preview on Isabel Brison&#8217;s talk at WordCamp Asia in February 2023. So join us, link us in the show notes, and don&#8217;t forget you need to register there and to be&#8230; We will have a recording, of course, with the show notes and as well as a transcript, but it&#8217;s always good to have your questions answered live by the experts on the panel, and we have some great experts there.&nbsp;</p>



<h3><strong>What’s Released</strong></h3>



<p>So, that brings us to the latest Gutenberg releases. First, there&#8217;s Gutenberg 14.8. That was released in December 12th. Ryan Welcher was release lead and it had 167 PRs merged by 42 contributors, five of which were first contributors. So welcome to the project, first contributors. So Hector, what&#8217;s the most significant enhancement in this release?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Well, Gutenberg 14.8, so several changes to the site editor user interface, and introduce something I&#8217;m super excited about, which is browse mode. Thanks to this first iteration of browse mode, users can switch between editing and browsing modes in the site editor, making it much easier to navigate through templates and template parts or even add new ones through the sidebar. It&#8217;s a feature that has been long awaited and it&#8217;s finally here and I&#8217;m super excited.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And it helps you with where you land when you click on the site editor. You are now not landing into editing your homepage and so now you have a better entrance into the site editor. And I really like that because it gets you better settled into what you&#8217;re going to do.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: It makes for a nicer onboarding and it&#8217;s less dangerous, let&#8217;s say, because it&#8217;s much more difficult to break your design just as soon as you land on the site editor.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, totally. So the navigation block also had some enhancements, especially with the migration from the old menu. So if you have a location primary, it will now fall back to the navigation menu from the classic menu. That is really helpful on the transition. There are other fallback updates made that it also uses the most recently created menu from the classic theme when you start migrating to a block theme.</p>



<h3><strong>Enhancements</strong></h3>



<p>So that is definitely a good help for transitioning from a classic theme to a block theme. But also it kind of decreases the mental load that you don&#8217;t have to recreate all your menus when you switch out the theme, which is something that was sometimes really critical in the classic menu, in the classic theme space, where everybody had different menu locations. And so I don&#8217;t think that it&#8217;s completely solved yet, but this is definitely a first step.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Yes, it&#8217;s a step on the right direction. We all know building menus is one of the most challenging aspects of building your site. And contributors are making a huge step for making the menu building process much easier.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. There&#8217;s also one that came with 14.8 that is for the query block. The parent block is they removed the color block support just because it was always clashing up against the other blocks that are in the query block for the post template for the title and the excerpt. You could kind of get lost in which color did we do, and where do we do that? So removing it from the wrapper query block is definitely a good choice because it removes some of that confusion of where colors are actually set.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Exactly. Contributors have seen a few inconsistencies when adding the color to the wrapper query block, between the title, between the navigation links. So now the colors block supports are all in the inner blocks and there&#8217;s no space for confusion.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: So what else do we see there? Yeah, I think that was it on the 14.8 release, on the highlights. There are certainly the sidebar tabs for the navigation blocks. There is great work on the experimentation that happened. So right now we have five areas of experimentation in the Gutenberg plugin and there is only two more freeze, two more releases to get them out of experimentation into the production of the Gutenberg plugin. One of them is the sidebar for the navigation block. The other one is the separated settings tab in the sidebar that separates the styles from the features. And then the others, I don&#8217;t recall right now. Hang on, I&#8217;m going to check them out. I just had it there and then I closed my browser because, I don&#8217;t know, sometimes I just randomly close browser tabs, which is a really good way to confuse myself.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: The type interface is making good progress and it&#8217;s something we would likely see out of experimental very soon.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh, yeah. And then is the global styles for custom CSS is actually in&#8230; We all wait for that, but it&#8217;s now in the experimental stage and need to be switched on through experiments menu item on the Gutenberg plugin. And then the other one is the color randomizer utility that lets you mix the current color palette randomly and change it out. That&#8217;s kind of a funky way of handling your website to do a randomized color palette, but it certainly is a proof of concept of something bigger. Was there anything else in the 14.8 you want to mention, Hector?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Well, there are a few other main highlights that you might have seen, our listeners might have seen in the release post. One of them is super interesting, which is the custom CSS rules for your site. There&#8217;s now a tiny CSS text field where you can add your custom CSS directly in the editor. As we all know, with great power comes responsibility. So it&#8217;s nice that you can add a custom CSS directly in the editor, but let&#8217;s not overuse the important.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, that&#8217;s definitely a way to&#8230; But that was before, so site editors or site users or site owners who used the custom CSS piece found that that was the missing piece to actually sign on to the full site editing, because they couldn&#8217;t do those very fast changes like changing a font size somewhere or changing a space somewhere or change the color of a border very easily by just using the developer tools, identifying the marker, the selector, and then just change the color in a custom CSS. Yeah, it opens up the capabilities for that.</p>



<p>You need definitely have file editing capabilities on the server and that sometimes was not available to anybody. But those who used it, they really missed it in the file site editing, in the site editing features, so that is really a good thing. And there is also a&#8230; It&#8217;s not yet released and it&#8217;s not merged yet in, but I know that Carolina Nymark is actually working on custom CSS for single blocks. And I think that&#8217;s also a good way to, in the paradigm of getting atomic design going, that that&#8217;s probably a better approach than having custom CSS being pulled in for every site page or page with the custom CSS. Rather do it per block.</p>



<p>Either way, it&#8217;s kind of a interesting feature that people want to have some control or at least go back to that what they are used to do and figure out how they can change it. Well, that definitely was a changelog of 14.8. I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;ve forgotten anything. I think we, in the release post by Ryan, it was a reorganized&#8230;. Oh, the style book is definitely something that was in 4.8. We haven&#8217;t talked about it. So do you want to talk about it, what that does?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Oh yeah, definitely. The style book is a super cool new feature, which is extension of the style site editor. The style book in a nutshell gives you an overview of all the available blocks you have in a single place so that you can easily browse all the blocks you have available and play with their design.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: When Gutenberg first came out, there were quite a few initiatives where you could have a unit test for blocks, where I think Rich Tabor actually had a plugin and I also worked with some of our clients back then when that we had a list of all the blocks in a page and then looked at it, how the theme works with it. And that was kind of a block unit testing in design. And with the additional features that come with site editing, it was a hard time to figure out what is a change in color on the paragraph block will have additional ramification throughout the site, or when you change style variations.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;m really glad that the style book, that&#8217;s a menu item in the site editor. You can go there and then see all the blocks that you have. And you get an access to the style variations of your theme so you can select them and then see how the blocks change. And that is so powerful that you don&#8217;t have this save and surprise effect anymore. You really look at it and say, &#8220;Oh yeah, I like it.&#8221; And you also see where the style variations may not be entirely working for your site because there are some things that are left out. So this is so powerful for the experience with the block editor.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: For our listeners to picture it in their mind, it&#8217;s like having a page with demo content with all the blocks. You have it registered either core blocks or third party blocks. So as soon as you install it, applying that provides blocks, all these third party blocks will appear in the style book. And you will be able to see all of them together, play with the global styles, play with the accelerations, and see how they affect all these first party and third party blocks in a single place as if you have demo content page but automatically generated for you.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. So it really offsets the need for these block unit testings and it&#8217;s very, very powerful. Yeah, I so agree. I think we&#8217;ve got it all now. Let&#8217;s move on to the next release, which was 14.9. And it has at the time of this recording not been released, but it will come out any hour now. For those who use the Gutenberg plugin on their sites, it&#8217;s the first Gutenberg release for 2023. 132 PRs by 46 contributors. Again, five new contributors in there. Congrats for your merge of your PR, and welcome to the project. Thank you so much for your contributions, for all of them.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: It&#8217;s refreshing to see all these new contributors, even in these more maintenance oriented releases that happen during holidays. So congratulations to you all, and welcome.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: What are the highlights? What did you see, or what&#8217;s in the release?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: There are a few changes. They&#8217;re mostly iterative, building on top of past features and enhancements. One of them, one very cool, is a new push to global styles button that appears in the cyber blocks, which allows users to, once they edit the blocks&#8217; style and they like it and they say, &#8220;Hey, I like this how this is looking or how this image is looking. I would like all my image blocks to look like this.&#8221; It allows them to push those styles to global styles so that they automatically affect all the blocks of that type.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Right. And that&#8217;s also why it&#8217;s good to have this style book handy so you can actually see if you made a mistake or something like that and said, &#8220;Oh no, I didn&#8217;t consider this, so let&#8217;s do one more time.&#8221; Yeah. So that&#8217;s a great feature. Yeah, absolutely.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Also, for those who like building patterns, now when registering patterns, there&#8217;s a new property that allows you to specify in which template a pattern makes sense. Let&#8217;s suppose, for example, we are building a 404 pattern. Previously it would be released everywhere, so it would appear everywhere in all kinds of templates. Now you can limit it to only appear on a 404 template, so it doesn&#8217;t bring noise to other templates where it doesn&#8217;t make sense. So this is going to improve pattern discoverability in general as patterns.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: And it also improves separation of concerns. As you said, it will not show up on every page where even if it&#8217;s not suitable for the pattern. But it also themes can then, or plugin can now create custom post types and that all, and just make those patterns available for certain custom post types. I think that is definitely a missing piece that has now been added to it. Excellent. Yeah, I&#8217;m really excited about that.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Yes, there&#8217;s a minor update following up on Gutenberg 14.5. So we are thinking, we&#8217;re looking at two months ago, three months ago, when the list view and the document outline were merged in a single panel. We have seen there are a few improvements that can be made in the design. So now, for example, the word count has been moved to the top of the outline for more clarity.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, there was some confusion. Where is it now? Yeah. And then you didn&#8217;t see it at first because when you hit on update, you post and then the little notification ball totally covered that piece. So it took a while till that goes away so you see the word count and the time to read and also the block count. There were a few pieces missing. I don&#8217;t know why they&#8217;re missing, but they probably don&#8217;t seem to be very important for content creators to see. And the outline, having the other one on the list here in one it definitely makes sense to have that.</p>



<p>So if you haven&#8217;t seen that yet, it was in Gutenberg 14.5. It will come to 6.2, so checking it out through the Gutenberg plugin is definitely worth trying, worth a look so your site owners or the clients are prepared to find it in a different space. What I&#8217;m also very excited about is that there is now an option to import widgets from the sidebars into template parts. And that is in the whole idea of transitioning from a classic theme to block themes or make a site be better prepared to move to a site, to full site editing block theme. This is definitely a step forward. Any additional thoughts on that?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Oh yeah, absolutely. This is a very important milestone towards block adoption because it allows users to migrate from classic widgets to native blocks. It&#8217;s worth noting that it doesn&#8217;t work on template focus mode yet, it&#8217;s only available for the block inspector. But this is definitely a step on the right direction to increase block adoption.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Excellent, yeah. And George Mamadashvili, who heads&#8230; That&#8217;s his PR. He also has a nice video on how he demonstrates how it&#8217;s going to work. So I hear quite a few people celebrating this piece to make the transition over. Another one is, this is minor thing, but the configurable settings for the fluid typography in the theme JSONs now has a minimum font size, so it can be anchored on the smallest font size. So the fluidity then can increase the font size on a bigger screen. There was a hard coded value of 14 pixels before, with no way to change. And now you can have the minimum font size, like 16 pixels or 18 pixels depending on your site needs. That&#8217;s a minor thing, but I think it is something that quite a few designers were missing.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Yes, absolutely. It&#8217;s a minor improvement, but we&#8217;ve seen lots of these minor improvements in the last, I don&#8217;t know, four or five Gutenberg releases building on top of free typography. And when you look at them altogether combined, you can see huge improvements on how the feature is becoming more and more powerful by the day.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I think that was at 14 point&#8230; No, one thing is still really important from the release and that is the adding shadow presets support for the theme JSON. So you can do box shadows on your blocks or wrapper blocks, and that is now available for designers of themes. There is no user interface for that yet. But as we said repeatedly here on the podcast, things will be…</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: It will come.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Hmm?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: It will come.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: But it&#8217;s important to make it work for the theme developers first. Before you have all the added implementation for site owners that want to change it, you first need to know how it&#8217;s actually working so you can see where the pieces are that need to be surfaced in a user interface. So there is a new setting object called shadow, and then you can add different palettes to it for natural and crisp and sharp and soft shadows. And the PR has quite a few information about how that&#8217;s implemented. It gives you quite a few use cases on how you can do the shadow boxes for the buttons, for cover block, for menu block. If you have a sticky menu, then you can put a little shadow underneath it to see the difference between the page and the menu. So there are quite a few design use cases to try that out.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: I&#8217;m curious to see what designers come up with thanks to this new setting. I can see lots of 3D buttons and shadow buttons and all these cool things.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: You could even do the outlines of the shadows, kind of, if you have an outline&#8230; Yeah, there are some great designs out there right now. So, from the changelog we are on, anything else that you wanted to talk about here that we missed? I know that Tonya Mark has updated the tracking issue for the web fonts API. And what&#8217;s merged in this release is the change of architecture to use the Core&#8217;s dependencies API with the web fonts API. And there&#8217;s a call for testing out there, or it will be out there, and making sure that how you use it. She has an update where she asked how you can help. And that is if you have an idea about naming the API, should it be webfonts, or web fonts, two words, or just the fonts API, which I tend to be the fonts API, but there is a renaming before everything gets into the Core that we&#8217;ll be name things right.</p>



<p>And then the other one is a call to test the new architecture and share feedback on your testing reports and using the web fonts API. I&#8217;m not quite sure how the planning is because it seems to be still blocked furthermore through additional architectural work. Hector, do you think that that will come with 6.2, or is it now a little late for 6.2?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Well, Tony and the other contributors are making their best to have this feature land in 6.2, so I&#8217;m pretty positive it can make it in 6.2. And the best way to ensure it can land in that version is to help with testing and with feedback. That will help unlock the architecture redesign and the renaming and everything that&#8217;s currently being discussed right now.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: All right. Okay. Yeah, if you all are contributing to things, dear listeners, help getting that over the finish line. It definitely needs some testing. So I think that&#8217;s the end of talking about Gutenberg 14.9. We&#8217;re coming also up on the hour, so I think we can go to closing things. Are there anything that you want to point out that are on the roadmap for 6.2 that you want to have our listeners know? And if not, how can the listeners get in contact with you, where to best meet you online?</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Well, you can reach out to me in WordPress Slack. Handle is Prieto. I guess it will be written in the show notes. So please feel free to ping me there or in GitHub or in Track. I&#8217;m using the handle everywhere, so that&#8217;s easy. I would just like to circle back to the 6.2 planning and reminding everyone the call for volunteers is open. So if you&#8217;re interested in participating in the squad, you are more than welcome. We will assist you if it&#8217;s your first time. If you&#8217;re an assistant contributor, you are also welcome and we can learn from you. So everybody&#8217;s welcome, that&#8217;s the long story short.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And the only thing that I want to remind you is about the next week&#8217;s Gutenberg Live Q&amp;A with Isabel Brison, Andrew Serong and Justin Tadlock on Layout, Layout, Layout. January 11th at 5:00 PM Eastern and 20:22 UTC. That&#8217;s 10:00 PM on UTC. And as always, the show notes will be published on gutenbergtimes.com/podcast. This is episode 78. And if you have questions and suggestions or news you want us to include, send them to <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. That&#8217;s <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. So thank you so much, Hector, for joining me here for the first Changelog podcast in 2023 to spend the time on preparation as well as in the show. Thank you all for listening and goodbye and again, Happy New Year.</p>



<p><em>Hector Prieto</em>: Thank you for having me and see you soon. Happy New Year, everybody.</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, 07 Jan 2023 19:14:10 +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:19:"Gutenberg Changelog";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:121:"Gutenberg Times: 209 Block Themes, Query Block Variations, Forms with Blocks, Block Art and more – Weekend Edition #240";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=23042";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:124:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/209-block-themes-query-block-variations-forms-with-blocks-block-art-and-more-weekend-edition-240/";s: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:27679:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>Tomorrow is the 5-year anniversary of Gutenberg Times. It feels like I just started yesterday to be fascinated by the possibilities of the block editor. For many people, it actually was just yesterday that they dipped their toes into the world of the new thing. Not you of course. You have been a wonderful subscriber and reader for a while now, and I am infinitely grateful for your support. Thank you! </p>



<p><strong>Welcome to all new subscribers this year. So glad you are here. </strong></p>



<p>Let&#8217;s dive into the sixth year together, and learn what will be next for the block editor and what other people make with it and for it. The ecosystem seems to keep expanding quite a bit with the block editor. </p>



<p>Wishing you and yours a fabulous 2023. May you be prosperous, happy, and healthy! </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br /><em>Birgit</em></p>



<p>PS: Reminder: Hope to see you next week at the Gutenberg Times Live Q &amp; A. <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7616700808432/WN_IG_fXjzCQymTk62cV9_ocw">Get your seats now for January 11, 2023, at 5pm / ET 22:00 UTC</a></p>




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



<div class="wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost"><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-word-press-release-information">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</a><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#1-ne">From the WordPress Developer Blog</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#2-gutenberg-plugin-releases">Gutenberg plugin releases</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-p">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</a><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#4-making-block-art">Making Block Art </a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#5-form-plugins-working-with-blocks">Form Plugins working with Blocks</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor. </a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#5-s">Upcoming WordPress events</a><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#1-l">Learn WordPress Online Meetups</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
</div></div>




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



<p><strong>Hector Prieto</strong> published the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/27/wordpress-6-2-planning-schedule-proposal/"><strong>WordPress 6.2 Planning Schedule Proposal</strong></a>, and it&#8217;s also a call for volunteers for the release squad. The 6.2 release squad will then decide on the final release schedule. For now, Feature Freeze and Beta 1 would be on February 7th, 2023. Tthere are four Beta releases planned before release candidate 1 will be available on March 7th, and a final release on March 28th, 2023. </p>



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<p>Reminder: January 10, 2023, at 9:30 ET / 14:30 UTC:  <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/16/hallway-hangout-performance-considerations-for-block-themes/"><strong>Hallway Hangout: Performance Considerations for Block Themes</strong></a> <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> wrote: &#8220;At a high level, we’ll go through general intros (what each person does/focuses on), current work underway to address performance, what work is being done specifically for block themes, and general open Q&amp;A. Hallway hangouts are meant to be casual and collaborative so come prepared with a kind, curious mind along with any questions or items you want to demo/discuss.&#8221; </p>



<h3 id="1-ne">From the WordPress Developer Blog</h3>



<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> published a tutorial for <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2022/12/20/building-a-book-review-grid-with-a-query-loop-block-variation/"><strong>building a book review grid with a Query Loop block variation</strong></a>.  WordPress 6.1 introduced an extension to the Query Loop block, which allows plugin developers to filter existing functionality in core WordPress rather than building custom blocks to query posts. This tutorial shows how to build a WordPress plugin that display a list of book review posts including <code>post_meta` </code>data, using a block variation for the Query Loop and set up rendering it on the front end. </p>



<p><strong>Nick Diego</strong> <a href="https://twitter.com/nickmdiego/status/1611377046785081345">tweeted</a>:  I always knew the Query Loop block was incredibly powerful, but I had never explored integrating post metadata into custom block variations! Learn how in this fantastic article by <a href="https://twitter.com/justintadlock">@justintadlock</a> on the new WordPress Developer Blog.</p>



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



<p><strong>Micheal Burridge</strong> composed a Roundup post to review <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2022/12/28/2022-the-block-developers-year-in-review/"><strong>2022 from a block developer&#8217;s perspective</strong></a> in is post. You&#8217;ll find a select list of resources, to get started or to catch up on the development from the last 12 months, via the Make Blog, WordPress TV and the Learn WordPress site. </p>



<h3 id="2-gutenberg-plugin-releases">Gutenberg plugin releases</h3>



<p><strong>Gutenberg 14.8 </strong>was released on December 22, 2022, and release lead <strong>Ryan Welcher</strong> highlighted in his post <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/22/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-8-21-december/"><strong>What’s new in Gutenberg 14.8? (21 December)</strong></a></p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/22/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-8-21-december/#new-reorganized-site-editor-interface">A new, reorganized Site Editor interface</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/22/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-8-21-december/#introduce-the-stylebook">Introducing the Style Book</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/22/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-8-21-december/#Add-custom-CSS-rules-for-your-site">Add custom CSS rules for your site</a></li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> reported on the release as well via the WPTavern: <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-14-8-overhauls-site-editor-interface-adds-style-book"><strong>Gutenberg 14.8 Overhauls Site Editor Interface, Adds Style Book</strong></a></p>



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



<p><strong>Gutenberg 14.9 i</strong>s the first release of 2023, and release lead Justin Tadlock pointed out a few new features in his post <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-9-4-january/">What’s new in Gutenberg 14.9? (4 January)</a></strong>: </p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-9-4-january/#push-block-changes-to-global-styles">Push block changes to Global Styles</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-9-4-january/#typography-support-for-page-list-block">Typography support for Page List block</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-9-4-january/#import-sidebar-widgets-to-template-parts">Import sidebar widgets to template parts</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-9-4-january/#shadow-presets-minimum-fluid-font-size">theme.json support: Shadow presets and minimum fluid font size</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-9-4-january/#other-notable-highlights">Other notable highlights</a></li>
</ul>



<p>On the WPTavern, <strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> took the version for spin and reported on the new magic: <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-14-9s-new-magic-push-block-changes-to-global-styles"><strong>Gutenberg 14.9’s New Magic: Push Block Changes to Global Styles</strong></a></p>



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



<p>In the upcoming <strong>Gutenberg Changelog episode 78</strong>, <strong>Hector Prieto</strong> was my guest. He is a full-time core contributor and coordinator of multi-release WordPress and Gutenberg releases. We discussed Gutenberg 14.8 and 14.9 as well as 6.2 release schedule proposal and other topics.  The episode will hit your favorite podcast app over the weekend. </p>



<img />



<div class="wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background is-layout-flow"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p><strong>🎙️ </strong> New episode:  <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-78-state-of-the-word-wordpress-6-2-gutenberg-14-8-and-14-9/">Gutenberg Changelog #78 -State of the Word, WordPress 6.2, Gutenberg 14.8 and 14.9</a> with Birgit Pauli-Haack and special guest Hector Prieto</p>
</div></div>



<h2 id="0-p">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</h2>



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



<p><strong>Sarah Gooding</strong> wrote about <a href="https://wptavern.com/block-protocol-announces-new-wordpress-plugin-coming-in-2023"><strong>Block Protocol Announces New WordPress Plugin Coming in 2023</strong></a> It will allow users to embed interactive blocks that are compatible with Gutenberg, and will include blocks for drawing, GitHub pull request overview, timer, calculation, and more. The plugin will also include new blocks powered by OpenAI DALL-E and GPT . </p>



<p>The <a href="https://blockprotocol.org/"><em>Block Protocol</em></a> project is open source and designed to be an open protocol, and WordPress hopes to integrate more with it in the future. </p>



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



<p>In the latest WPTavern Jukebox podcast episode, <strong>Damon Cook</strong>, developer advocate at WPEngine, discussed with Nathan Wrigley the <a href="https://wptavern.com/podcast/57-damon-cook-on-the-future-of-website-styling-in-wordpress">f<strong>uture of website styling in WordPress</strong></a>. Wrigley wrote in the introduction: &#8221; Block-based themes are revolutionizing website styling. You’re going to be able to change any aspect of your website from the UI that you’re familiar with. The hope is that it’ll make styling more accessible to a wider audience.</p>



<p>Damon talks about the fact that we’re in a period of flux right now. The documentation and tooling needed to work with website styles is maturing, but is by no means complete.&#8221; </p>



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



<p><strong>Torsten Landsiedel</strong> scratched his personal itch and built the plugin Ignore block name in search, after finding that the WordPress built-in search included in the findings posts where the search keywords are in the HTML comments of blocks, and with that skews, the search result less relevant.  It&#8217;s particular helpful when your blog is about working with the block editor or about content creation with WordPress. Landsiedel feels that the block editor makes the shortcomings of the built-in search feature worse because blocks contain full words, and not just HTML tags. It&#8217;s been a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/3739">long-standing issue</a>, that this plugin now solves. </p>



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<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/"><strong>209 Block Themes </strong></a>are now available in the WordPress repository with new submissions by <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/author/themeisle/">Themeisle</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/author/sparklewpthemes/">sparklewpthemes</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/author/olivethemes/">olivethemes</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/author/deothemes/">deothemes</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/author/sonalsinha21/">sonalsinha21</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/author/blockify/">Blockify</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/author/hamidxazad/">hamidxazad</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/author/wpzoom/">WPZOOM</a>. </p>



<a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/"><img /></a>



<p><strong>Ana Segota</strong> of <em>Anariel Design</em> also <a href="https://twitter.com/Ana_Segota/status/1608903485956947968">announced</a> <a href="https://anarieldesign.com/themes/yuna/"><strong>Yuna, a block theme for Nonprofits</strong></a> that comes with 100+ Design Patterns, you can add to your page with a simple drag and drop. Use built-in options to arrange and style them any way you want. It also includes built-in styles for the popular GiveWP donations plugin and is also ready to house your ecommerce store. </p>



<h3 id="4-making-block-art">Making Block Art </h3>



<p>Curious about some art behind Matt Mullenweg during State of the Word? Below are those pieces designed for the&nbsp;<a href="https://block-museum.com/">Museum of Block Art</a>&nbsp;which represent the creativity that Gutenberg blocks inspire. Be sure to stop by and experience the museum’s&nbsp;<a href="https://block-museum.com/interact/">digital interactive exhibit</a>.</p>



<p>You can see </p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://block-museum.com/2022/06/03/circular-rainbow/"><strong>Circular rainbow</strong></a> by Chuck Grimmett&nbsp;</li>



<li><a href="https://block-museum.com/2022/03/01/splitting/"><strong>Splitting</strong></a> by Anne McCarthy</li>



<li><a href="https://block-museum.com/2022/02/02/its-me/"><strong>It’s me</strong></a> by Nick Hamze</li>



<li><a href="https://block-museum.com/2022/01/19/futuro-1/"><strong>Futuro 1</strong></a> by Javier Arce</li>



<li><a href="https://block-museum.com/2022/01/11/019/"><strong>019</strong></a> by Tammy Lister</li>
</ul>



<img />



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong>, instigator and curator of the Museum of Block Art, wrote an insightful blog post about how she approached making art with the Block Editor.  Take a look <a href="https://nomad.blog/2022/12/26/behind-the-scenes-of-creating-art-with-wordpress/"><strong>Behind the scenes of creating art with WordPress</strong></a>. </p>



<p><strong>Chuck Grimmett</strong> has more examples of <a href="https://cagrimmett.com/wp-block-art/"><strong>WP Block Art</strong></a> on his blog. </p>



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



<p><strong>Rich Tabor</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Courtney Portnoy</strong>&nbsp;discussed&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.tv/2022/11/18/the-creative-side-of-blocks-vol-3/"><strong>The creative side of blocks</strong></a>&nbsp;on WordPressTV. Rich Tabor walks the viewers through one of his block art creations. It’s quite inspiring to watch Tabor’s exploratory creative process using the block editor. I learned quite a few things about the power of the various color features: gradient, nested group blocks, and how to replace the theme’s primary and secondary colors for the whole site. You’ll also get an introduction to the&nbsp;<a href="https://block-museum.com/">Museum of Block Art</a>, where Rich and other block artists showcase their creations. <em>(also mentioned in GT 239)</em></p>



<h3 id="5-form-plugins-working-with-blocks">Form Plugins working with Blocks</h3>



<p>Two plugins emerged that take advantage of the block editor and its components and scripts so site owners and builders can use them to create forms. </p>



<p><strong>Munir Kamal</strong>, created a block integration for the popular CF7 Forms. It&#8217;s aptly names <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/cf7-blocks/"><strong>CF Blocks</strong></a> and available in the WordPress repository. He wrote in the description: &#8220;With CF7 Blocks, you can easily create and customize contact forms within the familiar block editor interface. No more fiddling with short codes or HTML – just drag and drop blocks to build your forms exactly how you want them.&#8221; Sounds spectacular, doesn&#8217;t it? </p>



<p>In here article <a href="https://wptavern.com/new-cf7-blocks-plugin-brings-blocks-to-contact-form-7"><strong>New CF7 Blocks Plugin Brings Blocks to Contact Form 7</strong></a>, Sarah Gooding, took a more in-depth look and shares her findings. </p>



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



<p>On <a href="https://twitter.com/jrtashjian/status/1610761741025087521">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/jrtashjian"><strong>JR Tashjian</strong></a> developer at GoDaddy, <strong>introduced </strong><a href="https://omniform.io/"><strong>OmniForm</strong>,</a> the next-generation Form Builder for your website. Sign up for early access now and be among the first to try it. The plan is to make the plugin available in the WordPress plugin directory at the end of January, with early access provided to users the week prior. Tashjian continues: &#8220;OmniForm embraces the block editor to the fullest extent and unlike any solution right now. The block editor is the future of editing in WordPress and building any kind of form will be no different from creating a post or page.&#8221; Tall order. Looking forward to doing some testing, too. </p>



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



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> has a new video up on YouTube:  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2bFOZ7O-Po"><strong>Building a site with WordPress 5.9 vs. WordPress 6.2 (in progress features)</strong></a> &#8211; To better show what&#8217;s changed with the Site Editor from when it was first introduced in WordPress 5.9, this video goes through both a demo of the original state and a brief look at what&#8217;s in place today and what&#8217;s to come, especially as 6.2 looks to wrap up much of the work around site editing/phase 2 of Gutenberg. Keep in mind that WordPress 6.2 is not out yet and much of what&#8217;s being shown is very much a work in progress with big opportunities to provide feedback along the way. Either way, I hope you enjoy taking a peak back and a look forward. </p>



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<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2022&#8221;</a>&nbsp;</strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test, and Meta team from Jan. 2021 on. Updated by yours truly.  <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/"><em>The index 2020 is here</em></a></p>




<p>In this video tutorial, <strong>Jonathan Bossenger</strong> gives you an <strong><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2023/01/06/introduction-to-theme-json/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Introduction to theme.json</a>.</strong> You will learn how the theme.js file works, and how you can control these settings and styles.</p>



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<p><strong>Daisy Olsen</strong> started a new Live Stream schedule and will show off Block Themes in WordPress every Friday at 10:30 am ET / 15:30 UTC on Twitch. </p>



<p>The inaugural show took place  Friday, January 6th, 2023 with the topic: <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1699386540"><strong>Building a Block Theme</strong></a>. It&#8217;s a great opportunity to follow along with Daisy and ask questions along the way. </p>



<a href="https://www.twitch.tv/daisyonwp"><img /></a>



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



<p><strong>Munir Kamal </strong>takes you on a journey of <a href="https://gutenberghub.com/from-wordpress-to-the-world-intro-to-the-standalone-gutenberg-block-editor/"><strong>From WordPress to the World: Intro to the Standalone Gutenberg Block Editor</strong></a>. In his new plugin, Kamal made the journey and found a few challenges along the way, overcame them and new put it all together for others to follow.  Using the app <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/isolated-block-editor"><strong>&#8216;Isolated block editor</strong></a>, from the public repo, maintained by Automattic. Matt Mullenweg in the State of the Word emphasized that the block editor is also used outside of WordPress, with Tumblr, Day One app and with bbPress instance.</p>



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



<p>The team working on <strong>GiveWP</strong> went on a similar route on the revamp of the highly popular donation plugin. Post Status recently posted an article about that: <a href="https://poststatus.com/the-future-of-givewp-and-the-block-editor/"><strong>The Future of GiveWP and the Block Editor</strong></a></p>



<p>GiveWP will hold a Town hall event about the new version on January 25th, 2023 at 10am PT / 18:00 UTC – in case someone is interested.&nbsp;<a href="https://href.li/?https://givewp.com/town-hall-givewp-design-mode-and-whats-next-for-3-0/?"><strong>Learn more Town Hall: GiveWP Design Mode and What’s Next for 3.0</strong></a></p>



<p><br /><strong>Kyle Johnson</strong>, JavaScript developer at GiveWP will present his talk: <a href="https://birmingham.wordcamp.org/2023/session/using-gutenberg-as-a-development-foundation-not-just-a-block-builder/"><strong>Using Gutenberg as a Development Foundation, Not Just a Block Builder</strong></a> at WordCamp Birmingham on February 4th, 2023. As far as we know, the talks will be recorded, but not livestreamed. So, they will show up on WordPress TV in the weeks after the WordCamp. </p>



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



<p>Mohammed Noufal of Hubspot wrote about <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/website/custom-blocks-wordpress"><strong>How to Create Custom Blocks in WordPress</strong></a>, providing answers to the questions:  why use a custom block, how to make Custom Block Templates and how to use custom blocks on your site. </p>



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



<p><strong>Jonathan Bossenger</strong>&#8216;s last section of his series: <em>Let’s code: developing blocks without React!&nbsp;</em> is now also available on WordPress TV. <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2023/01/04/lets-code-developing-blocks-without-react-review/"><strong>Let’s code: developing blocks without React! –&nbsp;Review</strong></a>. If you followed along over the past few weeks, you would have learned to build a small WordPress block using plain (vanilla) JavaScript. In this session, we will review everything we’ve learned so far, by rebuilding the entire block from scratch.</p>



<p>The other editions for the series are in order of broadcast/</p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2022/12/02/lets-code-developing-blocks-without-react-controls/">Controls</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2022/11/25/lets-code-developing-blocks-without-react-part-2-take-2/">Attributes and&nbsp;RichText</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2022/11/18/lets-code-developing-blocks-without-react-all-about-attributes/">All about Attributes</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2022/11/11/lets-code-developing-blocks-without-react-part-1/">Block&nbsp;Basics</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2022/12/12/lets-code-developing-blocks-without-react-block-supports/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Block Supports</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>




<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s master branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. <br />Have you been using it? Hit reply and let me know.</p>



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




<h2 id="5-s">Upcoming WordPress events</h2>



<p><strong>January 10, 2023 &#8211; 9:30 ET / 14:30 UTC </strong><br /><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/12/16/hallway-hangout-performance-considerations-for-block-themes/"><strong>Hallway Hangout: Performance Considerations for Block Themes</strong></a> with Anne McCarthy</p>



<p><strong>January 11, 2023 – 5 pm ET / 22:00 UTC</strong><br /><strong><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7616700808432/WN_IG_fXjzCQymTk62cV9_ocw">Gutenberg Times Live Q &amp; A: Layout, layout, layout</a></strong><br />Panel discussion with Isabel Brison, Andrew Serong, Justin Tadlock and Birgit Pauli-Haack</p>



<p>February 4 + 5, 2023 <br /><a href="https://birmingham.wordcamp.org/"><strong>WordCamp Birmingham, AL</strong></a><br /></p>



<p><strong>February 17 – 19, 2023</strong><br /><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2023/"><strong>WordCamp Asia 2023</strong></a>&nbsp;</p>



<h3 id="1-l">Learn WordPress Online Meetups</h3>



<p>January 17, 2023 &#8211; 3pm / 20:00 UTC <br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/290412094/"><strong>Patterns, reusable blocks and block locking</strong></a></p>



<p>January 19, 2023 – 7 pm ET / 24:00 UTC<br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/290363952/"><strong>Let’s make custom templates in the Site Editor!</strong></a></p>



<p>January 31, 2023 &#8211; 3pm ET / 20:00 UTC <br /><a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-online-workshops/events/290414181/"><strong>Creating a photography website with the block editor</strong></a></p>



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




<p>Featured Image:</p>



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



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



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



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 07 Jan 2023 14:25:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Birgit Pauli-Haack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:103:"WPTavern: WordCamp Europe 2023 Speaker Applications Open, Organizers Call for More Interactive Sessions";s:7:"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:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=140881";s:7:"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:113:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-2023-speaker-applications-open-organizers-call-for-more-interactive-sessions";s: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:2184:"<img />



<p>WordCamp Europe 2023 is being hosted in Athens this year with two conference days scheduled for June 9 and 10. The first day&#8217;s theme is &#8220;WordPress Now&#8221; (Everything that can be currently achieved with WordPress) and the second day is &#8220;WordPress Tomorrow.&#8221;</p>



<p>Organizers have opened the <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2023/call-for-speakers/">call for speakers</a> and are especially interested in scheduling talks that &#8220;empower people to feel more comfortable using WordPress.&#8221; They are soliciting new voices this year with fresh perspectives.</p>



<p>After reviewing attendee feedback from the previous year, organizers have identified more than three dozen requested topics across the development, business, community, and design categories. These include many more development topics, such as security, CI/CD, headless CMS, ReactJS for PHP Developers / Building Blocks, and more. Attendees are also eager to hear about content monetization, recurring revenue, GDPR compliance, brand identity, and designing for accessibility, to list a few examples.</p>



<p>Presentation formats will include traditional talks, hands-on workshops, expert panels, and lightning talks. Organizers are encouraging speakers to add activities to sessions that will get the audience involved and avoid the afternoon slump. They cited a few examples, including a WordCamp in the Czech Republic where a security researcher installed a Wi-Fi honeypot in the venue and demonstrated how dangerous public wi-fi is when logging into a WordPress site that doesn&#8217;t have SSL. </p>



<p>WCEU has launched a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2023/?page_id=2755" target="_blank">Speaker’s support program</a> to help fund selected speakers with financial barriers to attending. Organizers arrange for speakers and the sponsoring companies to connect but are not involved in selecting who receives the funds.</p>



<p>The call for speakers will close the first week of February and applicants will receive a response by the second week of March. Speakers will be announced in the second week of April.</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, 07 Jan 2023 03:18:41 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:125:"WPTavern: BuddyPress 11.0.0 Adds Filter for Improved JS and CSS Asset Loading, WebP Support, and New Ways to Fetch Activities";s:7:"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:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=140854";s:7:"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:134:"https://wptavern.com/buddypress-11-0-0-adds-filter-for-improved-js-and-css-asset-loading-webp-support-and-new-ways-to-fetch-activities";s: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:3436:"<p><a href="https://buddypress.org/2023/01/buddypress-11-0-0-la-scala/">BuddyPress 11.0.0</a> is now available thanks to the efforts of 34 contributors. The release is named “La Scala” in honor of a pizza restaurant located in Issy-Les-Moulineaux, a Paris suburb.</p>



<p>Version 11.0.0 introduces a few important changes. BuddyPress has <a href="https://wptavern.com/buddypress-11-0-0-to-limit-javascript-and-css-asset-loading-to-community-pages-using-a-filter">improved the way it loads its JavaScript and CSS assets</a> with the addition of <a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2022/11/21/buddypress-will-soon-only-load-its-javascript-and-style-assets-into-the-community-area-of-your-site/">a new filter</a> so that they are now only loaded on community pages. Previously, the plugin would load them indiscriminately on every page, a leftover from how they were loaded in the first Template Pack (BP Legacy). This change is being rolled out progressively, so users who want to take advantage of this improvement will need to add the filter to their <a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/themes/bp-custom-php/">bp-custom.php</a> file.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>add_filter( ‘bp_enqueue_assets_in_bp_pages_only’, ‘__return_true’ );</p>
</blockquote>



<p>BP 11.0.0 also enables the use of use <a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2022/11/24/webp-support-is-arriving-in-buddypress-11-0-0/">.webp</a> images for profile and cover images, after a user requested it in a negative review. This feature requires WordPress 5.8 or newer. </p>



<p>This release introduces the ability to <a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2022/12/01/bp-11-fetch-activities-for-or-excluding-a-group-of-users/">fetch activities for or excluding a group of users</a>. For example, developers can now write code to fetch activities for a select few users based on user ID or block updates from some annoying users by excluding their user IDs. </p>



<p>&#8220;This change is simple but powerful!&#8221; BuddyPress core developer Dan Cavins said. &#8220;For instance, you could create custom interest activity streams, or build a mute feature to let your members take a break from other, too-chatty users!&#8221;</p>



<p>Version 11.0.0 also gives developers the ability to build custom xProfile loops <a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2022/12/06/bp-11-bp_has_profile-now-accepts-an-array-of-profile-group-ids/">including a specific set of profile field groups</a>.</p>



<p>BuddyPress 10.0.0 introduced an add-ons section in the plugin administration screen for users to easily test plugins or blocks maintained by the BuddyPress development team and hosted on WordPress.org. BP lead developer Mathieu Viet said the team will soon be publishing a Community Media Attachments add-on and a block-based Activity Post Form that will &#8220;standardize the way to extend activity updates with richer and more engaging content.&#8221; These feature plugins are part of what Viet anticipates will be &#8220;a transitional year for BuddyPress&#8221; and may be published to the add-ons section independent of a major release. </p>



<p>BuddyPress users should watch for updates to the add-ons section and check out the full list of changes in <a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/releases/version-11-0-0/">11.0.0 in the BuddyPress codex</a>. Updating to the latest version will require WordPress 5.7 or later.</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, 06 Jan 2023 22:33:59 +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: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:62:"Do The Woo Community: A New YouTube Channel and WooBits Format";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=74228";s:7:"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://dothewoo.io/new-youtube-channel-woobits-format/";s: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:414:"<p>WooBits now featuring guest hosts for a one-off chance to share their insights and perspectives on various topics. Plus a new YouTube channel.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io/new-youtube-channel-woobits-format/">A New YouTube Channel and WooBits Format</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce Builder Community</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, 06 Jan 2023 10:54:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:51:"WPTavern: Awesome Motive Acquires Duplicator 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:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=140830";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:62:"https://wptavern.com/awesome-motive-acquires-duplicator-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:2164:"<p>Awesome Motive&#8217;s <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/wordpress-plugins/">product suite</a> of nearly 20 commercial plugins has expanded to include a backup plugin. The company <a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/news/welcome-duplicator-to-the-wpbeginner-family-of-products/">announced</a> its acquisition of <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/">Duplicator</a> today, a 12-year-old freemium product with more than 1.5 million users. </p>



<p>In addition to the backup utility, the plugin enables users to migrate, copy, move, or clone a site from one location to another. Commercial licenses range from $49/year to $299.50/year.</p>



<p>Snapcreek co-founders Bob Riley and Cory Lamle, creators of Duplicator, will be moving on to pursue other endeavors but the rest of the team will continue to work on the product at Awesome Motive led by <a href="https://johndturner.com/">John Turner</a>. </p>



<p>This is the first WordPress business acquisition of 2023, and it&#8217;s a major one as 1.5 million users are changing hands to rely on a new company. Users can expect <a href="https://twitter.com/syedbalkhi/status/1611100494839316480">no pricing changes</a> but some have already <a href="https://twitter.com/wpeditorial/status/1611027326795681794">expressed</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/karks88/status/1610991832749539328">concern</a> about having to put up with Awesome Motive&#8217;s trademark aggressive marketing that litters the WordPress admin with ads and upsells. </p>



<p>In the co-founders&#8217; <a href="https://snapcreek.com/blog/news/duplicator-is-joining-the-awesome-motive-family/">farewell post</a>, they assured users that Awesome Motive will continue working on their prior roadmap.</p>



<p>&#8220;We have shared our extensive feature wishlist, and we know that with Awesome Motive’s resources and experience that wishlist will become a reality much faster,&#8221; Riley said.</p>



<p>&#8220;As we pass the baton, Cory and I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported us on this journey. We are extremely grateful to be able to play a small part in the amazing WordPress ecosystem.&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 06 Jan 2023 02:48:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:75:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 14.9’s New Magic: Push Block Changes to Global Styles";s:7:"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:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=140717";s:7:"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/gutenberg-14-9s-new-magic-push-block-changes-to-global-styles";s: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:3405:"<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-9-4-january/">Gutenberg 14.9</a> was released this week with a powerful new feature for site editing that allows users to push individual block changes to Global Styles. </p>



<p>When WordPress makes it this easy for users to design their own sites, there&#8217;s always the lingering concern &#8211; will the tools inadvertently be used to make sites that are wild and wacky à la GeoCities? For example, if a user makes a change to a Heading block on the Page template, that doesn&#8217;t get automatically enabled for headings on other templates, which could potentially create an inconsistent design across the website. </p>



<p>The new &#8220;Push changes to Global Styles&#8221; button allows users to apply that same change to all blocks of that type. In the example below, the H1 heading has been updated to have a lime green background with red text. Under the Advanced panel in block settings, a new button appears for pushing changes to Global Styles.  </p>



<img />



<p>It&#8217;s important to note that the feature only works inside the Site Editor. Users writing posts and pages will not have the ability to push changes to Global Styles. The new button gives users a quick way to update blocks across the site without having to manually edit every template or figure out the right CSS to apply. </p>



<p>Other important changes in 14.9 include <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/43316">typography support for the Page List block</a>, a new option to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/45509">import sidebar widgets into a template part</a> when switching from a classic theme, and  word count/time to read meta info has been <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/46648">moved to the top of the outline</a>. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">New Features for Theme Authors</h2>



<p>Gutenberg 14.9 introduces support for shadow presets in theme.json, with two bundled default presets (Natural and Sharp). Theme authors can <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/46813">see how it&#8217;s done</a> and create&nbsp;custom box-shadow presets, or wait for an <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/developer-blog-content/issues/51">upcoming tutorial</a> on the topic. The 14.9 release post includes a screenshot of how this feature might be implemented:</p>



<img />



<p>Theme authors now have the ability to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/42489">set the minimum font size for fluid typography in theme.json</a>. It is currently hard coded to 14px by default, which may not work for all designs.</p>



<p>Another new tool for theme developers is the ability to register patterns for specific templates, which would restrict where they appear. This was added via <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/45814">a new templateType property</a> in the patterns registration API. Theme developers can restrict patterns to only show up for the templates where they make sense, such as 404, single-post, single-product, and category templates, for example.</p>



<p>Check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/01/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-14-9-4-january/">14.9 release post</a> to see all the bug fixes and enhancements to the editor, accessibility, performance, tooling, and more. </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, 05 Jan 2023 22:20:46 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";O:42:"Requests_Utility_CaseInsensitiveDictionary":1:{s:7:"*data";a:8:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Mon, 23 Jan 2023 12:50:45 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Mon, 23 Jan 2023 12:30:31 GMT";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:16:"content-encoding";s:4:"gzip";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 2";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20230119161123";}