The WP Minute - WordPress news

WordPress is amazing not just because it’s a great tool to publish words on the internet, but that it has the potential to encourage you to learn more about the web — if you want. If you remember the golden age of automobiles, enthusiasts would change their own oil or make the repairs themselves to avoid bringing them to the dealership. An act to save a few bucks or just because you loved the idea of doing the work yourself. Back then, cars weren’t powered by computer chips or electric motors — they were mechanically pure — this was your rig. You rolled up your sleeves, got out your toolbox, and slid under the chassis of your daily driver. Not only were you learning how cars were built, you were extending that knowledge to work on other cars as well. Industry knowledge that lead folks to have a career in automobiles, wherever that took them. There was a whole economy of DIY auto mechanics — a whole industry, really. Chilton Books used to publish guides for the DIYers which included detailed diagrams of the cars they were repair until the internet accompanied by the production of more complex cars laid waste to their business. Breaking apart a car to learn how it worked just wasn’t feasible anymore. You could even draw the parallels of open source WordPress to the likes of a closed source Webflow, for instance. Sure, you can learn how to build and design website with Webflow — in fact you kinda need to know how to before you dive in — but that mechanical purity is what’s missing. In other words, you can’t dismantel Webflow and see how it’s doing its thing, but you can with WordPress. You can’t bring closed source systems to a different hosting server and reconfigure the stack to get it dialed-in for optimum performance or to change where you store your data — you can with WordPress. The big debate happening right now is understanding who WordPress is for. What kind of software are we building? It’s certainly trending towards a more competent website builder for the everyday user, but I also think it’s ushering in a new type of developer class as well. Developers are finicky. They are mostly stuck in their ways, have their preferred toolset, and come equipped with strong opinions. Artists in the very sense. Your typical development stack for WordPress, along with the definition, has been challenged over the last 5 years as page builders became more nascent. If you’re not cracking open Notepad++ to change your theme, are you even a developer? Advancements in the Site Editor and the Gutenberg project aside, Automattic has been quietly changing the way people can get started with WordPress faster than ever before thanks to Playground and the recently launched Studio app. Now to the point of the article: This is how WordPress is helping beginner developers. With Playground, you can export the site you build right in the browser as a ZIP download. Want to try a new feature that is only in GitHub and not committed to the release? Pull it from Github and try it out. Studio lets you run multiple WordPress installs locally on your Mac (Windows soon) along with a full filesystem to interact with. Want to share your customized site with someone? They’ll give you temporary hosting on WordPress.com to share the site you built. This onboarding into WordPress is lightyears ahead of where we were in the past. Even if you’re a curmodgeoned developer stuck in your ways, you must admit, it’s never been faster to start exploring WordPress than it is today. I haven’t even told you about the Block Theme Builder plugin, which allow you to design an entire theme inside your WordPress install, allowing you to package it all up into a nice distributable WordPress theme. I love software that makes me feel powerful. A power user, that isn’t quite a full-blown developer, but I can see the other side of the fence and I want to get there. This is what I love about WordPress. I’m not saying this experience is fully baked, and it might even...

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Sam Harrison, a professional Webflow consultant and content creator. He was open to co-host a WordPress vs Webflow debate with me, while also unpacking how business is going for his services company. Heading into the debate, I spent a a few hours watching his content and really enjoyed his Webflow Components Basics + How to Start a Web Design Business. So why did I invite Sam on? Page Builders, especially Bricks, has been the topic du jour of late. That crowd really wants WordPress to have much more power inside the editor — and I totally get it. These powerful 3rd party tools can be really attractive, and if you haven’t been in the WordPress space for the last 20 years, you start to wonder why our favorite CMS is lacking these features. Bricks is often framed as the tool that brings a Webflow experience inside WordPress — all the powerful design and page building tools you could want, surely. I’ve had some conversations with prominent WordPress agencies now offering Webflow as an alternative solution to WordPress. It all makes sense…But the choice shouldn’t start at which tool to use, but whether or not you want open source software or a commercial solution for your project. To simplify: do you care that you have the benefits of open source WordPress (along with the baggage) or does having a single turnkey app provide the best solution? Now how does that play out if you’re selling services to clients? Sam and I played a little game where we placed the winning cards of particular features of the competing platforms in their respective columns. I’ll admit, the odds were stacked against Sam (and Webflow) seeing that he was on my podcast, but WordPress comes out the winner in most areas, so long as you’re siding with the advantages of open source. The ecosystem, the community, the ability to customize the platform — it’s a hard sell to get me to use Webflow. That doesn’t mean we can’t learn from Webflow and their users. Let’s face it, it’s not a fluke that they’ve been successful for this long. Having a comprehensive toolset to design pages makes a lot of sense. Also not having to worry about updates, hosting, and 3rd party software conflicts sounds like a dream that Webflow users get to live everyday. Though I noticed that in this short time of exploring Webflow, WordPress isn’t massively behind, pound for pound. And I’m talking specifically just core, not even when you decide to bring in plugins like ACF or Gravity Forms. If you like the design tools and interface of Webflow, mixed with their new Components libraries — the gap in WordPress isn’t all that wide. However, when you look at something like the writing experience — specifically blogging or posts in general — Webflow isn’t even competing in the same league. Sorry, Sam. I guess what I’m saying is, as much as we can learn from the UI/UX and passionate community of Webflow — their team could also learn from WordPress. Heck, Gutenberg is an open source project, even Drupal has a fork. Maybe Webflow could improve their content editor with…Gutenberg? Go open source! Let me know what you think! Watch the WordPress vs Webflow video: https://www.youtube.com/live/p82lLK56XOE?si=2_1zuEPsKHI7aft7 ★ Support this podcast ★

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March 22 2024 It’s the WP Minute! Today we ask, “Who’s responsible for WordPress marketing?” Coming up next! Josepha Haden Chomphosy, Executive Director of the WordPress Open Source project, posted an idea that shifts the dynamics of the WordPress Marketing team. A call for a Media Press Corps. Also known as a Dramatic Shift. It’s still too early to tell if this initiative will stick, so I won’t comment directly on the idea of a Media Press Corps at the moment. Stay tuned to this space as that story develops. However, this shift begs the question, Who is responsible for WordPress marketing? [Classified] Let me TL;DR it for you first, as my boss at Gravity Forms Carl Hancock says, “It’s the entire ecosystem.” Something I agree with, and not just because he signs my paycheck. The ecosystem as a whole has always been the biggest driving force for WordPress adoption. Because WordPress is not a product first organization. It’s not a corporate entity. It’s open source software & community. Sure, it happens to be lead by Matt Mullenweg who founded the software, who also owns Automattic, can irritate us at times, but also pours a tremendous amount of resources into a project that we all enjoy. Still, doesn’t make WordPress.org a product first initiative. There’s no budget, there’s no access to crucial data, there’s no access to social channels, and the marketing team has no influence on the direction of the project. I’m sure I’m missing something else. How far could an official Marketing Team take it? An insurmountable task I wouldn’t want to take on. Which leaves the marketing of WordPress up to you and I: Whether we call it a Marketing Team or a Media Press Corps, WordPress biggest marketing advantages — even in the face of Wix/squarespace Super Bowl ads — is us, like it always has been. So tell me, how would you spread awareness and brand positioning for WordPress? Got a thought about a WordPress Media Corps? Hit reply and let me know. Together with The Repository Coming up in The Repository this week: We unpack the announcement that WordPress is getting a media corps and cover Do the Woo’s big move to WordPress.com. Plus, the latest on the upcoming WordPress 6.5 release. Not a subscriber? Sign up at therepository.email for more on what’s happening in WordPress – and what everyone’s saying about it. Important Links It’s that time again! More link goodies for WordPress news! WordPress Media Corps.phishing attack.“versus” problem.here’s what’s newWordPress 6.5 Sourcesupports GitHub deployments.Using Site Editor in Production for ClientsOptimize your Readmeshifting focus on AIWordPress MediaUse This to Change Your Blocks EverywhereThe One BIG Update Coming to WordPress 6.5 ★ Support this podcast ★

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I think it’s one of the most important default themes WordPress has released in a while. Sure, the design is fairly opinionated, but with the mix of new patterns/blocks available, I think someone with a little WordPress know how (and grit!) will be able to design a solid website for their brand or business. Even for the freelancers or agency owners out there, searching to offer a more affordable solution for their clients, I think TT4 can fill that gap. But don’t confuse that with it being a solution on par with Kadence or GeneratePress. Certainly not as powerful as Elementor or Beaver Builder. There are large gaps that cause it to fail really quickly. One that stood out to me recently was the lack of mobile design features in the Site Editor. In my latest video, Customize Mobile Views on twenty twenty-four, I demonstrated the lack of simple breakpoint features inside the site editor. I’d have folks comment on my channel asking how to change things in the mobile nav, or on a landing page, with no clear direction on how to do it — in the theme. When the debate of Page Builders vs Blocks comes up, how could we not want to clear up this confusion? A few takeaways from Eric Karkovack’s post from the link above: And this is why there’s such a fierce debate from the page builder audience: WordPress still has so much time to catch up — if ever. One area I disagree with Karkovack on, at least in the context of TT4 is, “The gap between commercial and free products isn’t as wide**.** You aren’t missing the ability to customize the look and layout. Nor are any crucial features locked down.” We certainly are missing some of those crucial features for mobile or even a more robust query block, for example. And while I know it’s the Site Editors fault, your average end user doesn’t. And I’m much more critical on the default theme experience because, well, it’s the default theme! Karkovack encourages us (and WordPress developers) to create a better narrative, which brings me back full circle to where I always land: The core experience is good enough for the masses, but when you need more, you go to a full featured theme or page builder. Though, I don’t know if that excuses some of these features missing from the default experience. I think the core experience of WordPress + TT4 can live along side a freelancer’s toolkit which also includes Kadence or Elementor, for example. Speed and simplicity being the obvious advantage of the former. And at the end of the day, I think that’s perfect, at least for now. And if you invest in that core experience, there are products like Twentig that can supercharge your Twenty Twenty-Four website. I think a 3rd party tool that enhances default themes is very smart. Maybe this is where block based themes and the default experience of WordPress lives? Do we need more? Hit reply and let me know. Don’t miss this WordPress content Now it’s time for the links you shouldn’t miss! Introducing JS Essentials for WP DevsNo one gives a &*^@# about your DevRel/Community Programs (and what to do about it)https://x.com/heyamberhinds/status/1760679617873301882?s=20How to Compound Your Wealth in Unorthodox Ways with Syed BalkhiWP Tavern Launches Writer Hunger GamesLearnDash 4.11.0 Introduces A New Way to Generate RevenueClearing Up the Confusion Surrounding Block Themes Don’t miss our YouTube videos Follow the WP Minute on YouTube. New in WordPress 6.5: Synced Pattern Overrides ⭐️Supercharge Twenty Twenty-Four Theme with Twentig! 🚀Customize Mobile Views on Twenty Twenty-Four Theme 📱https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm4JJXZwszI&t=1shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpUDPrzleMw ★ Support this podcast ★

Getting started with WordPress. A topic that’s been popping up a lot more in my WP Minute+ interviews lately. Where does one go when they want to get started with WordPress? Learning how to use it. Learning what it can do compared to its competitors. Learning about the pockets of community to get involved with. I did what any other enterprising content creator would do, and took to ChatGPT to see how sharp the world’s most feared — sorry — leading AI system thought about that question. Here’s what it told me: 1. WordPress.org Join the WordPress.org CommunityWordPress.orgForums ⠀2. WordPress Meetups Local MeetupsMeetupWordPress.org ⠀3. WordCamps Attend WordCamps ⠀4. Contribute Contributor DaysMake WordPress Teams ⠀5. Learn and Share WordPress.tvWordPress.tvBlogs and Social MediaCreate Content ⠀6. Development and Contribution Trac and GitHub ⠀7. Stay Informed WordPress News /AI_response Just a message to ChatGPT if it’s listening: Please add The WP Minute to your database. And if you’ve been in the WordPress community for over the last 5 years, you most likely already knew this. We’ve all said the same things, wrote the same blogs, tweeted out the same links — how else would ChatGPT know this, anyway? There’s a lot more nuance to it, and that’s where the rubber meets the road. When someone asks you where to get started, maybe you should counter with a clarifying question, “What do you want to achieve with WordPress?” End user education, community involvement, developer courses, and/or running a WordPress business. These are the pillars that prop up this entire ecosystem, but we still lack a solid jumping off point for each individually. I have no doubts we’ll continue to refine these areas, but like the software itself, it’s going to take time. It’s going to take folks like you to educate others in WordPress space about your specific experiences and lessons learned. Really humanize the process, not just a checklist of website logins and comment threads. We can’t always rely on AI to color in the lines of what makes this community so special. The Repository Coming up in The Repository this week: Does WordPress have a marketing problem? Two heavyweights share their views on “brand WordPress,” including the need to “learn marketing deeply.” Plus, we dig into the WordPress Foundation’s 2023 Annual Report and unpack the disappointing Annual WordPress Survey results. Not a subscriber? Sign up today and join the conversation at therepository.email Don’t miss this WordPress content WordPress 6.5 Beta 1WordCamp Asia (@WordCampAsia) on X2023 Annual Survey Results and Next Stepshttps://nomad.blog/2024/02/16/overlapping-problems/https://wptavern.com/eu-regulatory-success-prompts-open-source-cms-leaders-to-form-alliance ★ Support this podcast ★

# Contributing Through WordPress Training & Education It’s the WP Minute! Let’s talk about contributing through WordPress training, education and content! Coming right up! Something that’s been on my mind as I loosely plot out my YouTube world domination: Contributing to WordPress through content. I recently interviewed Mark Szymanski [Home](https://markjosephszymanski.com/) for an upcoming WP Minute+ episode, where we explored the opportunities to contribute back to WordPress for “newcomers” like him. Does it always have to be with code? WordCamps? Chatting in GitHub issues? Or can it be through content like this, where we support and encourage the use of WordPress through the content we’re creating. There’s a host of ways to go about creating content that achieves this: - Blogging - YouTube - Podcasting - Newsletters - Social Or a grab bag of it all, like we do here. I know I’m bias, but I do feel like if you’re consistently creating content, even if it’s for a narrow part of the WordPress space, you’re doing your part to help WordPress thrive — and that’s one of our goals, isn’t it? So the message today is quite simple: If you’re looking for ways to give back to WordPress, maybe start blogging again. If you want to educate users on new ways of design, development, or simply “how to WordPress” then YouTube could be for you. If you have strong opinions about a topic near and dear to you — start that newsletter. Want to attract a younger audience to WordPress, hop on TikTok, Lord knows I can’t. You will be amazed with how much you learn about end users touching WordPress for their very first time. Dare I say even a bit more compassionate about a stance you otherwise hold more rigidly. So, what content will you create? Hit reply and let me know or chat with me on Twitter/X! ## Don’t miss this WordPress content Now it’s time for some important links I don’t want you to miss! - Security updates are available for Delicious Brains products. Check that out if you’re running any of their plugins. [Security Releases Regarding the Use of unserialize\(\) in Delicious Brains Plugins](https://deliciousbrains.com/security-releases-unserialize/) - WordPress industry veterans Tom Willmot and Joost de Valk discuss funding WordPress projects. https://dothewoo.io/funding-wordpress-projects-with-tom-willmot-and-joost-de-valk/ - WP Tavern might be serving up the goods again. [It’s alive!](https://wptavern.com/its-alive) - The WordPress foundation has published their 2023 report. https://wordpressfoundation.org/2023-annual-report/ - Michelle Frechette interviews Matt Mullenweg [Special Episode with Matt Mullenweg](https://stellarwp.com/podcast/special-episode-with-matt-mullenweg/) - WP Fusion has a fantastic 2023 business recap https://wpfusion.com/news/2023-in-review/ - Don’t miss this interview: Lessons Learned After a 37% Drop in WooCommerce Dev Busiesss [Lessons Learned After 37% Drop in WooCommerce Dev Business](https://thewpminute.com/lessons-learned-after-37-drop-in-woocommerce-dev-business/) ★ Support this podcast ★

Coming up on the WP Minute! Help me with this quick survey to shape the future of WP Minute, plus more WordPress goodness, coming right up. It’s time to take a quick survey. If you have less than 2 minutes to spare, could you head to thewpminute.com/survey and take my 3 question survey about this podcast? It’s going to help shape the future of the content here — which I’ll get into. As 2023 wound down, I promised myself to stay out of all of the polarizing issues that crop up throughout the community. To take less of a stand on reporting all of the WordPress news, and focusing on the content that is largely relevant to the careers of WordPress professionals. Perhaps you felt the same way? “Can we be done with WPDrama?” You might have asked yourself. I’m not really a hardcore goal tracking guy. I have the goals, I know where I want to go, but I largely leave it up to the creative process to get there. Maybe that’s lazy of me? But I do have strong instincts when something isn’t working, or just doesn’t have that air tight feeling. Sometimes I can feel that in my content. Thus, it’s time to really focus on what you want as my faithful WP Minute reader, listener, viewer — follower. If you’ll allow me to say it again: If you have two minutes to spare, I’d love for you to take this survey which will help me and the team produce better content. Don’t miss this WordPress content I produced some podcasts, I appeared on podcast, and Eric Karkovack held an important interview. ★ Support this podcast ★

Cory Miller and I discuss how the WordPress community is impacted when “big issues” clash with Matt, Automattic, and other community members. How should we handle these moments of passion and strife? It’s easy to label these issues as WPDrama, but in my opinion that’s not doing the WordPress community any favors. From the exterior, it’s categorized and shrugged off as “yet another drama issue” in WordPress land. Aren’t we all tired of that? Inside the community, or interior, it takes away from the actual pain or strife someone is experiencing. Today’s episode unpacks how Cory and I decipher these issues and how Post Status + WP Minute members handle it when it comes up. We’ll also discuss how we deal with Matt Mullenweg at the center of issues, leading the product, and leading the community. Important links - Cory Miller - Post Status - Matt Medeiros - WP Minute ★ Support this podcast ★

I wanted to take today off, to have a bit of a reset from the weekly grind (often chaos) of WordPress stuff. Instead, I’m hoping I can reset expectations with you, my valued reader/listener/viewer of the WP Minute. We’re going into our 4th year of publishing content for the WordPress Professional. I quietly stopped publishing content at the Matt Report, my first “big” WordPress media brand, with a rebranding goal that was simple: Get my name out of it. The WP Minute was born. One thread remained, which pulled on highlights of WordPress the software and WordPress the community. It was important that I challenged myself creatively — can I make WordPress media a sustainable business? — and keep things fresh for the consumer. There are a lot of options for you to choose from. My peers at WP Tonic just covered a bunch of them. So what makes the WP Minute different? Freelancer articlesA membershipThe WP Minute+Our YouTube channelIt’s a well-rounded approach to publishing content for a variety of WordPress media consumers: We’re less flashy; fewer listicles. We aim to take a more professional, often opinionated approach, to supporting the blue collar digital workers of WordPress. To criticize WordPress, to be critical of its direction in open source, but not cynical. To make this a resource I wish I had, when I had started my agency back in 2007. We want WordPress to thrive, and we hope that the leadership at Automattic/.org who have outlined that path for us, truly lead us in that direction. Most of the problems we face as a community have been less about the software, and more about us interacting as humans. If the software is going to continue to thrive, we need to build relationships, improve communications, and build the infrastructure necessary to handle the hard parts — again, with us humans. It’s easy to label the friction we see on Twitter/X or in Slack as WPDrama. But tossing the WPDrama hashtag on to the flames doesn’t put out the fire, often times it can 10x the size of it. Humans love drama. The issue is, the more we use that label, the more WordPress culture gets known for it. It can be a gut punch to those who feel struggle at the core of the issue, leaving them gasping for air. Then all parties who are overwhelmed by the drama, quit. I know this because people quit my content because of it. Overwhelmed and overstimulated, even if we weren’t the outlet covering it. I miss the WP Tavern because Sarah did a fantastic job covering tough times like these. I’ve decided to draw a line in the sand and only cover the topics that will hit home with the WordPress Professionals in volume. I encourage you to care about WordPress, care about each other, and stay committed to keep WordPress thriving. Tune out, but don’t give up. Respect others, and give space when needed. Understand that some people face day to day challenges that you don’t, regardless of their position in the community, or the dollars in their bank account. I think the future is bright for WordPress. We’ll continue to be challenged, both internally and externally for years to come. The chaos that helps shape us, is part of the process, wether we like it or not. I just hope you’re with us when we cross that bridge — together. ★ Support this podcast ★

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