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




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"WPTavern: New WordPress Plugin Serves Pre-Compressed Emoji";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63682";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wptavern.com/new-wordpress-plugin-serves-pre-compressed-emoji";s: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:3475:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/compressed-emoji.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/compressed-emoji.png?resize=627%2C250&ssl=1" alt="compressed-emoji" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63714" /></a></p>
<p>WordPress emoji are served from s.w.org, but they are not compressed. This impacts the SVG loading time, depending on how many emoji you are using, and can even throw warnings on Google&#8217;s <a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/" target="_blank">PageSpeed Insights</a> tool. Turkey-based WordPress developer <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/m_uysl/" target="_blank">Mustafa Uysal</a> has just released <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/compressed-emoji/" target="_blank">Compressed Emoji</a>, a plugin that makes use of the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/emoji_svg_url/" target="_blank">emoji_svg_url</a> filter introduced in 4.6. This filter allows developers to change the URL for where emoji SVG images are hosted.</p>
<p>When the plugin is activated, the compression offers savings in the range of 3kb ~ 1.3kb (roughly %60) per emoji.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/emoji-compressed-comparison.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/emoji-compressed-comparison.png?resize=1025%2C511&ssl=1" alt="emoji-compressed-comparison" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63717" /></a></p>
<p>Uysal said he hopes WordPress.org will consider compressing emoji in the future, especially since approximately 10% of the web is using WordPress 4.6. Compressing emoji is a small way to speed up a sizeable chunk of the web. A <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37374" target="_blank">ticket</a> was created on Trac four months ago, requesting cache headers for emoji files and compression. According to Gary Pendergast, the change is something that can be made outside of the WordPress core development cycle, so he closed the ticket and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/systems/2016/07/20/there-are-no-cache-instructions/" target="_blank">passed the suggestion on to the Systems team</a>. Cache headers were added by the team, but compression was not implemented in that update.</p>
<p>&#8220;The current plan is to move everything to a new CDN,&#8221; Gary Pendergast reported after chatting with the Systems team. &#8220;The current CDN is a bit outdated &#8211; they don’t support HTTP/2, for example. They need to do some more testing, but it’s high on the todo list.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the meantime, users who want compressed emoji can use Uysal&#8217;s plugin. It compressed the files using <a href="https://github.com/svg/svgo" target="_blank">SVGO</a>, an open source Node.js-based tool for optimizing SVG vector graphics files. The tool removes unnecessary things like metadata, comments, hidden elements, and default or non-optimal values from the SVG files without affecting their rendering. Another advantage is it doesn&#8217;t require an internet connection for those who are developing locally.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/compressed-emoji/" target="_blank">Compressed Emoji</a> is available in the WordPress plugin directory and is also open for contributions on <a href="https://github.com/mustafauysal/compressed-emoji" target="_blank">GitHub</a>.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Nov 2016 23:49:19 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"Dev Blog: WordPress 4.7 Beta 3";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4566";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-3/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3091:"<p>WordPress 4.7 Beta 3 is now available!</p>
<p><strong>This software is still in development,</strong> so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.7, try the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-4.7-beta3.zip">download the beta here</a> (zip).</p>
<p>For more information on what’s new in 4.7, check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/10/wordpress-4-7-beta-1/">Beta 1</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-2/">Beta 2</a> blog posts, along with <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/4-7+dev-notes/">in-depth field guides on make/core</a>. Some of the changes in Beta 3 include:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>REST API:</strong> The <code>unfiltered_html</code> capability is now respected and <code>rest_base</code> has been added to response objects of <code>wp/v2/taxonomies</code> and <code>wp/v2/types</code>, while <code>get_allowed_query_vars()</code> and the <code>rest_get_post</code> filter have been removed.</li>
<li><strong>Roles/Capabilities:</strong> Added meta-caps for comment, term, and user meta, which are currently only used in the REST API.</li>
<li><strong>I18N:</strong> Added the ability to change user&#8217;s locale back to site&#8217;s locale. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38632">#38632</a>)</li>
<li><strong>Custom CSS:</strong> Renamed the <code>unfiltered_css</code> meta capability to <code>edit_css</code> and added revisions support to the <code>custom_css</code> post type.</li>
<li><strong>Edit shortcuts:</strong> Theme authors should take a look at <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/10/visible-edit-shortcuts-in-the-customizer-preview/">the developer guide to the customizer preview&#8217;s visible edit shortcuts</a> and update their themes to take advantage of them if not already implementing selective refresh.</li>
<li><strong>Various bug fixes:</strong> We’ve made <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/trunk/src?action=stop_on_copy&mode=stop_on_copy&rev=39200&stop_rev=39143&limit=200&verbose=on&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=">over 50 changes</a> in the last week.</li>
</ul>
<p>Do you speak a language other than English? <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev">Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!</a></p>
<p><strong>If you think you’ve found a bug</strong>, you can post to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta">Alpha/Beta area</a> in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/reports/">file one on WordPress Trac</a>, where you can also find <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">a list of known bugs</a>.</p>
<p><em>Building the future</em><br />
<em>A global community</em><br />
<em>Stronger together</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 11 Nov 2016 03:30:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Helen Hou-Sandi";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:2;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:52:"WPTavern: Andy Baio Relaunches Waxy.org on WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63685";s:7:"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:63:"https://wptavern.com/andy-baio-relaunches-waxy-org-on-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3333:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/waxy.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/waxy.png?resize=1025%2C415&ssl=1" alt="waxy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63701" /></a></p>
<p>After 14 years of blogging with MovableType, Andy Baio has <a href="http://waxy.org/2016/11/redesigning-waxy-2016-edition/" target="_blank">relaunched Waxy.org on WordPress</a>. Baio&#8217;s media and technology blog has been a continual source of original content about life on the internet and how it affects our culture. The migration includes 472 posts and 15,891 entries from his sideblog <a href="http://waxy.org/category/links/" target="_blank">Waxy Links</a>.</p>
<p>Waxy.org played a small part in WordPress.org&#8217;s early history. In 2005 Baio broke the story about <a href="http://waxy.org/2005/03/wordpress_websi/" target="_blank">WordPress quietly hosting search engine spam articles</a> in order to help cover some of the site&#8217;s expenses. The exposure and subsequent removal of <a href="http://random.waxy.org/html/google_wordpress.html" target="_blank">the articles</a> temporarily decimated WordPress.org&#8217;s pagerank but Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s <a href="https://ma.tt/2005/04/a-response/" target="_blank">response</a> to the situation brought more transparency to how the open source project was being funded. Baio interviewed Mullenweg for the piece and considered it his first foray into serious journalism.</p>
<p>In his post about the site&#8217;s redesign Baio concedes that blogs are &#8220;not really part of the cultural conversation anymore&#8221; but said he thinks there&#8217;s still potential in the medium.</p>
<p>&#8220;There a few reasons why I’m sad about the decline of independent blogging, and why I think they’re still worth fighting for,&#8221; Baio said. &#8220;Ultimately, it comes down to two things: ownership and control.&#8221;</p>
<p>Baio explained why it&#8217;s important for him to control his own space on the web, as opposed to putting content at the mercy of third-party platforms whose futures are not guaranteed:</p>
<blockquote><p>Last week, Twitter announced they’re shutting down Vine. Twitter, itself, may be acquired and changed in some terrible way. It’s not hard to imagine a post-Verizon Yahoo selling off Tumblr. Medium keeps pivoting, trying to find a successful revenue model. There’s no guarantee any of these platforms will be around in their current state in a year, let alone ten years from now.</p>
<p>Here, I control my words. Nobody can shut this site down, run annoying ads on it, or sell it to a phone company. Nobody can tell me what I can or can’t say, and I have complete control over the way it’s displayed. Nobody except me can change the URL structure, breaking 14 years of links to content on the web.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://waxy.org/" target="_blank">Waxy.org</a> is now responsive and uses a custom theme built using Automattic&#8217;s <a href="http://components.underscores.me/" target="_blank">Components starter-theme generator</a>. Baio will continue exploring odd corners of the internet on his blog and plans to share his thoughts about the challenges of navigating the ecosystem of independent publishers.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 10 Nov 2016 23:45:20 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57:"WPTavern: bbPress 2.5.11 Adds WordPress 4.7 Compatibility";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63694";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"https://wptavern.com/bbpress-2-5-11-adds-wordpress-4-7-compatibility";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2494:"<p>The bbPress development team has <a href="https://bbpress.org/blog/2016/11/bbpress-2-5-11-maintenance-release/">released 2.5.11</a> to add support <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/07/changed-loading-order-for-current-user-in-4-7/">for a technical change</a> in WordPress 4.7. Users are highly encouraged to update to bbPress 2.5.11 <strong>before</strong> updating to WordPress 4.7. In 4.7, the loading order for the current user in the function stack was changed to accommodate <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/07/user-admin-languages-and-locale-switching-in-4-7/">user locale switching</a>.</p>
<p>Previously, BuddyPress and bbPress displayed a custom notice when a user was initialized without using WP-&gt;init(). In addition to patching the issue in <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/7305">BuddyPress</a> and <a href="https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2309">bbPress</a>, a new <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/23016">wp_roles_init filter</a> was added to WordPress that allows plugins to add custom roles when they&#8217;re initialized.</p>
<p>The changes mentioned above are technical in nature so I asked John James Jacoby, lead developer of bbPress, what the update really means. &#8220;bbPress loads its roles on-the-fly, in a similar way to how post-types and taxonomies are registered,&#8221; Jacoby told the Tavern.</p>
<p>&#8220;With locales and roles now having a reversed load order, bbPress needed some code changes to work for both WordPress 4.6 and 4.7 without causing any problems for third-party bbPress plugins and non-English installations.&#8221;</p>
<p>This particular improvement has personal historical meaning to Jacoby, &#8220;This change to WordPress core in 4.7 is a long time coming,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;It was the very first bug I ever reported in WordPress&#8217; IRC channel back in 2008, when I was working on a large multi-lingual multisite installation. It&#8217;s how I met Peter Westwood and Jen Mylo, and it was their kindness that made it clear that WordPress was the platform for me.&#8221;</p>
<p>Jacoby also notes that per-forum moderators, favorites, and subscriptions have been rewritten in bbPress 2.6. During testing, performance enhancements were discovered and submitted to WordPress core and have been implemented across the forums on WordPress.org. Work continues on bbPress 2.6 which is expected to ship in 2017.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 10 Nov 2016 22:33:44 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 253 – BuddyPress 2.8, WordCamp US, and PressNomics 5";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"https://wptavern.com?p=63684&preview=true&preview_id=63684";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-253-buddypress-2-8-wordcamp-us-and-pressnomics-5";s: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:3135:"<p>In this episode of WordPress Weekly, <a href="http://marcuscouch.com/">Marcus Couch</a> and I discuss the news of the week. WordCamp US live stream tickets will be free this year and development of BuddyPress 2.8 kicks off. We talk about the revamped guidelines for the WordPress plugin directory and how they should help streamline the review process.</p>
<p>Last but not least, we discuss an important update to bbPress. Because of some recent life changes, the recording time for WordPress weekly will now be on Wednesdays at 3PM Eastern, 12PM Pacific.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/buddypress-2-8-development-kicks-off-2016-survey-now-open-for-developers">BuddyPress 2.8 Development Kicks Off, 2016 Survey Now Open for Developers</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-live-stream-tickets-now-available">WordCamp US Live Stream Tickets Now Available</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/take-the-2016-wordpress-user-survey">Take the 2016 WordPress User Survey</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-plugin-team-publishes-revamped-guidelines-for-plugin-directory">WordPress Plugin Team Publishes Revamped Guidelines for Plugin Directory</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/pressnomics-5-scheduled-for-april-6-8-2017-in-phoenix-az">PressNomics 5 Scheduled for April 6-8, 2017 in Phoenix, AZ</a><br />
<a href="https://bbpress.org/blog/2016/11/bbpress-2-5-11-maintenance-release/">bbPress 2.5.11 – Maintenance Release</a></p>
<h2>Plugins Picked By Marcus:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/grid-canvas-pinterest/">Grid Canvas &#8211; Pinterest Image Creator </a>automatically detects all the images in a post and adds them to a grid layout. It comes with plenty of predefined grid layouts to choose from and there are more coming soon. You can also select the image size that is most optimal for different social networks.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-password-changed-notifications/">Disable Password Changed Notifications</a> by Pippin Williamson disables the notification email sent to site administrators when users change their passwords.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-private-comment-notes/">WP Private Comment Notes</a> allows WordPress admins and or moderators to add and manage private notes for comments. Additionally, each note can be shared with the user who left the original comment.</p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, November 16th 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
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<p><strong>Listen To Episode #253:</strong><br />
</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 10 Nov 2016 20:53:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"WPTavern: WordPress Community Team Proposes New Selection Process for 2017 Summit Attendees";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63604";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:102:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-community-team-proposes-new-selection-process-for-2017-summit-attendees";s: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:4890:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/testing.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/testing.jpg?resize=960%2C474&ssl=1" alt="testing" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46092" /></a></p>
<p>WordCamp Europe 2017 is set to <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-2017-will-host-the-next-wordpress-community-summit" target="_blank">host the next community summit</a> in Paris. This will be the first time the event has been held outside of the United States, a change that makes it more accessible for contributors who are unable to obtain a visa to enter the U.S.</p>
<p>Attaching the summit to WordCamp Europe was the next logical step, as the event brings together project contributors from around the world. Europe is one of the fastest growing regions for the WordPress community in terms of events, with a <a href="https://wptavern.com/europe-tops-wordcamp-growth-in-2015-with-70-increase-in-events" target="_blank">70% increase in WordCamps in 2015</a>. There were 20 WordCamps held in October and 50% of those were hosted in European cities.</p>
<p>The past three community summits have been invitation-only in order to ensure those present were active contributors to WordPress and to enable a format that facilitates face-to-face discussions on key issues facing the project and the community. This inevitably leaves many valuable contributors on the outside. In an effort to mitigate the sense of exclusivity around the event, the WordPress Community Team is <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/11/03/wordpress-community-summit-2017/" target="_blank">proposing a new selection process for 2017</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>If we have to limit our attendance to have productive, collaborative discussions at the Summit, then choosing the participants becomes a challenge if we don’t know what the teams are going to discuss ahead of time. Therefore, this year I suggest we try something new:</p>
<p>Let’s ask teams to decide on the challenging, controversial, or sensitive issues they want to discuss at the summit before the summit is held. Then, once the teams know what they want to talk over in person, they can nominate and select the people needed to represent all points of view in each of those discussions. This way, the event stays small, hard topics get discussed, but the selection process is more transparent and functional.</p></blockquote>
<p>Rocio Valdivia, who posted the proposal on behalf of the team, roughly outlined how the selection process would work. She suggested each make.wordpress.org project team would create and publish a list of topics/issues for discussion at the summit and submit them by December 20th. Teams would then select representatives to attend the summit. Two members of those selected would be assigned to help with the organization and logistics of the summit, including tasks such as finding sponsors, travel assistance, and communication.</p>
<p>&#8220;The intention of this approach is to propose a more open and team-focus Community Summit with transparent participation from all active contributors and reps of each team,&#8221; Valdivia said. &#8220;This way we can hopefully anticipate barriers and cross-team difficulties that might come up, and avoid them.&#8221;</p>
<p>This approach is different from past events where attendees were not part of the organizational aspects but it gives contributors more ownership of the event and their teams&#8217; specific goals. Details and logistics would be worked out later in the year with the help of the WCEU organizers.</p>
<p>The Community Team is asking for feedback on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/11/03/wordpress-community-summit-2017/" target="_blank">proposal</a> before implementing a plan of action for the new selection process. As the open source project has grown, WordPress has hundreds of contributors spread across its three dozen core <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/components/" target="_blank">components</a>. So far contributors have weighed in on the initial proposed number of team representatives and the deadline for preparing topics.</p>
<p>There was also some concern in the Community Team&#8217;s meeting on Slack as to whether the new selection process will perpetuate the pattern of the same people being invited to the summit every time simply because they are most active in the project. Allowing teams to nominate their representatives based on the anticipated topics will make the selection process more focused on which contributors are best suited to work on pressing issues. Moving the location to Europe will also give regional contributors the opportunity to bring fresh ideas and perspectives, especially regarding the challenges of multilingual publishing with WordPress.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 10 Nov 2016 06:48:23 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:103:"WPTavern: A New Way to Search, Preview, and Install Themes in the Customizer Removed From WordPress 4.7";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63634";s:7:"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:112:"https://wptavern.com/a-new-way-to-search-preview-and-install-themes-in-the-customizer-removed-from-wordpress-4-7";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4376:"<p>Astute testers may have noticed a new feature in WordPress 4.7 beta 1 that enabled users to search, preview, and install themes from within the customizer. This feature was part of <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/24/customize-update-2016-10-23/">five feature projects</a> related to the customizer that were approved for merge last month. Its goal is to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/03/feature-proposal-a-new-experience-for-discovering-installing-and-previewing-themes-in-the-customizer/">unify the theme browsing and customizing experience</a>.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CustomizerThemeBrowserFlow.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-63638" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CustomizerThemeBrowserFlow.png?resize=1025%2C793&ssl=1" alt="Customizer Theme Browser Flow" /></a>Customizer Theme Browser Flow
<p>It was removed in WordPress 4.7 beta 2. Helen Hou-Sandí, WordPress 4.7 release lead, <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37661#comment:121">reverted the change</a> after <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37661#comment:113">collecting feedback. </a>Some of the reasons for reverting the feature include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Displaying on mobile devices is broken.</li>
<li>Inability to close the feature/filter accordion.</li>
<li>Checkmarks are overlayed on top of the search form.</li>
<li>The full-screen plus reload experience isn&#8217;t polished.</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37661#comment:121">According to Hou-Sandí</a>, there is not enough time left in the development cycle to polish the design and make it sufficient for WordPress 4.7. Nick Halsey, who helps maintain the Customizer component, <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37661#comment:127">expressed displeasure</a> with the decision.</p>
<p>&#8220;Abruptly deciding to pull something without allowing any opportunity to improve things or even bring it up in a weekly dev chat is ridiculous,&#8221; Halsey said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Had I been asked to provide patches for outstanding bugs (one of which never even received a ticket), I would have gladly done so sooner &#8211; this was my highest priority for core for the past 4 months.&#8221;</p>
<p>Halsey goes on to say that the revert is disrespectful and insulting to him and that he is unlikely to further contribute to the project until it is back in trunk. Samuel Sidler, <span class="st">Apollo Team Lead at Automattic</span>, <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37661#comment:124">responded to Halsey </a>supporting Hou-Sandí&#8217;s decision.</p>
<p>&#8220;Making a decision to pull a highly visible feature is hard, but, as you know, it&#8217;s ultimately one that the release lead should make as it&#8217;s <em>their release</em> and they have the best overall view,&#8221; Sidler said.</p>
<p>Weston Ruter, who also helps maintain the Customizer component, asked if the revert could be reversed if patches to outstanding issues were created.</p>
<p>&#8220;No &#8211; if this were a matter of problems that have defined solutions already then the course of action would not have been a revert,&#8221; Hou-Sandí <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37661#comment:130">responded</a>. &#8220;I know that it would feel better to have something more than &#8216;my gut and the guts of others say no&#8217;, but if there was more definition to the problems then we may not have been in a position where reverting from this release was the only sane thing to do.&#8221;</p>
<p>The <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37661">feature has been punted</a> and the milestone was changed from WordPress 4.7 to a Future Release.</p>
<h2>A Window Into How WordPress Development Works</h2>
<p>The quotes I published above are only part of the story. I highly encourage you to start with <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37661#comment:113">this post</a> and read every response in full. It&#8217;s a great opportunity to see a WordPress release lead in action and how and why certain decisions in WordPress development are made. Those interested in the feature&#8217;s progress can follow along by <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/37661">monitoring this ticket</a>.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 09 Nov 2016 23:41:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:49:"HeroPress: Uncomfortable doesn’t mean walk away";s:7:"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=1466";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"https://heropress.com/essays/uncomfortable-doesnt-mean-walk-away/";s: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:23144:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/110916-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: Uncomfortable often means there is something amazing to be learnt." /><p>I am not a developer. Confession? It feels like it sometimes. In my mind’s eye I see a roomful of skittish WordPress marketers with dark-ringed eyes, disclosing the number of times they pretended to understand something technical when it made about as much sense to them as the moon landing. Frustrated they can’t code it themselves. Maybe it’s just me in that room.</p>
<p>I am a words person – a creative, a copywriter, and a marketer. My heart beats faster over ancient English literature, clever mailers, alliteration, storytelling and subject lines, and the shapeshifting challenge of building an authentic brand in a world of smoke, mirrors, and shmoozing.</p>
<p>Topher asked me to write my WordPress story and when I thought about what I’ve learnt over the past two years what came to mind was: <strong>uncomfortable doesn’t mean walk away</strong>.</p>
<p>Far from being something to categorically flee or avoid, discomfort is a signpost to watch out for – something to embrace and step bravely towards. Obviously there are exceptions – but in my experience discomfort often means lean in, listen closely, change something.</p>
<p>I’ve chosen to share a few of the ways I’ve encountered uncomfortable in my WordPress journey so far, and why I’m grateful.</p>
<h3>A bit of background</h3>
<p>Perhaps we are all creatures of habit on some level, but I really am. For example, when backpacking with my best friend in 2008 from Istanbul down to Cairo – through Syria and Jordan, including places that are now literally non-existent – she and I noticed that if we found a good restaurant I’d suggest returning the following night while she always wanted to try new spots.</p>
<p>When I find something I like, it makes perfect sense to me to stick with it, sometimes to a fault. Until fairly recently I would have described myself as someone who didn’t thrive on change. This partly explains why by the age of twenty nine my entire life had played out in one city.</p>
<a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_5951-min.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1470" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_5951-min-1024x768.jpg" alt="Marina as a child with mother" width="960" height="720" /></a>My beautiful mum, brother and I. My mum is a superhuman and I miss her daily.
<p>Birth, preschool to postgraduate studies, the first nine years of my career, family, friends, life – all in one patch.</p>
<p>I have been privileged to do some excellent travelling to amazing places – European beach holidays and ski trips (obviously I broke my arm), teaching English for four weeks in South Korea, a cruise in Alaska, a church trip to Singapore and Malaysia, Vancouver to visit family – but my sense of home and place was unwaveringly Cape Town.</p>
<p>At the beginning of 2014 I decided to emigrate. The delay between the idea occurring to me and resigning was less than two weeks. With a British passport through my English mum and a mild obsession with all things British, London was it. It seemed wise to secure a job first but my gut said I should have faith and move regardless so I resigned from Yuppiechef.com <a href="https://www.yuppiechef.com/spatula/10-thoughts-about-community-management-and-social-media/">where I’d been for nearly five years</a>, sold my car, and booked a one way ticket.</p>
<p>At this point, it would be fair to say WordPress was not even really on my radar. It powered Yuppiechef’s blog so I’d used it in that capacity and <a href="https://marinapape.com/">my own blog</a> was on WordPress.com – but it was pretty much just a thing to do with the internet that helped people publish stuff.</p>
<p>A week before I set off I was having sushi with friends and got chatting to a mouthy American who worked for WooThemes. Hearing of my pending departure and getting a sense of my strengths and what I loved to do, he suggested I consider applying. Less than a week later I accepted an offer to join Woo’s then-tiny marketing team. I’m still amazed at the speed with which it all happened – and will be forever amused by Mark and Warren’s confidence in me as a total WordPress n0ob (maybe they didn’t realise!).</p>
<a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_8001-min.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1471" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_8001-min-1024x768.jpg" alt="I love MailChimp. Freddy lives on my desk beside some Woo stickers" width="960" height="720" /></a>I love MailChimp. Freddy lives on my desk beside some Woo stickers
<p>And so my WordPress journey began in London on 1 July 2014, fresh off the boat and working remotely for the first time. I logged online from a coffee shop – specifically Timberyard, which has become a familiar friend – and dived headfirst into a world I hadn’t realised would be so technical. And digital. Marketing a digital product is a very different kettle of fish to kitchen products. And working remotely as an extrovert?</p>
<p>In my first week I was sent to WordCamp Brighton where I innocently asked someone the difference between .org and WordPress.com. This was the first prickle of my first uncomfortable hurdle: being okay with not knowing everything.</p>
<h3>It really is okay not to know everything.</h3>
<p>It sounds stupid to even write that one needs to be okay with not knowing everything – of course one can’t, but at Yuppiechef.com I sure knew a lot more about a lot more. There, my lack of technical understanding wasn’t a thing, marketing was lauded, and our brand was at the forefront of what set us apart. <a href="http://ventureburn.com/2013/03/the-yuppiechef-cult-how-a-startup-sparked-a-religion/">People wrote about how the following for Yuppiechef was cult-like</a>, and I’d helped create that.</p>
<p>Joining Woo I was a tiny fish all over again, and I was swimming in a world with languages I didn’t understand.</p>
<blockquote><p>Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. – unknown (but attributed to Einstein)</p></blockquote>
<p>It was a little bit terrifying to be a marketer in this tech-celebratory world. And it took me a long time to accept I have something significant to offer at WooCommerce (and now Automattic) and feel confident enough to add my voice to conversations. Why? I guess I am proud. In the early days I was constantly tempted to pretend to know more than I do (for the record this is a bad idea) and developed a hefty dose of imposter syndrome, which worsened when Automattic acquired WooCommerce. I found myself wondering if they would have hired me.</p>
<p>For a few months, the fear I felt kept me from bringing to the table the valuable things I did know.</p>
<a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_7373-min.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1472" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_7373-min-1024x768.jpg" alt="Standing by a concrete wall with a vast ocean scene behind." width="960" height="720" /></a>With my team in Cape Town earlier this year. Nicole, Aviva, me, Gareth and Kevin &lt;3.
<p>It’s scary admitting a lack of understanding, it takes strong relationships with colleagues (which take time to build, especially remotely) to raise your hand and be vulnerable. But the problem is that not doing so ends up blocking and robbing the contribution you could make. It silences your voice. It is not possible to be a master of all trades: yes I need a working understanding of our products, but I don’t need to become a Javascript developer. One body, many parts, all valuable.</p>
<p>This learning curve was uncomfortable for me. At various points I have wanted to bail, or take a year to learn how to code fulltime. But I am really glad I haven’t because marketing is vital and that is what I can do. And do very well (when I’m not looking over my shoulder).</p>
<p>It’s okay to be an expert in what you love, not what other people love. It’s why we have teams. It’s what makes the world interesting.</p>
<a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_3576-min.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1473" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_3576-min-1024x768.jpg" alt="Classroom filled with people" width="960" height="720" /></a>The first WordPress London meetup I attended. It was pretty awesome.
<h3>Remote relationships take longer to build but they sure run deep.</h3>
<p>My degree was in Psychology and it remains an active interest. ENFJ is proudly in my Twitter bio, I love taking personality tests and calling out and connecting with the underbellies and depths of fellow human beings.</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;<strong>My friends are my estate</strong>. Forgive me then the avarice to hoard them.&#8221; – Emily Dickinson</p></blockquote>
<p>If you’re familiar with Gallups Strengthfinder, I’m a Relator to the bone. People often ask how I have the discipline to work from home but that’s pocket change compared to the relational challenge. Showing up to work and being productive hasn’t been the thing I’ve found difficult – it’s trying to build relationship digitally with people far away and in different timezones.</p>
<p>Plus I find there is a certain type of rapport, creativity, and energy that is really hard to create remotely when it comes to brainstorming and collaborating. The buzz of having an idea and someone else adding to it IRL, growing it into something greater. This was not a comfortable thing, but again choosing to stay has proven invaluable.</p>
<p><strong>Remote relationships take longer to build, but they sure run deep</strong>. The bonding that happens when you come together for meetups and WordCamps is extraordinary. I have grown to properly know and love my colleagues (not all 500+ Automatticians yet but certainly my immediate team) and a bunch of awesome WordPress people I’ve met.</p>
<a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_8319-min.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1474" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_8319-min-1024x768.jpg" alt="On-screen grid of faces in a google hangout" width="960" height="720" /></a>Well hello Woo people. Here’s us hanging out on Air.
<p>It’s tiring flying to meetups, and you miss home, but it’s now becoming hard to leave them. My heart sometimes feels like it is scattered in little bits: a fragment with Scotty and the Dekode crew in Norway, another few with Louise in Kwazulu Natal, Cobus and Dom in Cape Town and chunks with Nicole and Aviva stateside. It’s fragmenting, but what a privilege.</p>
<p>To keep me grounded day to day, I’ve helped start and now am involved in running a non-profit coworking space, which has opened up a whole new web of relationships in London. If you’re ever in town, pop into <a href="http://www.arkcoworking.com/">ARK Coworking</a> for a pour over coffee.</p>
<p>Working remotely is different. But it’s a pretty niche kind of special to have a web of people around the world that you would otherwise be totally unconnected to.</p>
<a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_4183-min.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1475" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_4183-min.jpg" alt="People standing astride bikes, flashing gang symbols." width="749" height="549" /></a>The Woo biker gang on a marketing meetup near Lake Michigan, 2015
<p>Which brings me to another uncomfortable hurdle brought squarely to me by WordPress: the challenge of responding well to diversity and difference.</p>
<h3>Thinking something for a long time doesn’t mean it’s true.</h3>
<p>Part of <a href="https://automattic.com/creed/">Automattic’s creed</a> is to never stop learning. Being part of WordPress has brought me into close proximity with a more varied, vocal, challenging, and diverse group than I could have made up.</p>
<p>The thing about being a human is you only ever get to be one of them. One in over seven billion. How much about other people and parts of the world you don’t live in do you know, really? How much do I? Being part of WordPress has opened my eyes to diversity in a way that is hard to describe. Emigrating helped too, but it is very possible to live in a bubble wherever you go.</p>
<blockquote><p>A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right. – Thomas Paine</p></blockquote>
<p>Just because something has always been a certain way, doesn’t make it right. Being part of WordPress, and Automattic, has helped me greatly in learning how to hold what I believe to be right and true gently, and have equal respect for other people’s right and true.</p>
<p>I ran the WooCommerce London meetup for two years which brought me into contact with a very mixed group; I was part of Automattic’s diversity workshop at the GM which was educational to say the least; when my friend Rosie started a <a href="http://mouthywomen.work/">blog</a> to highlight out how mouthy women get told they’re too masculine, I got behind her heart and soul.</p>
<a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screen-Shot-2016-11-03-at-13.21.46-min.png"><img class="wp-image-1476 size-full" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screen-Shot-2016-11-03-at-13.21.46-min.png" alt="Stewart Ritchie sharing at the WooCommerce London meetup. Photo: Gabor Javorsky." width="601" height="447" /></a>Stewart Ritchie sharing at the WooCommerce London meetup. Photo: Gabor Javorsky.
<p>The most poignant example of this for me was much closer to home. I wrote some copy a while ago as the backstory of Woo’s ninja mascot, Hiro and included in it a bunch of references to Japanese culture that, though well intentioned, turned out to be not okay. It had been up for ages before someone with a different enough perspective flagged it. Ouch.</p>
<p>I went home after a long day of tears and much Slack messaging and confided in my Malaysian flatmate about it, half expecting him to comfort me and say the whole thing really wasn’t such a big deal and that it didn’t bother him. Instead his only comment was: “<em>That’s good. It will make your company better.</em>”</p>
<p>We live, we learn. We wound, we grow.</p>
<p>John Maeda, who recently joined Automattic as Head of Design and Inclusion, calls such oversights in our thinking ‘lacunae’. Being part of the worldwide community of WordPress has brought a number of my own lacunae into sharp focus. It’s also made me more able to exist peacefully alongside people whose views I don’t share. I’m a human, they’re a human. Two in seven billion.</p>
<p>Now, the idea of stepping away and retreating to a more homogenous, same-y group of people who tend to agree with me is not just unattractive, it’s scary.</p>
<p>WordPress helps me be open-minded and it’s vehicle for doing this is individuals who are willing to speak up. Let’s help each other, as kindly and graciously as we can.</p>
<h3>Marketing a WordPress product is difficult.</h3>
<p>I’ve found marketing WooCommerce challenging for two reasons.</p>
<p>First there is the classic digital marketer’s problem of how to build relationship with customers you never get to meet. All we have are words online and if we’re lucky some rituals and routines we can inject life into (I wrote about this strategy <a href="https://woocommerce.com/2015/11/4-customer-rituals/">here</a>).</p>
<p>Over the past two years there have been a number of times I have thrown my hands up in the air and wanted to market something that is just easier to sell (coffee, an awesome gadget, luxury jewelry).</p>
<p>On top of that eCommerce is a competitive space and selling WordPress can be a little complex messaging-wise, especially for non-coders and those not familiar with WordPress:</p>
<p><em>Friend: Do I even have WooCommerce yet?</em><br />
<em> Me: Yes it’s there in your downloads folder.</em><br />
<em> Friend: <span>&lt;silence&gt;</span>.</em></p>
<p>Every time I see another seductive Squarespace ad or the daily Shopify case study lands in my inbox (<em>How person x built y and changed the destiny of the human race</em>) – part of me can only see how far we have to go.</p>
<p>But, I am enjoying fighting the good fight to democratise eCommerce with WordPress. I believe in what we’re doing, and in open source, and even though our competitors have bigger marketing teams and 24/7 phone support I feel a fierce loyalty to Woo.</p>
<p>I don’t believe marketing has the emphasis it deserves in the WordPress space, but it’s coming to the fore. Great products don’t market themselves. The weaker thing will win if that is what is in front of people. I’m excited to be in this space.</p>
<h3>Saying less is more. Narrow focus is healthy.</h3>
<p>As someone who loves to joke around, natter, and come up with ideas, something I have learnt the hard way is that volume of words and number of ideas is not no an indicator of the quality of your contribution.</p>
<p>It feels nice to be busy, but what is the deliverable?</p>
<p>Having another great idea is not always helpful. Sometimes what I need to do is shut up and work. The manager versus maker ratio tends to leave a lot of cooks in the kitchen. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Pushing a few strategic things over the line, with your eyes on a goal everyone has agreed on, now that’s a better way.</p>
<p>Staying focused working remotely can be hard. Fortunately, we have a great system of setting OKRs that my team is particularly diligent at sticking to. There are so. Many. Conversations. Going on all of the time. Focus is a healthy and freeing thing.</p>
<a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_4139-min.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-1477" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_4139-min-1024x768.jpg" alt="Marina and Louise, heads together, grinning" width="960" height="720" /></a>My Woo bestie, Louise. Here we are in San Francisco in 2014. I went back to South Africa for her wedding this year :).
<h3>Inclusion is a very important thing.</h3>
<p>A final thing I am learning through WordPress, and which has made my uncomfortable for sure, is the importance of inclusion. I touched on this a little already, but it’s something that I have now got my teeth into and am not going to let go of. Inclusion is a thing.</p>
<p>Something that is great about WordPress is that intrinsically inclusive, it’s open to all.</p>
<p>It isn’t only about big shiny success stories where people are making thousands of dollars. It’s people all over the world, fighting to make WordPress available in all languages; it’s faithful meetup organisers sharing knowledge with those who are just starting out; it’s the GPL; it’s having childcare at WordCamps; it’s using <em>y’all</em> or <em>folks</em> not <em>guys</em> to greet an audience.</p>
<p>WordPress is not slick, sometimes things get a bit messy and there are heated discussions on forums and in backchannels. But WordPress is also a lot like how the world should be – democratic, going out of it’s way to make room and include, and with more than just the bottom line driving decisions.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>That’s it from me. I hope sharing just a few of the ways WordPress has made me uncomfortable– what I learnt, and why I am glad I didn’t just bail – will be encouraging.</p>
<p>Perhaps you are facing some tough things related to work or beyond. Maybe someone has expressed an opinion or belief that has made you uncomfortable. I’d encourage you to pause and take some time to think over whatever it is before acting.</p>
<blockquote><p>Uncomfortable often means there is something amazing to be learnt.</p></blockquote>
<p>Let’s be brave, open, and keep on learning together through this wonderful thing called WordPress.</p>
<p><a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_4832-min.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1478" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_4832-min-1024x768.jpg" alt="Pin board with hundreds of photos all over it." width="960" height="720" /></a></p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: Uncomfortable doesn’t mean walk away" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Uncomfortable%20doesn%E2%80%99t%20mean%20walk%20away&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Funcomfortable-doesnt-mean-walk-away%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Uncomfortable doesn’t mean walk away" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Funcomfortable-doesnt-mean-walk-away%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Funcomfortable-doesnt-mean-walk-away%2F&title=Uncomfortable+doesn%E2%80%99t+mean+walk+away" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Uncomfortable doesn’t mean walk away"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/essays/uncomfortable-doesnt-mean-walk-away/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/110916-150x150.jpg&description=Uncomfortable doesn’t mean walk away" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Uncomfortable doesn’t mean walk away"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/uncomfortable-doesnt-mean-walk-away/" title="Uncomfortable doesn’t mean walk away"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/uncomfortable-doesnt-mean-walk-away/">Uncomfortable doesn’t mean walk away</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, 09 Nov 2016 12:00:54 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Marina Pape";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"WPTavern: BuddyPress 2.8 Development Kicks Off, 2016 Survey Now Open for Developers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63402";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"https://wptavern.com/buddypress-2-8-development-kicks-off-2016-survey-now-open-for-developers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3278:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/buddypress-logo-blue.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/buddypress-logo-blue.png?resize=839%2C398&ssl=1" alt="buddypress-logo-blue" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30655" /></a></p>
<p>Development for BuddyPress 2.8 kicked off during <a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2016/11/05/dev-chat-summary-for-november-2-2016/" target="_blank">last week&#8217;s meeting</a> and the target release date was set for January 25. In line with the project&#8217;s <a href="https://wptavern.com/buddypress-2-7-development-kicks-off-project-shifts-focus-to-developers-and-site-builders" target="_blank">recent change of course</a>, the upcoming release will be another one focused on developers and site builders.</p>
<p>Long time contributor <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/slaFFik" target="_blank">Slava Abakumov</a> is leading 2.8 with a focus on reducing the 650+ tickets in BuddyPress Trac by 50%. He will coordinate contributors in working on a UI for developer features that were added in the 2.6 and 2.7 releases, which introduced an API for Group Types. Abakumov wants to dive deeper into security and plans to perform a security audit of the plugin.</p>
<p>The BuddyPress core team will shape development for 2017 based on feedback from this year&#8217;s <a href="https://buddypress.org/2016/11/2016-buddypress-survey-site-builders-developers/" target="_blank">survey</a>, which opened November 1. It includes 36 questions aimed at site builders and developers, as opposed to previous years where the survey was <a href="https://buddypress.org/2014/01/2014-buddypress-survey/" target="_blank">open to users and anyone connected with the software</a>.</p>
<p>The project&#8217;s change of direction is evident in the questions this year, which are decidedly developer-focused. According to the BuddyPress core team, these questions were prepared for the project&#8217;s primary audience of site builders and developers, &#8220;an explicit recognition of what BuddyPress has become, and how people use it.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to the usual demographical questions, respondents are asked about their PHP versions, site setups, and local development environments. A new question asks when developers test their sites and extensions against upcoming releases. The survey also asks which template files developers customize when creating themes (with no option to indicate that you&#8217;re not a theme developer). Participants are asked to weigh in on BuddyPress&#8217; problem areas and to give feedback on the most frequent feature requests they receive from community members and clients.</p>
<p>In 2013 the survey received 178 responses, 338 responses in 2014, and 211 in 2015. Given that the target audience is much narrower in 2016, the number of participants may decline again. However, the core team hopes responses will be more concentrated with the kind of information they find useful. The <a href="https://buddypress.org/2016/11/2016-buddypress-survey-site-builders-developers/" target="_blank">survey</a> will be open through November 20, 2016 and results will be posted before the end of the year.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 08 Nov 2016 18:17:40 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"WPTavern: WordCamp US Live Stream Tickets Now Available";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63030";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-live-stream-tickets-now-available";s: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:2838:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/wordcamp-us.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/wordcamp-us.png?resize=1025%2C490&ssl=1" alt="wordcamp-us" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59619" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org" target="_blank">WordCamp US</a> is less than a month away and attendees are finalizing their travel plans. In August, organizers were <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-calls-for-volunteers-organizers-estimate-3000-attendees" target="_blank">estimating 3,000 attendees</a> on the ground but official numbers are not yet available as tickets continue to sell. A maximum capacity has not been published, because organizers have a great deal of flexibility to expand the event to thousands more if necessary.</p>
<p>&#8220;The entire side of the PA Convention Center is ours, and we’re not using all of the spaces that they have,&#8221; WordCamp US co-organizer Alx Block said. &#8220;The sky is the limit.&#8221;</p>
<p>Last week a world-class lineup of <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/speakers/" target="_blank">speakers</a> was confirmed from a record number of applicants. The team received 600 submissions (up from 231 last year) and accepted less than 10% of them, according to Block.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think that WCUS last year really excited a lot of people, and they were interested in being a part of it,&#8221; Block said. &#8220;We also had quite a bit more time on the speaker applications, since in 2015 we planned the entire conference in just about three months.&#8221;</p>
<p>One exciting change this year is that <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/2016/11/02/wordcamp-us-live-stream/" target="_blank">live stream tickets</a> will be free for those who are not able to attend the event. There&#8217;s no limit on the number of people who can watch live.</p>
<p>&#8220;We really felt like there shouldn’t be a barrier to entry in attending WCUS,&#8221; Block said. &#8220;It’s the community’s conference, and everyone should be able to &#8216;attend&#8217; no matter where they physically are. We have some incredible sponsors, and making the live stream free felt like the best move.&#8221;</p>
<p>Last year&#8217;s live stream tickets included swag from the event, and WCUS 2016 will have commemorative t-shirts for sale in the swag store. In addition to the live stream, all of the sessions will be recorded and uploaded to WordPress.tv. If you are joining by live stream, make sure to <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/tickets/" target="_blank">reserve your ticket</a> in advance. You can also <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/live-stream/attendee-test/" target="_blank">test your computer for compatibility</a> ahead of the event.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 07 Nov 2016 21:47:35 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:45:"WPTavern: Take the 2016 WordPress User Survey";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63524";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://wptavern.com/take-the-2016-wordpress-user-survey";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1483:"<p>With <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp US</a> a little less than a month away, it&#8217;s time to take the <a href="https://wordpressdotorg.polldaddy.com/s/wordpress-2016-survey">2016 WordPress user survey</a>. The survey is quick and easy to fill out with only a few questions to answer. Results are anonymized and will be shared at this year&#8217;s State of the Word presentation.</p>
<p>Results from last year&#8217;s survey were not shared during Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s State of the Word presentation. During the <a href="https://2015.us.wordcamp.org/2015/12/05/state-of-the-word-live-blog/">question and answer</a> portion, Mullenweg was asked about the results.</p>
<p>&#8220;Lots of data to go over, but basically more people are using WordPress, app development is growing, lots of people are making their living with WordPress, and other great trends are showing up,&#8221; Mullenweg responded. &#8220;We’ll try to do a blog post about it.&#8221;</p>
<p>A post highlighting the results from the 2015 survey has yet to be published.</p>
<p>In 2014, 33K people took the survey and of those 33K, 7,539 or 25% said they make their living from WordPress. Over 90% of respondents said they built more than one site.</p>
<p>If you use WordPress, please take a few minutes to complete the survey. Also, <a href="https://2016.us.wordcamp.org/tickets/">tickets are still available</a> to attend WordCamp US December 2-4.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 07 Nov 2016 17:55:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:11:"
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23:"HeroPress: Finally SSL!";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://heropress.com/?p=1481";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://heropress.com/finally-ssl/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2741:"<p>I&#8217;ve been wanting to get SSL on HeroPress for a long time, but couldn&#8217;t for a variety of reasons. Well, it&#8217;s finally there! That means the <a href="https://heropress.com/plugin/">HeroPress Widget</a> will finally work properly on sites running SSL, I could someday do a Give campaign, etc.</p>
<p>One downside is that it broke our connection to WordPress Planet. It&#8217;s fixed now, but while it was down there were two essays that didn&#8217;t make it to the News widget in WordPress, and that made a big difference.  Here they are, using WordPress&#8217; cool oembed tools. Check&#8217;em out and leave a comment if you&#8217;re willing.</p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><p><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/fell-wordpress-helped/">I fell. WordPress helped me up.</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><p><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/conquering-obstacles-happiness/">Conquering My Obstacles To Happiness</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: Finally SSL!" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Finally%20SSL%21&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Ffinally-ssl%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Finally SSL!" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Ffinally-ssl%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Ffinally-ssl%2F&title=Finally+SSL%21" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Finally SSL!"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/finally-ssl/&media=http://heropress.com/wp-content/plugins/rtsocial/images/default-pinterest.png&description=Finally SSL!" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Finally SSL!"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/finally-ssl/" title="Finally SSL!"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/finally-ssl/">Finally SSL!</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 07 Nov 2016 16:02:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:105:"Post Status: Learning WordPress development and how employers should look at candidates — Draft podcast";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=30291";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"https://poststatus.com/learning-wordpress-development-employers-look-candidates-draft-podcast/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2050:"<p>Welcome to the Post Status <a href="https://poststatus.com/category/draft">Draft podcast</a>, which you can find <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008">on iTunes</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/m/Ih5egfxskgcec4qadr3f4zfpzzm?t=Post_Status__Draft_WordPress_Podcast">Google Play</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast">Stitcher</a>, and <a href="http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1061/rss">via RSS</a> for your favorite podcatcher. Post Status Draft is hosted by Joe Hoyle &#8212; the CTO of Human Made &#8212; and Brian Krogsgard.</p>
<p><span>In this episode, Joe and Brian talk about how they learned WordPress development, how employers should look at candidates for skill hiring, and various resources they find valuable for learning WordPress.</span></p>
<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');</script><![endif]-->
<a href="https://audio.simplecast.com/52463.mp3">https://audio.simplecast.com/52463.mp3</a>
<p><a href="http://audio.simplecast.com/52463.mp3">Direct Download</a></p>
<h3>Links</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://justbuildwebsites.com/">Just Build Websites</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.lynda.com/in/WordPress">Lynda.com WordPress tutorials</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wpinonemonth.com/">WP in One Month</a></li>
<li><a href="http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/">WordPress Development Stack Exchange</a></li>
<li><a href="http://wordpress.tv/2013/04/22/brian-krogsgard-going-for-it-how-to-become-a-respected-wordpress-developer/">How to Become a Respected WordPress Developer</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Sponsor: Gravity Forms</h3>
<p>This episode is sponsored by Gravity Forms. <a href="http://www.gravityforms.com/">Gravity Forms</a> makes the best web forms on the planet. Over a million WordPress sites are already using Gravity Forms. Is yours? For more information, check out their <a href="http://www.gravityforms.com/">website</a> and thank you to Gravity Forms for being a Post Status partner.</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, 07 Nov 2016 14:38:13 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Katie Richards";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"WPTavern: WordPress Plugin Team Publishes Revamped Guidelines for Plugin Directory";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63410";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-plugin-team-publishes-revamped-guidelines-for-plugin-directory";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3100:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/writing.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/writing.jpg?resize=1025%2C472&ssl=1" alt="photo credit: Green Chameleon" class="size-full wp-image-51302" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/8Y0EDX4VP9">Green Chameleon</a>
<p>Two months ago, revised guidelines for the WordPress Plugin Directory were <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-plugin-team-revamps-guidelines-invites-feedback-on-github" target="_blank">opened up on GitHub for public feedback</a>. This transparent and open process of updating the guidelines resulted in more than a dozen contributors submitting pull requests with improvements to the language and content. The <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-guidelines/" target="_blank">revamped guidelines</a> have now replaced the previous ones with language and expectations that are clearer and easier to understand.</p>
<p>&#8220;In addition to rewriting the guidelines, we took the time to codify the expectations of developers and cost of not abiding by the guidelines, as well as a reminder that we do remove plugins for security issues,&#8221; plugin team member Mika Epstein said in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2016/11/01/revised-guidelines-are-live/" target="_blank">announcement</a>. &#8220;We are doing our best to be transparent of what we expect from you and, in return, what you can expect from us.&#8221;</p>
<p>After several incidents this year where unclear guidelines contributed to confusion on issues like <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-plugin-directory-cracks-down-on-incentivized-reviews-despite-lack-of-official-guideline" target="_blank">incentivized reviews</a> and <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-wordpress-plugin-directory-will-no-longer-accept-frameworks" target="_blank">developers submitting frameworks</a>, the plugin team made the jump to update the five-year-old document. Although there are not major changes, some of the guidelines were considerably expanded for clarity. This includes #9: &#8220;The plugin and its developers must not do anything illegal, dishonest, or morally offensive.&#8221; The list was updated with several more examples of infractions that would land under this category.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s a massive undertaking to re-write guidelines in the public eye in a way that won’t pull the rug out from anyone,&#8221; Epstein said. &#8220;Our goal was to clarify, not totally change, but also to address the needs of an ever changing technology.&#8221;</p>
<p>Because the plugin directory was created to serve the WordPress project and its users, it doesn&#8217;t function like many other popular directories and marketplaces. Clear language and expectations are important, especially with WordPress&#8217; growing international user base. The newly updated guidelines should cut down on incidents where the plugin team has to enforce guidelines that were not explicitly documented.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 07 Nov 2016 06:03:59 +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:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"BuddyPress: BuddyPress 2.7.2";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:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=260750";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://buddypress.org/2016/11/buddypress-2-7-2/";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:888:"<p>BuddyPress 2.7.2 is now available. This is a maintenance release and a recommended upgrade for all BuddyPress installations.</p>
<p>BP 2.7.2 fixes a bug which ignored deprecated code being used in existing installations. For more information, see <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/query?group=status&milestone=2.7.2">the 2.7.2 milestone</a> on <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/">BuddyPress Trac</a>.</p>
<p>Update to BuddyPress 2.7.2 today in your WordPress Dashboard, or by <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress/">downloading from the wordpress.org plugin repository</a>.</p>
<p>Questions or comments? Check out <a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/releases/version-2-7-2/">2.7.2 changelog</a>, or stop by <a href="https://buddypress.org/support/">our support forums</a> or <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/">Trac</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 05 Nov 2016 16:30:19 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8:"@mercime";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"WPTavern: PressNomics 5 Scheduled for April 6-8, 2017 in Phoenix, AZ";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63490";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"https://wptavern.com/pressnomics-5-scheduled-for-april-6-8-2017-in-phoenix-az";s: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:1928:"<p><a href="https://pressnomics.com/">PressNomics</a>, an annual conference devoted to the economics of WordPress <a href="https://pressnomics.com/2016/11/pressnomics-5-april-6th-8th-2017/">has announced</a> that the fifth iteration of the event will take place April 6-8, 2017 at Tempe Mission Palms Hotel, in Phoenix, AZ. The event is organized by Joshua Strebel of <a title="http://page.ly" href="http://page.ly">Pagely</a>, a managed WordPress hosting company that recently celebrated its <a href="https://pagely.com/blog/2016/09/managed-wordpress-hosting-7yrs/">seventh birthday</a>.</p>
<p>A hallmark of the event is its contributions to charity. Since PressNomics one, the event has raised more than $40K for various charities including, <a href="http://www.stjude.org">St. Jude Children&#8217;s Research Hospital</a>, <a href="http://curesearch.org">CureSearch.org</a>, <a href="https://bensbells.org/">BensBells</a>, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters.</p>
<p>In addition to the conference, there will be a social Saturday where attendees can participate in a golf tournament or go on an excursion to explore the Art&#8217;s and Culture of the area. The social activities will be available as a separate purchase of $50 when buying your tickets. To take full advantage of the event, organizers suggest that attendees fly in on Wednesday, April 5th and leave on Sunday, April 9th.</p>
<p>Tickets have yet to go on sale and the speaker lineup is in the process of being finalized. If you want to be one of the first to know when tickets go on sale, you&#8217;re encouraged to sign up to the <a href="https://pressnomics.com/">event&#8217;s email list</a>. For insight into what it&#8217;s like to attend PressNomics, check out my <a href="https://wptavern.com/envato-stats-tips-for-getting-things-done-and-more-at-pressnomics-3">review of PressNomics 3 </a>held in January of 2015.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Nov 2016 18:53:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"Dev Blog: WordPress 4.7 Beta 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:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4552";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/11/wordpress-4-7-beta-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:4195:"<p>WordPress 4.7 Beta 2 is now available!</p>
<p><strong>This software is still in development,</strong> so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.7, try the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-4.7-beta2.zip">download the beta here</a> (zip).</p>
<p>Notable changes since WordPress 4.7 Beta 1:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Twenty Seventeen:</strong> The theme wasn&#8217;t being installed on upgrades &#8211; sorry about that! Now you should see it if you&#8217;re upgrading an existing site. There are also plenty of fixes, especially for the header and small screen views.</li>
<li><strong>Edit shortcuts:</strong> These are always visible while editing (hide them on bigger screens by collapsing the controls) and should now work properly in Firefox. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/27403">#27403</a> and <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38532">#38532</a>)</li>
<li><strong>REST API endpoints:</strong> There have been a number of changes over the past week; your attention is requested on the following:
<ul>
<li>The <code>DELETE</code> response format has changed and may need to be accounted for. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38494">#38494</a>)</li>
<li>Enabled querying by multiple post statuses. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38420">#38420</a>)</li>
<li>Return an error when JSON decoding fails. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38547">#38547</a>)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>More developer notes</strong>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/28/fine-grained-capabilities-for-taxonomy-terms-in-4-7/">Fine grained capabilities for taxonomy terms</a></li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/29/wp_taxonomy-in-4-7/"><code>WP_Taxonomy</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/02/wp_list_sort-and-wp_list_util-in-4-7/"><code>wp_list_sort()</code> and <code>WP_List_Util</code></a></li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/03/post-type-templates-in-4-7/">Post type templates</a></li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/03/new-post-type-labels-in-4-7/">New post type labels</a></li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/03/attributes-for-resource-hints-in-4-7/">Attributes for resource hints</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Various bug fixes:</strong> We’ve made <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/trunk/src?action=stop_on_copy&mode=stop_on_copy&rev=39142&stop_rev=38995&limit=200&verbose=on&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=">almost 150 changes</a> in the last week.</li>
</ul>
<p>For more of what’s new in version 4.7, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/10/wordpress-4-7-beta-1/">check out the Beta 1 blog post</a>.</p>
<p>If you want a more in-depth view of what major changes have made it into 4.7, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/4-7/">check out posts tagged with 4.7 on the main development blog</a>, or look at a <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&resolution=fixed&milestone=4.7&group=component&order=priority">list of everything</a> that’s changed. There will be more developer notes to come, so keep an eye out for those as well.</p>
<p>Do you speak a language other than English? <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev">Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!</a></p>
<p><strong>If you think you’ve found a bug</strong>, you can post to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta">Alpha/Beta area</a> in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/reports/">file one on WordPress Trac</a>, where you can also find <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">a list of known bugs</a>.</p>
<p>Happy testing!</p>
<p><em>Ya es la hora</em><br />
<em> Time for another beta</em><br />
请您帮下忙!</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, 04 Nov 2016 17:39:07 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Helen Hou-Sandi";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"WPTavern: A Preview of the Custom CSS Editor Added to the Customizer in WordPress 4.7";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63481";s:7:"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/a-preview-of-the-custom-css-editor-added-to-the-customizer-in-wordpress-4-7";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3295:"<p>WordPress 4.7 is a little more than a <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/roadmap/">month away</a> and is going to be packed with new features and improvements. In particular, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/24/customize-update-2016-10-23/">five feature projects</a> related to the customizer were approved for merge and will be part of the release. One of the feature projects is the custom <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/11/feature-proposal-better-theme-customizations-via-custom-css-with-live-previews/">CSS editor</a> that enables users to <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-days-of-creating-child-themes-for-simple-css-changes-may-soon-be-over">make CSS changes to a theme</a> without having to create a <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes">child theme</a>.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/WP47CustomizerCSSEditor.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-63483" src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/WP47CustomizerCSSEditor.png?resize=1025%2C394&ssl=1" alt="CSS Editor in The WordPress 4.7 Customizer" /></a>CSS Editor in The WordPress 4.7 Customizer
<p>In WordPress 4.7, there&#8217;s a new section in the customizer labeled Additional CSS. Clicking the label displays a blank pane with a short description of what users can do. Clicking the help icon displays a short explanation of what CSS is with a link to a <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Know_Your_Sources#CSS">help document</a> on the Codex. The Additional CSS pane is more like a text area than an editor.</p>
<p>Unlike Jetpack&#8217;s Edit CSS module, the editor in the customizer lacks line numbers, colored text, and other conveniences. However, these are features that are likely to be added in future iterations.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/JetpacksEditCSSModule.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-63484" src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/JetpacksEditCSSModule.png?resize=601%2C423&ssl=1" alt="Jetpack's Edit CSS Module" /></a>Jetpack&#8217;s Edit CSS Module
<p>There are a couple of things to keep in mind before using Additional CSS. First, it does not have revision support enabled. Weston Ruter, WordPress core committer, <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/35395#comment:76">says</a> revision support is disabled by default and requires a plugin.</p>
<p>Second, changes are theme specific and are not global. Luke Cavanagh <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/35395#comment:83">has inquired</a> on whether an option will be added in the future to enable global CSS changes which could come in handy for making tweaks for active plugins.</p>
<p>During testing, I didn&#8217;t encounter any issues with writing or pasting CSS code into the Additional CSS area. I encourage you to download and install <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/10/wordpress-4-7-beta-1/">WordPress 4.7 beta 1</a> and try it out for yourself and let us know your thoughts. If you think you&#8217;ve encountered a bug while using WordPress 4.7 beta 1, please report it on the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta section</a> of the support forums.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 04 Nov 2016 08:57:44 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"BuddyPress: BuddyPress 2.7.1";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=260677";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://buddypress.org/2016/11/buddypress-2-7-1/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:842:"<p>BuddyPress 2.7.1 is now available. This is a maintenance release and a recommended upgrade for all BuddyPress installations.</p>
<p>BP 2.7.1 fixes bugs in several components. For more information, see <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/query?group=status&milestone=2.7.1">the 2.7.1 milestone</a> on <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/">BuddyPress Trac</a>.</p>
<p>Update to BuddyPress 2.7.1 today in your WordPress Dashboard, or by <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress/">downloading from the wordpress.org plugin repository</a>.</p>
<p>Questions or comments? Check out <a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/releases/version-2-7-1/">2.7.1 changelog</a>, or stop by <a href="https://buddypress.org/support/">our support forums</a> or <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/">Trac</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 03 Nov 2016 21:12:09 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8:"@mercime";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"WPTavern: Fall Enrollment for Zac Gordon’s JavaScript for WordPress Course Closes This Friday";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"https://wptavern.com?p=63428&preview=true&preview_id=63428";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:103:"https://wptavern.com/fall-enrollment-for-zac-gordons-javascript-for-wordpress-course-closes-this-friday";s: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:2605:"<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/js.jpg?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-49672" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/js.jpg?resize=1024%2C481&ssl=1" alt="photo credit: ParisJS, May 2012 - (license)" /></a>photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24196940@N06/7305045236">ParisJS, May 2012</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p>Zac Gordon, a WordPress educator, has <a href="https://javascriptforwp.com/fall-enrollment-details-2016/">opened enrollment</a> for the Fall for his <a href="https://javascriptforwp.com/">JavaScript for WordPress</a> course. Gordon <a href="https://wptavern.com/zac-gordon-to-kickstart-javascript-master-course-for-wordpress">created the course</a> after <a href="https://wptavern.com/treehouse-drops-support-for-wordpress-education">Treehouse dropped WordPress</a> from its library in late 2015.</p>
<p><a href="https://javascriptforwp.com/#enroll">Open enrollment</a> began on October 25th and ends this Friday, November 4th. You can either take all four parts of the course for $397 or a single part for $199. The next open enrollment period will be in 2017.</p>
<h2>A Four Part Course</h2>
<p>The first part of the <a href="https://javascriptforwp.com/course-outline/">course covers</a> basic and advanced JavaScript skills and development tools. Students will also learn how to create a single page web application built with JavaScript called VanillaPress.</p>
<p>The second part of the course is dedicated to JavaScript libraries and frameworks where students will learn how to build a decoupled web application called ReactPress using React and the WordPress REST API.</p>
<p>The third part covers the WordPress REST API. Using OAuth, students will add OAuth support for ReactPress and add Save and Edit abilities to the app via the API.</p>
<p>The fourth and final part of the course is devoted to real world projects. Students will learn how to build single page plugins, mobile apps, and JavaScript powered themes that use the REST API.</p>
<p>The course is geared towards those who want to &#8220;Learn JavaScript, deeply,&#8221; a task <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2015-javascript-and-api-driven-interfaces-are-the-future-of-wordpress">assigned to the WordPress community</a> by Matt Mullenweg in his 2015 State of the Word presentation. For more details on the course material and to enroll, visit the <a href="https://javascriptforwp.com/">JavaScript for WordPress site</a>.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 02 Nov 2016 22:39:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"HeroPress: Conquering My Obstacles To Happiness";s:7:"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=1461";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"https://heropress.com/essays/conquering-obstacles-happiness/";s: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:18206:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/110216-min-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: Welcome failures because they will provide you with new learning." /><p>The late great Superman Christopher Reeve once said “<em>a hero is someone who, in spite of weakness, doubt or not always knowing the answers, goes ahead and overcomes anyway.</em>” What if a hero instead is someone who, because of weakness, doubt or not knowing the answers, goes ahead and overcomes?</p>
<p>To get to the happy and fulfilling place I am in life today I’ve had to learn how to overcome self-doubt and build up my strengths around it. To do that, I discovered the power of self-reflection and began a journey to understand the very core of who I am. I’m not a hero, but I know when to be one. When fear and worry appears I recognize it. And then I conquer it.</p>
<p>If you don’t think you are good enough or smart enough to be and have what you want in life, then fear is holding you back, too. The story that follows is both inspired by and written for you.</p>
<p>You may not believe it yet, but you’ve already got what it takes within yourself to live a happier life.</p>
<p>Let me show you how you can discover it.</p>
<h3>This Is Me Today.</h3>
<p>I am a Norwegian expat in Canada. Here, I live in the heart of the world’s most multicultural city, Toronto, and lead a happy and full life with my wife and our furkid. By so many standards around our globe, my lifestyle is privileged. It hasn’t come easy, and I often am reminded of how fortunate I am.</p>
<p>I never could have envisioned living this life when I, one and a half decades ago, trapped, lost and without hope and goals for the future, decided on a whim to learn how to code and develop websites. I read about people making a living out of it, yet didn’t believe it was something I myself could do.</p>
<blockquote><p>After a year of trying, failing and learning I began to prove myself wrong.</p></blockquote>
<p>Today I work at XWP, a global company powered remotely by people working from their homes around the world. Our core expertise is WordPress. Our team dreams up and engineers platforms, tools and workflows that let companies more effortlessly connect with their audience. We help our clients to sell and deliver their services and product, and grow communities that serves as an extension of their businesses.</p>
<p>XWP’s roots date back to 2004, and I’ve been part of the journey for 10 of those years. In my current role I serve a team of 40 people. I was fully entrusted with the care of the company and the people working there by its owner in 2014. I am responsible for guiding our company vision, strategy and direction while ensuring its healthy growth and great performance. A vital area of my mandate is helping each person on our team have meaningful, impactful work in a purpose filled role they can be successful in.</p>
<p>The workplace environment and my role allows me to connect directly with my own professional purpose &#8211; to be a catalyst and energizer in helping people discover their personal and professional strengths, and uncover the opportunities and possibilities it can bring in their life. At work, I am also able to apply my strength of bringing people together to build unity and community.</p>
<p>At home, I am at my happiest when spending time with my wife and our senior rescue lab. The love I give and receive, our deep and our silly conversations together, and all the laughs we share are things that fills me up and re-energizes me. Cooking and serving food, especially for a small crowd, also energizes me. I’m known for preparing elaborate meals with menus that can take days to plan to get “just right”. Earlier this year I completed a Culinary Arts program at George Brown College here in Toronto to further explore my passion for food and for service.</p>
<p>My whole life I’ve found joy in doing sports. In my youth I actively played football/soccer and volleyball and did well with it. Since moving to Toronto I’ve taken up running, and I’ve discovered a way to keep myself motivated to exercise and train is to sign up for running races. It also has become a way I get to compete against myself, measuring my improvement to pace and finishing times. In 2015 I ran my first half-marathon. My goal was to run a full marathon this year, but I pushed myself too hard and strained a muscle, so I’ll run it next year instead. I am looking forward to passing that 42.2km mark in under 4 hours.</p>
<ul>
<li>I lead my life guided by a set of deeply held values, principles and beliefs:</li>
<li>I value compassion, kindness, care, integrity and authenticity.</li>
<li>I believe in serving others before myself.</li>
<li>I offer my trust from the very start of a relationship, choosing to believe everyone has good intent in their heart.</li>
<li>I strive to listen to and understand others. This lets me be empathic which will help me serve others needs better.</li>
<li>I am of the opinion that everyone deserves to live a happy, fulfilling life, regardless of any personal flaw.</li>
<li>I recognize my flaws and build up my strengths around them.</li>
</ul>
<p>I am so grateful to have discovered all of this about myself at an early stage in life so I can live authentically who I am today and embrace all the opportunities it is affording me.</p>
<h3>When I Discovered My Strengths.</h3>
<p>I was invited to join the team at XHTMLized (today known as XFive, and a sister company of XWP), as a front-end developer in 2006. There was no shortage of work, the demand for its PSD-to-HTML service was growing rapidly. Opportunities to be part of great projects with exciting brands kept coming my way, and I continued to hone and develop my skills as a developer and project lead. Opportunities to be part of building the company surfaced, and I began investing time into helping the business grow.</p>
<p>Trying on and wearing the hats of different areas of the business was encouraged. I served in a variety of roles that touched on most every function of the business, including project management, sales and account management, finance and HR. I would often run into new and unfamiliar territory. Through my own determination I battled my fear of failure, and figured out how to do the things that needed to be done. I was surrounded by people who believed in me and recognized my strengths and achievements even when I wasn’t able to see them myself.</p>
<p>It was here that my belief in trust, empowerment, collaboration and autonomy in the workplace was shaped because I was experiencing how powerful it was first hand.</p>
<p>When our WordPress-focused team came together to form XWP in 2014, the opportunity to lead the company surfaced.</p>
<p>While faced with startup jitters and challenges of building up a brand new business, and while working with a team of enormous potential, I became uncertain of my own place in it. I questioned my ability to add value, to set us up in a way that would help us fulfill our potential. I began questioning my professional future. To deal with this uncertainty, I chose to start working with a professional coach. It was a decision that would greatly alter how I viewed myself and where I was in my career.</p>
<p>Through the work with my coach, I was introduced to the concept of <em>unique ability</em>, a belief that at the heart of who you are lies the secret to your greatest success, best quality of life, and biggest contribution to the world. It gave me new hope. I began the work to define my own unique ability. I discovered the concept of <em>Servant Leadership</em>, the understanding that leadership is not for personal power or gain but it is in service to others. This deeply resonated with me. I had seen traits of Servant Leadership in people I worked with and I was unknowingly applying aspects of it in my own life.</p>
<p>Within 6 months of coaching I had made the decision to pursue the role I have in the company today. I was believing in myself again and recognized that I could continue to make meaningful contribution and impact at the workplace I already had.</p>
<p>I am reminded of a quote that has served me well over the last decade of my life and often comes to mind at times when I forget my strengths:</p>
<p>“You must do the thing you think you cannot do”. &#8211; Eleanor Roosevelt</p>
<h3>A Personal Sidestory.</h3>
<p>My biggest personal transformation to date began when I found myself at rock bottom.</p>
<p>I was at a complete and utter dead end in most areas of my life when I chose to end a personal relationship that had kept me abroad in the U.S for 12 years. I had come to the realization that in order to have the positive change I needed for myself, I had to be the change. I found the courage within to take the action needed to close an unfulfilling and unhappy chapter of life.</p>
<blockquote><p>To do that, I needed to break with almost everything around me and start fresh &#8211; and it was <em>terrifying.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>And exhilarating. But mostly, it was just terrifying. I had to let go of people I had grown close to and become dependent on. I didn’t have money in my own pocket nor did I have a home of my own to go back to in Oslo. I put my pride aside and asked for help from my family and the company I was working for so I could do what I needed to do for myself. I renewed an expired passport. I booked a plane ticket. I made sure I met all requirements necessary to bring my little dog with me. I began shipping the few belongings I had back to Norway. And I prepared my closest friends and extended family there for my departure by asking for their support and understanding of my decision. It was one small step at the time, and each step helped move me forward.</p>
<blockquote><p>Letting go of what I had then was one of the best decision I have ever made for myself. I gave myself permission to create a better life for myself.</p></blockquote>
<p>A constant during this challenging period of my life was my remote work. It offered the flexibility I needed to relocate and start my next chapter.</p>
<p>Back in Oslo, I settled into an apartment which my sister helped me find while I still was overseas and had been unable to travel. I took a few weeks off work, still conflicted with what I wanted out of life and worried about what the future would hold for me. During my leave of absence from work I was called upon to lead an onsite kick-off of a significant multisite WordPress migration project with an important client in Canada. In my mind, I was still in need of “me-time” to get my life in order. But I chose to embrace the opportunity to be there for our team and to serve our client together. It would be another life-changing decision. During my visit to Toronto, I met and fell in love with the person who would become my significant other.</p>
<h3>Steps To Conquer Your Own Obstacles.</h3>
<h4>Step 1: Commit To Becoming a Better You</h4>
<p>I’ve learned through my personal and work experiences that nothing holds you back in life more than yourself. Life has taught me that who you aspire to be and what you want to do is within your reach. It’s within you.</p>
<p>You can start a transformation that lets you move towards a happier, more fulfilling place by making a commitment to consciously and continuously learn and grow yourself.</p>
<p>Welcome failures because they will provide you with new learning. You have the ability to overcome them.</p>
<blockquote><p>Take care to hone skills you have acquired. Develop new skills you aspire to have.</p></blockquote>
<p>Discover your strengths. Apply them and find ways to develop them further. Your strengths makes up your unique ability, and your unique ability is who you are and why you are here. Use it, it will be your biggest contribution to the world.</p>
<p>Be your own hero and get out of your own way. When you do, new and often unexpected opportunities are revealed. And you’ll discover that your possibilities in life are limitless.</p>
<h4>Step 2: Find an Encourager</h4>
<p>When you are ready to start your own journey of transformation, or if you are in the middle of one now, it’s important to find someone who can be your encourager and your ally on that journey.</p>
<p>Look for someone in your circle of family or friends, or within the community. If don’t have anyone, I would welcome the opportunity to get to know you and cheer you on!</p>
<h4>Step 3: Let Yourself Be Inspired.</h4>
<p>Below are the key resources that helped spark my transformation in significant ways, and has lead me to where I am today. They continue to be sources of inspiration, and I hope they can be yours, too.</p>
<p><strong>Books</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://strengths.gallup.com/110242/about-book.aspx">Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow</a><br />
(Tom Rath)</li>
<li><a href="http://uniqueability.com/">Unique Ability: Creating the Life You Want</a><br />
(Dan O&#8217;Sullivan, Catherine Nomura, Shannon Waller &amp; Julia Waller)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wireddifferently.coop">Wired Differently<br />
</a>(Vern Dosch, Wally Goulet &amp; Tracy Finneman)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amy-wallace.com/creativity-inc/">Creativity Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration</a><br />
(Ed Catmull &amp; Amy Wallace)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-great.html">Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap&#8230;And Others Don&#8217;t</a><br />
(Jim Collins)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.danpontefract.com/the-second-book/">The Purpose Effect: Building Meaning in Yourself, Your Role and Your Organization</a><br />
(Dan Pontefract)</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Thought Leaders, Influencers &amp; Contributors to the Servant Leadership Community</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Cheryl Bachelder &#8211; follow <a href="https://twitter.com/CABachelder">@CABachelder</a> (Popeyes)</li>
<li>Art Barter &#8211; follow <a href="https://twitter.com/Art_Barter">@Art_Barter</a> (Servant leadership Institute)</li>
<li>Ken Blanchard &#8211; follow <a href="https://twitter.com/kenblanchard">@kenblanchard</a> (The Ken Blanchard Companies)</li>
<li>Garry Ridge &#8211; follow <a href="https://twitter.com/LearningMoment">@LearningMoment</a> (WD-40)</li>
<li>Kevin Monroe &#8211; follow <a href="https://twitter.com/kevin_monroe">@kevin_monroe</a> (X Factor Consulting)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Giving Thanks.</h3>
<p>I’d like to thank Topher DeRosia here at HeroPress for giving me the opportunity to share my story. It is against my nature to talk about myself to this extent, but I do it knowing it can serve others. To write my story, I’ve also had to move past my fear of being in the spotlight and accept there may be judgement passed. The reality is that no one will ever hold me to a higher standard or judge me harder than I do myself.</p>
<p>A very special thanks goes out to my wife, Heather, who bore with me through the, at times, difficult writing process. She has opened my eyes to life’s possibilities. In her, I found a partner I wanted to journey with. She believes in me and helps me believe in myself, and she is my greatest ally and encourager. As I write these words, I recognize they will be published the week of our 4-year wedding anniversary. Our years together have been the very best of my life so far.</p>
<p>I also want to offer a heartfelt thank you to another big ally and encourager, my coach and friend Jeff. He’s made me believe in pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows, and I am so grateful for him coming into my life and having him be part of the journey.</p>
<p>Lastly, I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to Dave and to the team at XWP. They have had and continue to have enormous impact on my life, and they hold a very special place in my heart. I look forward to continuing my journey with them.</p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: Conquering My Obstacles To Happiness" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Conquering%20My%20Obstacles%20To%20Happiness&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fconquering-obstacles-happiness%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Conquering My Obstacles To Happiness" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fconquering-obstacles-happiness%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fconquering-obstacles-happiness%2F&title=Conquering+My+Obstacles+To+Happiness" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Conquering My Obstacles To Happiness"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/essays/conquering-obstacles-happiness/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/110216-min-150x150.jpg&description=Conquering My Obstacles To Happiness" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Conquering My Obstacles To Happiness"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/conquering-obstacles-happiness/" title="Conquering My Obstacles To Happiness"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/conquering-obstacles-happiness/">Conquering My Obstacles To Happiness</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, 02 Nov 2016 11:00:45 +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:"Tine Haugen";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"WPTavern: NaNoWriMo 2016 Kicks Off Today: Write Your Novel with WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63374";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"https://wptavern.com/nanowrimo-2016-kicks-off-today-write-your-novel-with-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6194:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/nanowrimo.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/nanowrimo.jpg?resize=1025%2C402&ssl=1" alt="nanowrimo" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63376" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://nanowrimo.org/" target="_blank">NaNoWriMo</a> (National Novel Writing Month) today kicks off its 18th year helping writers achieve their creative goals. The online event is organized by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that encourages participants to work towards writing a 50,000-word novel. Writers commit to posting their word counts to their profiles each day during the event, which runs from November 1-30.</p>
<p>NaNoWriMo began in 1999 in the San Francisco Bay Area with just 21 writers and grew to 5,000 participants the following year, thanks to promotion from bloggers around the web. In 2015, the project had 431,626 participants, including 80,137 students and educators in the Young Writers Program.</p>
<h3>WordPress Tools for NaNoWriMo</h3>
<p>The NaNoWriMo website encourages writers to use their own materials for writing their novels, such as a word-processing program, typewriter, pen and paper, or whatever inspires the most creativity. WordPress is ideally suited for capturing your writing and keeping track of your word count. There are also several plugins that make it easy to break novels up into chapters and export your work into the proper formats for <a href="https://wptavern.com/how-to-self-publish-a-book-with-wordpress" target="_blank">self publishing with WordPress</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/nano-stats/" target="_blank">Nano Status</a> is a plugin created specifically for NaNoWriMo participants. Public accountability with word counts is one of the motivating factors for many writers who participate in the event, and Nano Stats makes it easy to display your progress in posts, pages, and sidebar widgets. It pulls in word count stats from the NaNoWriMo website for the username entered in the plugin&#8217;s settings.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/nano-stats.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/nano-stats.png?resize=616%2C359&ssl=1" alt="nano-stats" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63393" /></a></p>
<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/mybookprogress/" target="_blank">MyBookProgress</a> plugin is another option for tracking your novel&#8217;s progress and displaying stats. The plugin&#8217;s writing goals and deadline tracking features are customizable so it can also be used for other projects besides NaNoWriMo.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/mybookprogress-widget.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/mybookprogress-widget.png?resize=283%2C156&ssl=1" alt="mybookprogress-widget" class="alignright size-full wp-image-63396" /></a>MyBookProgress allows users to upload cover images for their books and displays a progress bar using a widget or a shortcode. It also includes MailChimp integration so that readers can subscribe to get progress updates on a book.</p>
<p>In addition to the customizable goal tracking, MyBookProgress comes with preset template for NaNoWriMo participants who are working to achieve the 50,000-word goal. Progress can be recorded directly inside WordPress for display on your own website, as opposed to having to sign into the NaNoWriMo website. The backend of the plugin includes a writing statistics dashboard to give you an idea of which day of the week is your most productive, and your average percentage per day/week/month. Users can easily share their progress to Facebook or Twitter directly from the plugin&#8217;s writing dashboard.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MyBookProgress.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MyBookProgress.png?resize=805%2C582&ssl=1" alt="mybookprogress" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63398" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/author-wordcount/" target="_blank">Author Wordcount</a> is a much simpler plugin that allows writers to display one or multiple works in progress via a widget. Current word count and expected (goal) word count can be entered in the admin on the plugin&#8217;s settings page. It also has a simple UI that fits in more seamlessly with WordPress than the MyBookProgress plugin.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/author-wordcount.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/author-wordcount.png?resize=932%2C1198&ssl=1" alt="author-wordcount" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63404" /></a></p>
<p>During the NaNoWriMo event&#8217;s 18-year history, nearly <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/published-wrimos" target="_blank">400 novels have been published</a> via traditional publishing houses. Participants have also self-published more than 200 novels. If you achieve your goal of finishing a novel and want to look into <a href="https://wptavern.com/how-to-self-publish-a-book-with-wordpress" target="_blank">self-publishing</a>, there are many tools that make it easy to export content hosted on both WordPress.com and self-hosted sites.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/anthologize/" target="_blank">Anthologize</a> plugin allows authors to publish their works in several ebook formats, including PDF, EPUB and TEI. <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/bookpress-client/" target="_blank">BookPress Client</a> is another free plugin  that organizes your writing into a custom post type so book posts won’t show up mixed with normal blog posts on your site. It supports both ePub and Kindle mobi formats. WordPress.com users can take advantage of services like <a href="http://www.fastpencil.com/" target="_blank">FastPencil</a> or <a href="http://blog2print.sharedbook.com/blogworld/printmyblog/index.html" target="_blank">Blog2Print</a> for importing their posts into different book reader and print formats.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 01 Nov 2016 21:03:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"Mark Jaquith: The 4 best WordPress hosts of 2016";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:40:"http://markjaquith.wordpress.com/?p=5235";s:7:"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://markjaquith.wordpress.com/2016/11/01/best-wordpress-hosts-in-2016/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6421:"<p>As a seasoned WordPress developer, I am frequently asked what WordPress web hosts I recommend. There are so many solid choices now! The WordPress ecosystem is truly a bounty of choice in 2016. I could write an exhaustive comparison of all of the options, but these are called &#8220;exhaustive comparisons&#8221; for a reason. Let&#8217;s skip that, and I&#8217;ll just tell you the four WordPress hosts I recommend in five&nbsp;distinct tiers.</p>
<p>Note that many of these hosts target a range of sites, from starter sites to enterprise sites, so I am picking the hosts that I think fit each tier of site&nbsp;<em>best</em>, even though they might also work for other kinds of sites.</p>
<h2>Starter Site</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.siteground.com/wordpress-hosting.htm?afcode=d3f3dc4c98ccbebf43909e7d7971eca7&campaign=WordPress">SiteGround</a> is one of my favorite WordPress hosting companies. They offer a range of hosting solutions, but their WordPress-tailored plans are a tremendously good value and have many WordPress-specific perks. Ask around the WordPress community — SiteGround&nbsp;is a well-respected company that works hard to win and retain the business of WordPress customers. Their plans start as low as $3.95 a month, which is an incredibly good deal. If you aren&#8217;t sure what you need, SiteGround is what I would choose.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.siteground.com/wordpress-hosting.htm?afcode=d3f3dc4c98ccbebf43909e7d7971eca7&campaign=WordPress">Take a look at SiteGround&#8217;s WordPress hosting plans</a>.</p>
<h2>Developer-Friendly Site</h2>
<p>What if you know your way around WordPress, want things like Git and <a href="https://wp-cli.org/">WP-CLI </a>access, or want advanced WordPress-friendly caching for your site? <a href="https://www.siteground.com/wordpress-hosting.htm?afcode=d3f3dc4c98ccbebf43909e7d7971eca7&campaign=WordPress">SiteGround has you covered</a> there, too. Their GoGeek plan (currently $14.95 a month) offers all of these perks, unlimited sites, WordPress staging sites, and so much more. I love working with GoGeek-level SiteGround sites, because they work really well and give me access to all the tools that I need as a developer. Or, if you&#8217;re not a developer, but have hired one to work on your site, you may want to upgrade to GoGeek hosting so she can work at maximum efficiency.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.siteground.com/wordpress-hosting.htm?afcode=d3f3dc4c98ccbebf43909e7d7971eca7&campaign=WordPress">Go sign up for SiteGround&#8217;s GoGeek WordPress hosting</a>.</p>
<h2>Intermediate&nbsp;Site</h2>
<p><a href="http://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=917225&u=1391570&m=41388&urllink=&afftrack=">WP Engine</a>&nbsp;has been around since 2010, focuses entirely on WordPress hosting, and has established themself as a solid choice in the intermediate range. Their plans start at $29/month and include a 60-day money-back guarantee and free automated migration of your existing WordPress site. WP Engine&nbsp;also has more advanced hosting options, so they&#8217;re an option that could grow with you.</p>
<p><a href="http://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=917225&u=1391570&m=41388&urllink=&afftrack=">Sign up for WP Engine using this link</a> and you&#8217;ll save 20% off your first payment.</p>
<h2>Professional Site</h2>
<p><a href="https://pantheon.io/pricing">Pantheon</a> got their start as a Drupal host, but have taken their innovative container-based hosting technology to the WordPress market. As a developer, I appreciate their Git-based development flow, their powerful &#8220;Terminus&#8221; command line client, and their built-in and dead-simple dev/test/live environments. On the higher level plans, you get &#8220;Multidev&#8221; which lets you spin up a sandboxed development environment for a specific Git branch. This means you can send clients and testers URLs for testing new features in isolation, before they are merged back into the main code branch. Awesome.</p>
<p>Their professional tier starts at $100/month, which isn&#8217;t cheap, but your developers will love their deployment tools, their dev/test/live code staging flows, and their Git-based deploys to the development environment. Pantheon is a great choice for professional WordPress sites that have a developer on staff or on retainer.</p>
<p><a href="https://pantheon.io/pricing">Check out Pantheon&#8217;s professional WordPress hosting plans</a>.</p>
<h2>Enterprise Site</h2>
<p><a href="http://pagely.7eer.net/c/335029/141222/2787">Pagely</a> has been around since 2006! They started the whole WordPress-dedicated hosting marketplace. When they started, they targeted a range of WordPress sites, but now they focus on enterprise hosting. This is where big brands go for custom WordPress hosting solutions. The folks at Pagely know WordPress well, and will be an excellent hosting partner for your enterprise WordPress site. Their VPS solutions start at $499/month, but they also have a shared server plan called Neutrino for $99/month.</p>
<p><a href="http://pagely.7eer.net/c/335029/141222/2787">Get started with Pagely enterprise hosting</a>.</p>
<h2>How I Picked</h2>
<p>My method here was simple. I thought about how I answer if a friend or a client asks me for hosting advice. I found that I regarded sites as fitting in one of five categories. Then, I considered which hosts offer the best service and value in those categories, and picked these four hosts. After I had made my picks and written about their benefits, I went to see which of my picks had affiliate programs. Three of them did, and one did not. I used affiliate links for those that offered them, and a direct link for the one that did not. Using affiliate links to sign up for their service will earn me some money, but you can of course just go directly to their sites if you like. I stand by these recommendations, either way. I&#8217;ll write a new post in 2017 with my new picks. Let me know <a href="https://twitter.com/markjaquith/status/793562226305146880">on Twitter</a> what hosts are your favorites, and why!</p><br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/markjaquith.wordpress.com/5235/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/markjaquith.wordpress.com/5235/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=markjaquith.wordpress.com&blog=316&post=5235&subd=markjaquith&ref=&feed=1" width="1" height="1" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 01 Nov 2016 20:27:00 +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:12:"Mark Jaquith";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:52:"WPTavern: Beware of Links to Baidu in Skype Messages";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63378";s:7:"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:63:"https://wptavern.com/beware-of-links-to-baidu-in-skype-messages";s: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:4741:"<p>I recently logged into Skype and received two messages from people who I haven&#8217;t spoken too in years. Both messages contained a URL to <a href="http://www.baidu.com/">Baidu</a> with my Skype username at the end. I immediately became suspicious and after a cursory search of Google, I discovered that I <a href="https://community.skype.com/t5/Security-Privacy-Trust-and/Link-to-quot-baidu-quot-website-sent-to-all-of-my-contacts/td-p/4461728/page/15">wasn&#8217;t the only one</a> receiving these messages.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SkypeBaiduLink.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-63380" src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SkypeBaiduLink.png?resize=378%2C229&ssl=1" alt="Baidu Links in Skype Messages" /></a>Baidu Links in Skype Messages
<p>According to a <a href="https://community.skype.com/t5/Security-Privacy-Trust-and/Spam-messages-amp-links-sent-from-your-account/td-p/4511001">support document</a> published by Claudius, Community Manager at Skype, the accounts sending the messages are most likely compromised. The document offers a list of steps that includes, checking your computer for malware, changing passwords, and increasing the security of your Skype account.</p>
<h2>Tips to Strengthen the Security of Your Skype Account</h2>
<p>Microsoft recently made changes so that Skype, Office, Xbox, and other Microsoft services can be managed with a single account. If you haven&#8217;t <a href="https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34657/one-account-for-skype-and-your-other-microsoft-services">upgraded your Skype account</a> to a Microsoft account, visit <a href="https://account.microsoft.com/">Microsoft&#8217;s account</a> page and enter your Skype username and password. You&#8217;ll be prompted to upgrade which can only be done once.</p>
<p>Once upgraded, click on the Security and Privacy settings link. This is where you can change your password, add security information, and enable two-step verification.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/TwoStepAuthentication.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-63384" src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/TwoStepAuthentication.png?resize=445%2C171&ssl=1" alt="Two Factor Authentication Enabled" /></a>Two-Step Verification Enabled
<p>It&#8217;s important to note that in recent years, there have been major data leaks where the login credentials of millions of people have been exposed to the public. If you use the same password on multiple sites, visit <a href="https://haveibeenpwned.com/">Have I Been Pwned</a> and check to see if your password was leaked. If you see the Oh no — pwned! message, you should update your password immediately.</p>
<h3>Create a New Primary Alias</h3>
<p>In addition to changing passwords and turning on two-step verification, you should limit the aliases that are allowed to login to your account. By default, your Skype username is the primary alias. You should change this to an email address or a phone number and disable your Skype username. Allowing only one alias that&#8217;s different from your Skype username limits the amount of entry points into your account.</p>
<h2>Keeping Tabs On Your Skype Account</h2>
<p>One of the major benefits of upgrading a Skype account to a Microsoft account is the ability to view recent activity. To view the most recent activity, click the Security and Privacy link and click on the <strong>see my recent activity</strong> link.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SeeRecentActivity.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-63387" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SeeRecentActivity.png?resize=1025%2C395&ssl=1" alt="How to View Recent Activity" /></a>How to View Recent Activity
<p>This will inform you of successful and unsuccessful login attempts. Some users who have unwillingly sent spam messages with links to Baidu <a href="https://community.skype.com/t5/Security-Privacy-Trust-and/Link-to-quot-baidu-quot-website-sent-to-all-of-my-contacts/m-p/4513254#M64691">confirmed</a> through the recent activity page that their login credentials were compromised. In addition to the recent activity page, users are encouraged to enable and create alerts to be notified of suspicious activity.</p>
<p>If you receive messages out of the blue on Skype with links to Baidu or LinkedIn, do not click them. Delete the message, <a href="https://community.skype.com/t5/Security-Privacy-Trust-and/Spam-messages-amp-links-sent-from-your-account/td-p/4511001">send the user a link to this page</a>, and inform them that their account may be compromised.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 01 Nov 2016 19:28:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"BuddyPress: 2016 BuddyPress Survey for Site Builders and Developers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=260614";s:7:"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:79:"https://buddypress.org/2016/11/2016-buddypress-survey-site-builders-developers/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1197:"<p>Earlier this year, Project leads <a class="bp-suggestions-mention" href="https://buddypress.org/members/johnjamesjacoby/" rel="nofollow">@johnjamesjacoby</a>, <a class="bp-suggestions-mention" href="https://buddypress.org/members/boonebgorges/" rel="nofollow">@boonebgorges</a>, and <a class="bp-suggestions-mention" href="https://buddypress.org/members/djpaul/" rel="nofollow">@djpaul</a> presented a number of strategic priorities which included defining the primary intended audience for BuddyPress: Site Builders and WordPress Developers, an explicit recognition of what BuddyPress has become, and how people use it.</p>
<p>Help us start the year right in 2017. Your feedback is important to help us improve BuddyPress  by ensuring that we’re still building what you want to use and help us determine if any course corrections are necessary. </p>
<p>This survey will run from November 1 &#8211; 30, 2016. It has 36 questions and could take around 15 &#8211; 20 minutes to complete.</p>
<p>Thank you  for your participation !</p>
<p><strong>=&gt; <a href="http://mercime.polldaddy.com/s/2016-buddypress-survey-site-builders-developers">Take the 2016 BuddyPress Survey now</a>.</strong></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, 01 Nov 2016 18:51:59 +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:8:"@mercime";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:99:"WPTavern: Mullenweg Takes Aim at Wix over GPL Abuses, Wix Response Fails to Address Licensing Issue";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63325";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:109:"https://wptavern.com/mullenweg-takes-aim-at-wix-over-gpl-abuses-wix-response-fails-to-address-licensing-issue";s: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:12008:"<p>Over the weekend WordPress co-creator and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg <a href="https://ma.tt/2016/10/wix-and-the-gpl/" target="_blank">called out Wix for copying GPL code</a> from the WordPress mobile app and distributing it in its <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wixcom-launches-wix-app-providing-a-powerful-mobile-operating-system-for-small-business-owners-store-owners-hoteliers-and-bloggers-around-the-world-300339448.html" target="_blank">proprietary app</a>. He identified <a href="https://github.com/wix/WordPress-Editor-Android" target="_blank">two</a> <a href="https://github.com/wix/react-native-wordpress-editor" target="_blank">repositories</a> that Wix forked in order to bring the GPL-licensed WordPress Rich Text Editor into its app.</p>
<p>&#8220;If I were being charitable, I’d say, &#8216;The app’s editor is based on the WordPress mobile app’s editor.&#8217; Mullenweg said. &#8220;If I were being honest, I’d say that Wix copied WordPress without attribution, credit, or following the license.&#8221;</p>
<p>Even though the Wix app is made up of different modules and libraries, the GPL requires that the entire application be GPL-licensed since Wix is distributing the app with GPL code in it. Open sourcing the entire app&#8217;s code under the GPL is the only way to resolve the license violation, according to Mullenweg.</p>
<p>&#8220;Your app’s editor is built with stolen code, so your whole app is now in violation of the license,&#8221; Mullenweg said. Some took issue with use of the term &#8220;stolen code&#8221; in connection with public, open source repositories, but the effect is the same regardless of Wix&#8217;s intention. Wix distributed GPL code without respecting its license, putting new limitations on it instead of preserving its freedoms. That code was not legally available to be repurposed without following its license.</p>
<p>&#8220;You’d probably be in the clear if you had used just the original editor we started with (ZSSRichTextEditor, MIT licensed),&#8221; Automattic&#8217;s General Counsel Paul Sieminski commented on the issue. &#8220;Instead, Wix took our version of the editor which has 1000+ original commits on top of the original MIT editor, that took more than a year to write. We improved it. A lot. And Wix took those improvements, used them in their app but then stripped out all of the important rights that they’re not legally allowed to take away.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mullenweg called for Wix to release its entire mobile app under the GPL, as required by the license, and make the source code available so that others can build on it and learn from it.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you want to close the door on innovation, Wix, that’s your decision to make — just write your own code,&#8221; Mullenweg said. &#8220;If you’re going to join the open source community, play by the open source rules.&#8221;</p>
<h3>Wix CEO Responds, Neglects to Address GPL Licensing Issues</h3>
<p>Mullenweg&#8217;s open letter to Wix took the company by surprise. Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami <a href="http://www.wix.com/blog/2016/10/dear-matt-mullenweg-an-open-letter-from-wix-coms-ceo-avishai-abrahami/" target="_blank">responded</a> the next day on the company&#8217;s blog with a tone that imposed an artificial sense of fraternity in order to make the original allegation appear to be an over reaction. &#8220;Wow, dude I did not even know we were fighting,&#8221; Abrahami said. He cited Wix&#8217;s manifold contributions to open source software on the company&#8217;s GitHub account and their admiration of WordPress&#8217; commitment to giving back.</p>
<p>His artful deflection avoids the licensing issue completely and demonstrates a lack of understanding of the GPL:</p>
<blockquote><p>Yes, we did use the WordPress open source library for a minor part of the application (that is the concept of open source right?), and everything we improved there or modified, we submitted back as open source, see here in this <a href="https://github.com/wix/react-native-wordpress-editor" target="_blank">link</a> – you should check it out, pretty cool way of using it on mobile native. I really think you guys can use it with your app (and it is open source, so you are welcome to use it for free). And, by the way, the part that we used was in fact developed by another and modified by you.</p></blockquote>
<p>GPL compliance, however, requires more than a show of open source spirit. Abrahami did not address the requirement that the entire mobile app be released as GPL but offered a vague statement about sharing code.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you need source code that we have, and we have not yet released, then, most likely we will be happy to share, you only need to ask,&#8221; Abrahami said. It is still unclear as to whether his statement means the company will release the entire mobile app under the GPL or not. However, the company indicated on Twitter that they will release the app on GitHub.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/yairwein">@yairwein</a> We'll release the code on Github, where we also shared our previous projects: <a href="https://t.co/FBhp2Kd5wn">https://t.co/FBhp2Kd5wn</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Wix.com (@Wix) <a href="https://twitter.com/Wix/status/792656290854174721">October 30, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>The other option would be for the company to completely remove any GPL code from its app and use the original MIT-licensed library for the editor.</p>
<p>&#8220;The WordPress GPL Rich Text component in question, is actually a wrapper around another Rich Text component named ZSSRichTextEditor which is licensed MIT,&#8221; Wix lead engineer Tal Kol said in the article he <a href="https://medium.com/@talkol/how-i-found-myself-accused-of-stealing-code-from-wordpress-a7350da9f9f2#.h5zgf9lnc" target="_blank">published</a> over the weekend. &#8220;In retrospect it would have been easier to use it directly.&#8221;</p>
<p>Using the original library would stop the current GPL infringement but does not erase the fact that the company has already violated the license by distributing the code.</p>
<p>Wix has not yet officially announced what it plans to do, but at the time of publishing the company continues to distribute GPL code inside its proprietary app.</p>
<h3>Mullenweg Is Willing to Go to Court to Protect the GPL</h3>
<p>According to the GNU.org GPL FAQ, the <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#WhoHasThePower" target="_blank">copyright holders of the software have the power to enforce the GPL</a>, as the license is a copyright license. Copyright holders are advised to inform developers of the GPL-covered software if they see a violation. With the GPLv2, the only way for license violators to receive back their rights after violation is to <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.en.html" target="_blank">petition the copyright holder</a>. Mullenweg has already identified a path to compliance for Wix.</p>
<p>Although many in the open source community are itching for a definitive court case involving the GPL, Mullenweg said his preferred outcome is to see Wix open source its mobile app.</p>
<p>&#8220;I would much rather they just release their app as GPL rather than have to get into a legal fight,&#8221; he <a href="https://ma.tt/2016/10/wix-and-the-gpl/#comment-586279" target="_blank">replied</a> to commenters on his blog.</p>
<p>When I asked if he is willing to take the matter to court if Wix does not comply, Mullenweg said, &#8220;We would of course go to court to protect the GPL.&#8221; He also said that if Wix decides to pursue the other avenue, &#8220;removing the library would fix it going forward, but not for things that already infringed.&#8221; Mullenweg could not say what Automattic will or won&#8217;t do in a legal context regarding the past infringement, as the situation is still developing.</p>
<p>This weekend&#8217;s debate between Mullenweg and Wix sparked discussions across social media platforms as well as blog post responses about how the the GPL affects the industry. It also shows how divisive the license can be even among open source software proponents. Mullenweg, who is known inside the WordPress community as a zealous defender of the GPL, has demonstrated a willingness to go to battle over <a href="https://wptavern.com/mullenweg-and-pearson-square-off-on-patents-gpl-and-trademarks" target="_blank">violations of the license in the past</a>.</p>
<p>Many in the WordPress and Wix communities took issue with the public handling of the matter, but ultimately the controversy is not a personal matter between Mullenweg and Wix. The proprietary mobile app distributes GPL code that was the work of many contributors. WordPress&#8217; open source code was built from the hard work of people who were willing to give that time and energy because they believe in the project and the freedoms that its license guarantees. Wix&#8217;s disrespect of that license illegally co-opts those contributions for the company&#8217;s closed source app.</p>
<h3>&#8220;My program will have liberty, or never be born.&#8221;</h3>
<p>The GPL license is holistic in the sense that all parts of an application are connected &#8211; if one part bears the freedoms of the GPL, the entire app benefits from the GPL and must be therefore be open for all. The GPL is the reason WordPress exists and the reason why Mullenweg is so passionate about it. If b2/cafelog had not been GPL-licensed, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little would not have been able to <a href="https://ma.tt/2003/01/the-blogging-software-dilemma/" target="_blank">build on it</a>.</p>
<p>One of the questions in the GNU GPL FAQ asks, &#8220;<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#WhatIfSchool" target="_blank">What if my school might want to make my program into its own proprietary software product?</a>&#8221; This question addresses how many universities try to restrict the use of the knowledge and information they (and their students) develop, a problem that also exists in commercial businesses. The GNU recommendation for developers wanting to ensure their software is allowed to be GPL licensed is to raise the issue at the earliest possible stage for the most leverage:</p>
<blockquote><p>So we recommend that you approach them when the program is only half-done, saying, &#8216;If you will agree to releasing this as free software, I will finish it.&#8217; Don&#8217;t think of this as a bluff. To prevail, you must have the courage to say, <strong>&#8216;My program will have liberty, or never be born.&#8217;</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>This powerful sentiment is one that many GPL software contributors have adopted as a way of life. They contribute code on the basis that it will be passed on with all its freedoms. Taking GPL-licensed code and putting it in a proprietary app is an affront to their contributions.</p>
<p>Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami&#8217;s casual response identifies both parties as open source proponents who are working to make the web a better place. This response misses the mark because it fails to recognize WordPress&#8217; 13-year history with the GPL and how deeply it has impacted the software&#8217;s trajectory and ability to make the web a better, more open place. This license and WordPress&#8217; commitment to user freedoms has been the project&#8217;s true north from its inception.</p>
<p>When a project is given the GPL license, it makes that code and the license&#8217;s freedoms inseparable. Essentially, that code isn&#8217;t legally available to anyone without those freedoms in place. Regardless of whether Wix&#8217;s deflection of the issue is motivated by ignorance of the GPL or malicious intent, the company has to answer for its misuse of the software. The ball is now in Wix&#8217;s court &#8211; to comply with what the GPL license requires or take its own interpretation to court.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 31 Oct 2016 21:23:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"Matt: Apples TV’s Struggles";s:7:"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=46916";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"https://ma.tt/2016/10/apples-tvs-struggles/";s: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:983:"<p><a href="http://joe-steel.com/2016-10-28-Apples-October-TV-Surprise.html"><img class="  wp-image-46924 alignright" src="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2016/10/apple-tv.jpg?resize=231%2C201&ssl=1" alt="apple-tv.jpg" /></a>Joseph Rosensteel has <a href="http://joe-steel.com/2016-10-28-Apples-October-TV-Surprise.html">an outsider but savvy perspective on the updates and technology around Apple TV</a>. Definitely a worthwhile read. I&#8217;ve experienced a lot of this frustration myself &#8212; I have a large library of things bought through iTunes, I like the interface of the Apple TV (though I liked the old one a little better), and Airplay is handy, so I want to love the Apple TV. The market is so bad right now that <a href="http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-media-streamers/">most review sites like Wirecutter recommend Roku</a>, which for me came with a branded remote button for a service that is out of business (Rdio) and has an interface that feels DOS-like.</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, 31 Oct 2016 14:45:03 +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:27;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"Matt: The Wix Mobile App, a WordPress Joint";s:7:"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=46879";s:7:"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:38:"https://ma.tt/2016/10/wix-and-the-gpl/";s: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:12333:"<p>Anyone who knows me knows that I like to try new things &#8212; phones, gadgets, apps. Last week I downloaded the <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wixcom-launches-wix-app-providing-a-powerful-mobile-operating-system-for-small-business-owners-store-owners-hoteliers-and-bloggers-around-the-world-300339448.html">new Wix (closed, proprietary, non-open-sourced, non-GPL) mobile app</a>. I’m always interested to see how others tackle the challenge of building and editing websites from a mobile device.</p>
<p>I started playing around with the editor, and felt… déjà vu. It was familiar. Like I had used it before.</p>
<p>Turns out I had. Because it’s WordPress.</p>
<p>If I were being charitable, I’d say, &#8220;The app&#8217;s editor is based on the WordPress mobile app&#8217;s editor.&#8221; If I were being honest, I&#8217;d say that Wix copied WordPress without attribution, credit, or following the license. The custom icons, the class names, even the bugs. You can see the <a href="https://github.com/wix/WordPress-Editor-Android">forked</a><a href="https://github.com/wix/react-native-wordpress-editor"> repositories</a> on GitHub complete with original commits from Alex and Maxime, two developers on Automattic’s mobile team. Wix has always borrowed liberally from WordPress &#8212; including their company name, which used to be Wixpress Ltd. &#8212; but this blatant rip-off and code theft is beyond anything I&#8217;ve seen before from a competitor.</p>
<h3>Dear Wix,</h3>
<p>This explicitly contravenes the GPL, which requires attribution and a corresponding GPL license on whatever you release publicly built on top of GPL code. The GPL is what has allowed WordPress to flourish, and that let us create this code. Your app&#8217;s editor is built with stolen code, so your whole app is now in violation of the license.</p>
<p>I suppose we’ll take this as a compliment &#8212; I’m sure the hundreds of people who have contributed to WordPress Core and our mobile apps are flattered that you chose to build one of your company’s core features using our code. We’re also excited to see what great things you create with all the time you saved not having to write your own mobile editor.</p>
<p>You know what’d be even more exciting? To see you abide by the GPL and release your source code back to the community that gave you that jump start.</p>
<p>I’ve always said that <a href="https://ma.tt/2014/01/four-freedoms/">the GPL isn’t about limits, it’s about possibilities</a>. In open source software, you trade some of your control as a developer to better serve the developer community and the people using your sites and products. I don’t think that’s a limit, I think it’s a way to make sure we encourage innovation and momentum. If you want to close the door on innovation, Wix, that’s your decision to make &#8212; just write your own code. If you’re going to join the open source community, play by the open source rules.</p>
<p>Release your app under the GPL, and put the source code for your app up on GitHub so that we can all build on it, improve it, and learn from it.</p>
<p>Love,<br />
Matt and the open source community</p>
<h3>An Update</h3>
<p>The <a href="http://www.wix.com/blog/2016/10/dear-matt-mullenweg-an-open-letter-from-wix-coms-ceo-avishai-abrahami/">CEO of Wix has posted a response on their blog</a>. I&#8217;ll also try to post my response it to the comments there. <a href="http://wpgarage.com/news-views/weak-wix-response-wordpress-gpl/">Miriam Schwab also has a very good response</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>We were all very surprised by your post, as you have so many claims against us.</p>
<p>Wow, dude I did not even know we were fighting.</p></blockquote>
<p>It&#8217;s not a fight: the claim is that the Wix mobile apps distribute GPL code and aren&#8217;t themselves GPL, so they violate the license.</p>
<blockquote><p>First, you say we have been taking from the open source community without giving back, well, of course, that isn’t true. Here is a list of 224 projects on our public <a href="https://github.com/wix" target="_blank">GitHub page</a>, and as you can see they are all dated before your post. We have not checked if WordPress is using them, but you are more than welcome to do so, some of them are pretty good.</p></blockquote>
<p>Very glad your company has projects on GitHub! Thank you for the offer to use them; if we do, we&#8217;ll make sure to follow the license you&#8217;ve put on the code very carefully.</p>
<p>Releasing other open source projects doesn&#8217;t mean that you can violate the license of the editor code you distributed in your mobile apps. To repeat my earlier points: since you distributed GPL code with your apps, the entire apps need to be released at GPL, not just your modifications to that one library.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12828814">this Hacker News comment put it</a>, &#8220;Open source is not a swap meet; you can&#8217;t violate a license if you voluntarily release some other code to make up for it.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote><p>We always shared and admired your commitment to give back, which is exactly why we have those 224 open source projects, and thousands more bugs/improvements available to the open source community and we will release the app you saw as well.</p></blockquote>
<p>If you were to release the entire source code of the apps under GPL that would bring you back into compliance with the license you violated. I <em>think</em> you&#8217;re saying you will do that here, but can you clarify? When should we look for the app code to be released, and where? That would resolve this issue completely.</p>
<blockquote><p>Next, you talk about the Wix App being stolen from WordPress. There are more than 3 million lines of code in the Wix application, notably the hotels/blogs/chat/eCommerce/scheduling/booking is all our code.</p></blockquote>
<p>I said the app includes stolen code. It doesn&#8217;t matter if it&#8217;s 30 lines or 30 million lines: because it includes GPL code and you distributed the app, the entire thing needs to be GPL. If you release the entire app&#8217;s code, as I think you said you would, then that resolves the license violation.</p>
<blockquote><p>Yes, we did use the WordPress open source library for a minor part of the application (that is the concept of open source right?), and everything we improved there or modified, we submitted back as open source, see here in this <a href="https://github.com/wix/react-native-wordpress-editor" target="_blank">link</a> – you should check it out, pretty cool way of using it on mobile native. I really think you guys can use it with your app (and it is open source, so you are welcome to use it for free). And, by the way, the part that we used was in fact developed by another and modified by you.</p></blockquote>
<p>Thank you for admitting you used the code and not trying to hide it. The issue isn&#8217;t the changes you made, it&#8217;s that including the editor means you need to submit the entire app as open source, which you have not yet &#8212; it&#8217;s completely proprietary.</p>
<blockquote><p>If you want to read the account from Tal Kol, one of the leading engineers on this project, <a href="https://medium.com/@talkol/how-i-found-myself-accused-of-stealing-code-from-wordpress-a7350da9f9f2#.7yyylkagl" target="_blank">here it is</a>. He was really happy to share his side of the story.</p></blockquote>
<p>I have seen it, and it <a href="https://medium.com/@csu/can-you-address-this-point-made-in-matts-post-this-explicitly-contravenes-the-gpl-which-7b6460b5b3e1">already has a number of good comments on it, including this one</a>: &#8220;Can you address this point made in Matt’s post: &#8216;This explicitly contravenes the GPL, which requires attribution and a corresponding GPL license on whatever you release publicly built on top of GPL code&#8217;.&#8221; It appears you and Tal might share a misunderstanding of how the GPL works &#8212; software licensing can be tricky and many people make honest mistakes. (If you want to get into serious detail, <a href="https://ma.tt/2016/10/wix-and-the-gpl/#comment-586319">this comment</a> lays the licensing requirements out clearly.) It is easy to rectify this one: release your apps as open source under the GPL.</p>
<blockquote><p>Now, what is this thing about us stealing your branding? Our product was always called Wix and our website Wix.com, we never borrowed from your marketing or brand.</p></blockquote>
<p>Sorry for including this distraction; I was referring specifically to the fact that Wix used to go by &#8220;Wixpress.&#8221; You can see this <a href="http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AMDA-29IDMU/0x0xS1193125-13-387285/1576789/filing.pdf">in your Form F-1</a>, and there used to be a support page about this on your site:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46910" src="https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2016/10/Screen-Shot-2016-10-30-at-3.12.19-AM.png?resize=604%2C94&ssl=1" alt="" /></p>
<p>Although that is still in Google, the <a href="https://www.wix.com/support/html5/ugc/62ae9410-79d0-4198-8ff1-4a37966e1e94/0d1a19e1-c862-44e4-a9d6-bc813f8a9207">page</a> it links to <a href="https://cloudup.com/cu5miENIoLl">now mysteriously returns a 404 error</a>, which you may want to look into.</p>
<blockquote><p>In fact, if I remember correctly, until recently the Automattic home page was all about blogs and only recently it has become “websites.” Also, your business model changed to almost exactly the one we had for years. Can it be that you guys are borrowing from us? If so, again, you are welcome to it.</p></blockquote>
<p>The <a href="http://automattic.com/">Automattic home page</a> has been a series of haiku about our products <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20121218130226/http://wordpress.com/">since 2009</a>, pretty much unchanged &#8212; I think you mean the WordPress.com home page here. WordPress has been used for creating websites, not just blogs, since <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2005/02/strayhorn/">our 1.5 release in 2005 added themes and pages</a>. In my <a href="https://ma.tt/2014/10/sotw-2014/">2014 State of the Word address</a> I talked about how 87% of WordPress sites use it as a CMS. We regularly test dozens of variations of the WP.com homepage and some of them definitely emphasize website creation. I will say we look to Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace as innovators in the space with products that reach many small businesses, and Wix especially should be commended for its success and growth as a public company.</p>
<blockquote><p>If you believe that we need to give you credit, that you deserve credit, I must say, absolutely yes. You guys deserve a lot of credit, but not because of a few lines of source code, you deserve credit because you guys have been making the internet dramatically better, and for that we at Wix are big fans. We love what you have been trying to do, and are working very hard to add our own contribution to make the internet better.</p></blockquote>
<p>Thank you very much, that is kind. I do think there are a lot of values we share in common and would love to see this one issue resolved.</p>
<blockquote><p>If you need source code that we have, and we have not yet released, then, most likely we will be happy to share, you only need to ask. We share your belief that making the internet better, is best for everyone.</p></blockquote>
<p>That&#8217;s what my post was asking, for you to release the code. To quote my original letter: &#8220;Release your app under the GPL, and put the source code for your app up on GitHub so that we can all build on it, improve it, and learn from it.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote><p>Finally, during the last couple of years, I reached out a couple of times trying to meet with you. Could I do that again here? I believe in friendly competition, and as much fun as it is to chat over the blogosphere, maybe we can also do it over a cup of coffee?</p></blockquote>
<p>Once this is resolved I&#8217;d be happy to meet up. I believe when we exchanged emails in 2014 there was trouble finding overlap in our travel schedules.</p>
<p>I hope the above clarifies where we think Wix made a mistake, and how to fix it.</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, 28 Oct 2016 19:45:18 +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:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"Matt: Kanye McDonald’s Poem";s:7:"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=46881";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"https://ma.tt/2016/10/kanye-mcdonalds-poem/";s: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:302:"<p>You might need a reason to smile today. If so, <a href="http://www.theverge.com/tldr/2016/8/22/12586016/kanye-west-mcdonalds-poem-frank-ocean-boys-dont-cry-zine">Kanye&#8217;s poem for Frank Ocean&#8217;s Boys Don&#8217;t Cry zine, illustrated by Dami Lee at the Verge</a>, might be that reason.</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, 28 Oct 2016 19:30:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: WordPress 4.7 Removes the Underline and Justify Buttons From the Editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63314";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-removes-the-underline-and-justify-buttons-from-the-editor";s: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:2298:"<p>Back in August, we highlighted <a href="https://wptavern.com/improving-the-user-experience-by-rearranging-the-wordpress-post-editor">potential changes</a> to the WordPress editor that would improve the user experience. The team has since <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/28/editor-changes-in-4-7/">implemented</a> some of the suggestions outlined in <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/27159">ticket #27159</a> into WordPress 4.7, including rearranging some of the toolbar buttons. The headers drop-down menu is now in the top row of buttons while the strikethrough and horizontal rule buttons are on the second row.</p>
<p>The underline and justify buttons are no longer available. According to Andrew Ozz, who primarily works on the TinyMCE editor in WordPress, underlining text causes confusion as readers may interpret it as a link. The justify button was removed because it has uneven browser implementation and often makes text less readable. However, keyboard shortcuts for both buttons will continue to work in 4.7.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/WP46FreshInstallPostEditor.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-60457" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/WP46FreshInstallPostEditor.png?resize=573%2C396&ssl=1" alt="WordPress 4.6 Post Editor" /></a>WordPress 4.6 Post Editor
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WordPress47PostEditor.png?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-63316" src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WordPress47PostEditor.png?resize=637%2C248&ssl=1" alt="WordPress 4.7 Post Editor" /></a>WordPress 4.7 Post Editor
<p>In addition to these changes, tooltips that appear when hovering over a button will display the keyboard shortcut making them easier to discover.</p>
<p>Since WordPress does not track which buttons are used most often the team can not accurately measure the impact these changes will have. Users are encouraged to test <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-beta-1-now-available-for-testing">WordPress 4.7 beta 1</a> and share your feedback on the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta</a> section of the support forums.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 28 Oct 2016 17:12:07 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:30;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"WPTavern: WordPress 4.7 Beta 1 Now Available for Testing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63291";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-beta-1-now-available-for-testing";s: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:2558:"<p>WordPress 4.7 <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/10/wordpress-4-7-beta-1/" target="_blank">Beta 1</a> was released this evening with a long list of highlighted features that are certain to delight both end users and developers. Core contributors are asking for testing and feedback on some of the larger items ahead of the official release, slated for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/4-7/" target="_blank">December 6</a>.</p>
<p>Twenty Seventeen and its support for atmospheric videos is one of the major front-facing features in 4.7 that could use testing. Last week, when <a href="https://wptavern.com/new-wordpress-default-theme-twenty-seventeen-merged-into-4-7" target="_blank">Twenty Seventeen was merged</a>, there was some uncertainty as to whether or not the first version would ship with video headers. Contributors knuckled down and worked quickly to get basic <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38172" target="_blank">core support for video headers</a> ready for an initial commit.</p>
<p>Twenty Seventeen will be the first WordPress theme to use the new feature. Users will be able to manage video headers in the customizer by selecting a video via the media library or setting a URL to an external video, such as one hosted on YouTube. Theme authors who want to add support for videos will be able to do so by passing &#8216;video&#8217; => true as an argument when adding theme support for custom headers. If the browser is unable to play the video, it will fallback to the header image.</p>
<p>Other user-facing features that require testing include:</p>
<ul>
<li>New site setup flow</li>
<li>Custom CSS with live previews</li>
<li>User admin languages</li>
<li>PDF thumbnail previews</li>
</ul>
<p>WordPress 4.7 release lead Helen Hou-Sandí also requested that plugin and theme developers test the REST API content endpoints, any plugins that might be impacted by the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/09/08/wp_hook-next-generation-actions-and-filters/" target="_blank">WP_Hook overhaul</a>, the expanded Settings Registration API, custom bulk actions, post type templates, and a few other items.</p>
<p>With the impressive list of features on deck for 4.7, it&#8217;s only fitting that Beta 1 was accompanied by an extended five-stanza haiku. Check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2016/10/wordpress-4-7-beta-1/" target="_blank">announcement post</a> to read the haiku and find more information on how to test changes coming in the next release.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 28 Oct 2016 06:01:11 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"WPTavern: WordPress 4.7 Brings Custom Page Template Functionality to All Post Types";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63284";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-brings-custom-page-template-functionality-to-all-post-types";s: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:3024:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/colored-pencils.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/colored-pencils.jpg?resize=1025%2C464&ssl=1" alt="photo credit: Mari Pi" class="size-full wp-image-50851" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/7MBZIHU7O7">Mari Pi</a>
<p>WordPress 4.7 will <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/38951" target="_blank">introduce support for post type templates</a>, an exciting new feature for theme and plugin developers. <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/template-files-section/page-template-files/page-templates/" target="_blank">Page templates</a>, which allow developers to specify a different layout or design for a page, are nearly as old as WordPress itself. For years developers have coveted that same functionality for other post types. In fact, a plugin that attempted to create this functionality (<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-post-template/" target="_blank">Custom Post Template</a>), has more than 50,000 active installs, despite not having been updated for four years.</p>
<p>Post type templates follow a format similar to that of the existing custom page templates. The author can specify a template name as well as the post types where the template will be available as a dropdown in the page attributes metabox. The current implementation of post type templates can be used with any post type without having to register support for page-attributes. The metabox will be displayed if at least one template exists for a post type.</p>
<p><code>/*<br />
 * Template Name: Foggy Memories<br />
 * Template Post Type: memory, event<br />
 */</code></p>
<p>The <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/18375" target="_blank">ticket</a> for the feature, which was opened four years ago, includes many potential use cases. One developer was building a project involving landing pages that were set up as custom post types. He needed to have multiple templates for the landing pages but had to create a work around since post type templates were not yet available.</p>
<p>Another developer wanted to make a distinction between posts with guest contributors versus those coming from regular writers, such as displaying author boxes and avatars. Since this project was for a client, an implementation involving post templates would make it easy to assign the different designs via the dropdown in the post attributes metabox.</p>
<p>&#8220;By opening up the page template functionality to all post types, we continue to improve the template hierarchy&#8217;s flexibility,&#8221; WordPress core committer Pascal Birchler said in his commit message. This new feature opens up many new avenues of customization for theme developers who want to offer alternative layouts and designs for posts. It also makes it easy to include multiple designs (inside a theme) for specific custom post types that a theme will support.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 28 Oct 2016 04:35:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"Dev Blog: WordPress 4.7 Beta 1";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4535";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://wordpress.org/news/2016/10/wordpress-4-7-beta-1/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6878:"<p>WordPress 4.7 Beta 1 is now available!</p>
<p><strong>This software is still in development,</strong> so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.7, try the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-4.7-beta1.zip">download the beta here</a> (zip).</p>
<p>WordPress 4.7 is slated for release on <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/4-7/">December 6</a>, but we need your help to get there. We&#8217;ve been working on a lot of things, many of them to make getting your site set up the way you want it much easier. Here are some of the bigger items to test and help us find as many bugs as possible in the coming weeks:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://2017.wordpress.net/"><strong>Twenty Seventeen</strong></a> &#8211; A brand new default theme brings your site to life with immersive featured images, video headers, and subtle animations. With a focus on business sites, it features multiple sections on the front page as well as widgets, navigation and social menus, a logo, and more. Personalize its asymmetrical grid with a custom color scheme and showcase your multimedia content with post formats. Our default theme for 2017 works great in many languages, for any abilities, and on any device.</li>
<li><strong>Video Headers</strong> &#8211; Sometimes a big atmospheric video as a moving header image is just what you need to showcase your wares; go ahead and try it out with Twenty Seventeen. Need some video inspiration? Try searching for sites with video headers available for download and use.</li>
<li><strong>Set up your site in one flow</strong> &#8211; From finding and installing themes right inside the customizer, to automatically staged theme-specific starter content, to clickable shortcuts that jump directly to editing an item from the preview pane, to adding pages while you&#8217;re building a nav menu or setting a static front page: getting a new site spun up and ready to share with a friend or a coworker is faster and easier than it&#8217;s ever been. Note: starter content appears when live previewing brand new sites and is currently only available in Twenty Seventeen. We&#8217;ll be expanding this to other bundled themes very soon, and perhaps to sites with existing content in future releases of WordPress.</li>
<li><strong>Custom CSS with live previews</strong> &#8211; Ever needed to hide or tweak the look of something in your theme or from a plugin? Now you can do it with CSS and live preview the results while customizing your site. CSS can be a powerful tool; you may find that you won&#8217;t need the theme editor or child themes anymore.</li>
<li><strong>User admin languages</strong> &#8211; Just because your site is in one language doesn&#8217;t mean that everybody helping manage it prefers that language for their admin. To try this out, you&#8217;ll need to have more than one language installed, which will make a user language option available in your profile.</li>
<li><strong>PDF thumbnail previews</strong> &#8211; Uploading PDFs will now generate thumbnail images so you can more easily distinguish between all your documents.</li>
</ul>
<p>As always, there have been exciting changes for developers to explore as well, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>REST API content endpoints</strong> &#8211; If you only test one thing as a developer, please test these. This phase is particularly helpful for people building plugins, themes, and in-admin interfaces. Can you build the things you need? Are these ready for release, and is the world ready for them? (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38373">#38373</a>)</li>
<li><strong><code>WP_Hook</code></strong> &#8211; The code that lies beneath actions and filters has been overhauled. You likely aren&#8217;t affected, but if you&#8217;ve done things to the <code>$wp_filter</code> global or experienced funky recursion bugs in the past, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/09/08/wp_hook-next-generation-actions-and-filters/">please take a moment to read the dev note</a> and test your code.</li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/04/custom-bulk-actions/"><strong>Custom bulk actions</strong></a> &#8211; List tables, now with more than bulk edit and delete.</li>
<li>Expanded <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/26/registering-your-settings-in-wordpress-4-7/"><strong>Settings Registration API</strong></a> via <code>register_setting()</code>.</li>
<li>For theme developers: <strong>Post type templates</strong> (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/18375">#18375</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/09/09/new-functions-hooks-and-behaviour-for-theme-developers-in-wordpress-4-7/">More goodies for theme developers!</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Locale switching</strong> (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/26511">#26511</a>)</li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/11/comment-allowed-checks-in-wordpress-4-7/"><strong>Comment allowed checks</strong></a> have the potential for a back-compat break.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you want a more in-depth view of what major changes have made it into 4.7, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/4-7/">check out posts tagged with 4.7 on the main development blog</a>, or look at a <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&resolution=fixed&milestone=4.7&group=component&order=priority">list of everything</a> that’s changed. There will be more developer notes to come, so keep an eye out for those as well.</p>
<p><strong>If you think you’ve found a bug</strong>, you can post to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta">Alpha/Beta area</a> in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/reports/">file one on WordPress Trac</a>, where you can also find <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">a list of known bugs</a>.</p>
<p>Happy testing, and please enjoy this extended haiku break, courtesy of <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ramiabraham">Rami Abraham</a><em>.</em></p>
<p><em>Exquisite endpoints</em><br />
<em>Extol epic exabytes</em><br />
<em>Enabling earthlings</em></p>
<p><em>Careful interfaces</em><br />
<em>Considerately conjured</em><br />
<em>Customizer chic</em></p>
<p><em>Ring in the new year</em><br />
<em>With elegance and balance</em><br />
<em>Twenty Seventeen</em></p>
<p><em>Hooks hook healthily</em><br />
<em>17817</em><br />
<em>Sane iterations</em></p>
<p><em>Admin in your tongue<br />
One site, many languages<br />
We all speak WordPress</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 28 Oct 2016 04:30:27 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Helen Hou-Sandi";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 252 – Flywheel Hosting Three Years Later";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"https://wptavern.com?p=63280&preview=true&preview_id=63280";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-252-flywheel-hosting-three-years-later";s: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:2843:"<p>In this episode of WordPress Weekly, <a href="http://marcuscouch.com/">Marcus Couch</a> and I are joined by Dusty Davidson, co-founder and CEO of <a href="http://getflywheel.com/">Flywheel</a>, a managed WordPress hosting company that caters to agencies and designers. Davidson last appeared on the show <a href="https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-118-hey-get-flywheel">three years ago</a> when the company had yet to launch to the public.</p>
<p>In the interview, Davidson tells us what he&#8217;s learned in the three years since launching the company. We discuss current trends in the industry and how hosting providers are affecting the WordPress ecosystem.</p>
<p>Davidson explains how the company maintains its stellar reputation for customer support and the impacts of being listed on the WordPress.org <a href="https://wordpress.org/hosting/">recommended hosting</a> page. Near the end of the interview, we learn how Flywheel is implementing <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/">Let&#8217;s Encrypt</a> to easily provide SSL certificates for customers.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/linkedin-learning-is-offering-free-access-this-week-to-its-library-of-more-than-5000-courses">LinkedIn Learning Is Offering Free Access This Week to Its Library of More Than 5,000 Courses</a></p>
<h2>Plugins Picked By Marcus:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/import-meetup-events/">Import Meetup Events</a> is an add-on for The Events Calendar and Events Manager plugins. It allows you to automatically import events from Meetup.com into The Events Calendar or Events Manager.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/click-to-clipboard/">Click to Clipboard</a> allows you to copy paragraphs from your site&#8217;s main content to the clipboard to use elsewhere.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/archive-control/">Archive Control</a> allows you to customize your archive listing by modifying your Archive title, adding a featured image, including content before or after the list. You can also change the order of display and include pagination, adjust the terms, and more.</p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, November 2nd 9:30 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: </strong><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via RSS: </strong><a href="https://wptavern.com/feed/podcast" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Stitcher Radio: </strong><a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #252:</strong><br />
</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 27 Oct 2016 22:35:18 +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:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:61:"WPTavern: The Challenges of Organizing a WordCamp From Abroad";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63151";s:7:"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:72:"https://wptavern.com/the-challenges-of-organizing-a-wordcamp-from-abroad";s: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:3591:"<p>Earlier this year, a <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-to-launch-experimental-wordcamp-incubator-program">WordCamp incubator program</a> was created to help three cities establish their first WordCamp. After <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-incubator-program-to-launch-in-indonesia-zimbabwe-and-columbia">receiving 182 applications</a>, the three cities selected for the program were:</p>
<ul>
<li>Denpasar, Indonesia</li>
<li>Harare, Zimbabwe</li>
<li>Medellín, Colombia</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://2016.medellin.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp Medellín</a> is scheduled for November 5th and is the first of the three incubator events to take place. Andrea Middleton, Community Organizer for the WordPress open source project, is part of the organizing team and says organizing a camp from the other side of the world is challenging.</p>
<p>&#8220;The local community is still quite loose/unstructured and there isn&#8217;t a very well-established group of local leaders, so it&#8217;s been an interesting exercise in finding local organizers, speakers, and volunteers,&#8221; Middleton told the Tavern.</p>
<p>The organizing team consists of a U.S. expatriate who recently moved to the area, a Colombian who now lives in Spain, three locals, two members of the WordCamp Lima team who are lending their experience, and Middleton.</p>
<p>Spanish is the primary language in Medellín which can present communication challenges. I asked Middleton if she needs to use a translator to communicate to the team, &#8220;I lived in Mexico for 5 years back in the 90s so my Spanish is passable, but it&#8217;s a pretty bilingual group,&#8221; Middleton said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The last meeting was in English but most of our text interaction is in Spanish to accommodate the Colombians who are not proficient in English.</p>
<p>&#8220;I ask native Spanish speakers to review and or correct my written Spanish when I&#8217;m publishing content to the site. I&#8217;m the primary venue contact and all of that has been in Spanish over email.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to Middleton, WhatsApp is huge in Colombia but is not ideal for collaborating with members of WordCamp Central since the team uses Slack. So half of the communication is on WhatsApp while the other is conducted on a free Slack instance.</p>
<p>WordCamp Medellín&#8217;s <a href="https://2016.medellin.wordcamp.org/programa/">schedule</a> includes sessions by local entrepreneurs on how to contribute to WordPress, Multilingual WordPress, and SEO. The opening session features a 15 year-old speaker.</p>
<p>Thanks to considerable effort on the part of Middleton, the event has a female speaker, &#8220;We had no female speaker applicants, so I poured over the list of women who had attended the meetups and then researched them and recruited them to speak,&#8221; Middleton said. &#8220;It only ended up with one local female speaker, but I think she&#8217;s going to be great.&#8221;</p>
<p>Middleton says that when the event concludes, she&#8217;ll publish a post detailing the things she&#8217;s learned organizing a WordCamp from abroad. Tickets are <a href="https://2016.medellin.wordcamp.org/registro/">still on sale</a> for <a href="https://2016.medellin.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp Medellín</a> at $10 each and includes lunch and a shirt.</p>
<p>To learn more about Middleton&#8217;s role in WordCamps and the incubator program, listen to <a href="https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-234-all-things-wordcamp-with-andrea-middleton">episode 234</a> of WordPress Weekly.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:11:27 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:104:"WPTavern: Controversy Surrounding WordPress.org “Popular” Themes Exposes Weaknesses in the Algorithm";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63129";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:109:"https://wptavern.com/controversy-surrounding-wordpress-org-popular-themes-exposes-weaknesses-in-the-algorithm";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10973:"<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/chart.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/chart.jpg?resize=1025%2C511&ssl=1" alt="photo credit:  Luis Llerena" class="size-full wp-image-46313" /></a>photo credit:  <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/S3JE5YAMND">Luis Llerena</a>
<p>If you&#8217;ve ever wondered how the <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/" target="_blank">WordPress Theme Directory</a> identifies and ranks the themes that display under the popular tab, you might be surprised to learn that it has nothing to do with ratings. Popularity is a somewhat subjective quality to measure in the first place, but WordPress.org has an algorithm in place to give users an idea of which themes are trending.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/theme-directory-popular-tab.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/theme-directory-popular-tab.png?resize=1025%2C775&ssl=1" alt="theme-directory-popular-tab" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63133" /></a></p>
<p>The number of sites using a theme is the first metric that comes to mind for popularity, but it cannot be limited to that or else the results might be skewed towards older themes that are not in fact popular anymore. Samuel &#8220;Otto&#8221; Wood, in response to a <a href="https://twitter.com/mattmedeiros/status/791009700171087872" target="_blank">Twitter thread</a> about how themes appear to be gaming the system, created a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwFscqBOiOY&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">video</a> to explain how the popularity algorithm works.</p>
<p>&#8220;Popular is currently active installs divided by age of the theme and a few other factors,&#8221; Wood said. &#8220;Ratings don&#8217;t currently factor into it. We&#8217;re trying to work out an algorithm to add ratings to it. For the most part it&#8217;s a popularity thing.&#8221;</p>
<p>I asked him for more clarification on the other factors and he said it varies depending on what data they have and how that data looks over time. &#8220;We adjust it to have it change fairly regularly, but still reflecting what is popular at the time,&#8221; Wood said.</p>
<p>Dion Hulse, who also helps maintain WordPress.org infrastructure, said, &#8220;It&#8217;s not published by design, to hopefully prevent authors gaming it too much. Other than what Otto has said, they only other public part of it is that a theme must be at least two weeks old to be included in the popular rankings.&#8221;</p>
<p>At the end of last year, <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-wordpress-theme-directory-replaces-download-counts-with-the-number-of-active-installs" target="_blank">theme download counts were replaced with the number of active installs</a> to try to prevent theme authors from gaming the system in order to appear on the Popular tab. Gaming the system is much more difficult now but there are other ways to do it, due to the imperfect measurements for active installs.</p>
<h3>How WordPress.org Measures Active Installs for Themes</h3>
<p>The topic of active installs was re-ignited yesterday by Matt Medeiros, a small business owner and <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/author/slocumstudio/" target="_blank">WordPress.org theme author</a>, who suspected the author of a recently popular theme of gaming the system.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Gaming .org theme downloads/active is running rampant. This theme “already has 10k active installs.” DL count roughly 3k <a href="https://twitter.com/Otto42">@Otto42</a> <a href="https://t.co/aaYwWcsvu8">pic.twitter.com/aaYwWcsvu8</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Matt Medeiros (@mattmedeiros) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattmedeiros/status/790940338030608384">October 25, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/vertex/" target="_blank">Vertex</a> theme, new to the directory this month, already has more than 10,000 active installs, despite having a much lower download count and no ratings. Medeiros made a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XACFOft1hA" target="_blank">video</a> explaining what he perceived as suspicious activity propelling it to the fourth most popular spot on WordPress.org. This prompted Samuel Wood to film a response, which breaks down some of the flaws in the system that measures active installs.</p>
<p>&#8220;The active install count is a count of sites that have reported to us that they are checking for an update for that theme and that it is active,&#8221; Wood said. He explained that the 10,000+ in this instance and in many others is a rough estimate because WordPress.org does not have an exact measurement of how many sites have installed a theme:</p>
<blockquote><p>What we are actually counting is yes, the number of active installs of a theme named Vertex. That may include themes not in our directory, such as this one from Elegant themes. If the theme isn&#8217;t in our directory we still get reports about it. The only way for us to not do that is to have the theme itself that theme check them for updates instead of checking us for updates, which their theme should indeed do. I would go so far as to say that any commercial theme should indeed be checking their commercial site, their systems not ours, but if they don&#8217;t have any special code to handle that case, then yes it will report back to our API server looking for updates. And if it has the name Vertex then yes, it&#8217;s going to be counted as being the Vertex theme. </p></blockquote>
<p>In this instance, the creators of the Vertex theme were made aware that the name was already in use outside of WordPress.org. They <a href="https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/30317" target="_blank">offered to change the name of the theme</a> to iVertex during the review process, but the Theme Review Team decided that it wasn&#8217;t necessary.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no gaming going on behind that,&#8221; Wood said. &#8220;If somebody does game the system, I will find it. I guarantee you. However, this is not such a case. Our current algorithm looks at active installs and if you happen to pick a name that is very popular [outside of WordPress.org], you can have a large number of active installs without it actually being this theme that is being counted.&#8221;</p>
<p>This problem could be solved with a unique ID for themes. Wood said there is a six-year-old core ticket that he would like to implement, but it&#8217;s not currently a priority.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, there is no real push to do that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;At some point in the future, I would like all themes and plugins in the WordPress directory to get a unique ID which they can put in their headers and when they report back, having that unique ID will uniquely identify that theme or plugin. It would eliminate so many problems for me. It would make updates so much easier. I would be able to do a whole lot of useful things with it and it would let me fix this problem right here.&#8221;</p>
<h3>How the Popular Themes Algorithm Affects Theme Businesses</h3>
<p>Getting unique IDs in place is no easy fix, as theme reporting would need to be overhauled and multiple systems that interact with each other would need to be changed. It would be worth it in the long run for more accurate reporting on WordPress.org, which is the first place many users browse when looking for a new theme. If the active install counts are not a proper representation of installations via WordPress.org, then it doesn&#8217;t make sense to pin the popular algorithm to that number.</p>
<p>I asked Matt Medeiros why he chose to highlight the situation with Vertex, and he explained why many small business owners have a strong interest in the popular themes page.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s getting harder and harder to survive as a theme shop these days,&#8221; Medeiros said. &#8220;Indie authors are overshadowed by huge theme shops and mega marketplaces. For me, .org is the only source of distribution for my themes, and I have a  desire to see the repo become the defacto place to find quality themes. Sadly, not all themes are submitted to &#8216;do it right&#8217; and many crop up to make a quick cash grab from unsuspecting end-users. Top spots are worth A LOT of money (see: Zerif) and coupled with an aging search engine for themes, gaming to the top is worth it, even in the short term. Unsuspecting users, who find searching too challenging, settle with what’s in front of them.&#8221;</p>
<p>Medeiros referenced Zerif Lite, which was recently <a href="https://wptavern.com/zerif-lite-suspended-from-wordpress-theme-directory-300k-users-left-without-updates" target="_blank">removed from WordPress.org</a>, due to violations of guidelines that began to be enforced after the theme was approved. The theme was pulling in tens of thousands of dollars for ThemeIsle, thanks to its frequent spot among the most popular themes on WordPress.org. Ionut Neagu, the company&#8217;s CEO, estimates that Zerif Lite&#8217;s suspension from the directory will diminish the company’s $70K/month revenue by 50%.</p>
<p>&#8220;There’s a lingering distaste in the review process for freemium upsells,&#8221; Medeiros said. &#8220;Not everyone agrees that folks should have an upsell product here, and that’s unfortunate. As a small business owner, that revenue helps me reinvest into the WordPress community, WordCamps, hire and train people in developing with WordPress. At times the review process, mixed with the emotions of others, feels like a rising tax against the small software business owner, like myself.&#8221;</p>
<p>When drawing attention to the suspicious active install numbers for the Vertex theme and the flaws in the algorithm, Medeiros drew resistance from Wood, who does not see the directory as a place where businesses should expect a return for their investments.</p>
<p>&#8220;The theme directory is not an advertisement to peddle your wares,&#8221; Wood <a href="https://twitter.com/Otto42/status/790999917451808768" target="_blank">said</a>. &#8220;It is exactly that sort of thinking [that] makes me want to ban all themes with a &#8216;paid&#8217; version from the directory entirely. The theme directory is not an advertising means. That is not its purpose. If that is your intent, then you are doing it wrong.&#8221;</p>
<p>Medeiros said he isn&#8217;t interested in reviewing all themes for possible fraud, nor does he expect Otto to do the same. Vertex is just one example among many where the flaws in the algorithm are on public display.</p>
<p>&#8220;I chose to highlight this issue because I think the repo can be a better choice for users than a for-profit marketplace,&#8221; Medeiros said. &#8220;Either way, I can only hope unearthing this conversation helps affect change for the better.&#8221;</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 26 Oct 2016 20:16:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:42:"HeroPress: I fell. WordPress helped me up.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"http://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=1430";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:51:"https://heropress.com/essays/fell-wordpress-helped/";s: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:21434:"<img width="960" height="480" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/102616-min-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: A fall nearly took my life, but WordPress helped me find myself." /><p>As I laid there in a heap on that cliffside, my body broken, bloodied and battered, never once did I think, “This is one of the best things to ever happen to me and will lead me down a path of personal and professional fulfillment.” But that’s what happened, and WordPress is among the biggest reasons why.</p>
<p>Please excuse my lack of mental clarity in that moment, as I had just fallen an estimated 40 to 50 feet down a rocky bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, California.</p>
<p>Needless to say, I was in rough shape.</p>
<p>It was June 16, 2012, and whether I would have admitted it or not, I was definitely in a transformative period. If there ever were a time to have a life-changing moment, the pickings were ripe.</p>
<p>That sunny Saturday began with a goal of hiking 15 miles down the coast, taking in the scenery. Mere hours later the goal became survival. In the months that followed, I experienced recovery, renewal and rejuvenation.</p>
<p>A fall nearly took my life, but WordPress helped me find myself.</p>
<blockquote class="instagram-media"><div>
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<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Rso_A3AzzP/" target="_blank">A photo posted by Eric  Kuznacic (@kuznacic)</a> on Nov 6, 2012 at 10:05am PST</p>
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<p></p>
<p><em>My wife Katie and I, the evening before my accident</em></p>
<h3>A different state of mind</h3>
<p>My story is different than most HeroPress essays. I did not grow up without, or learning to cope with an illness or disability. I am not a minority, nor do I belong to a marginalized class. I am a white, American male whom many would say lives a charmed life.</p>
<p>I do not dispute that.</p>
<p>However, that does not mean I have not faced adversity. My story is one of finding my own way &#8212; through trial and error, fierce independence, hard work, and lots and lots of ups and downs.</p>
<blockquote><p>I was the kid who never knew what he wanted to be when he grew up.</p></blockquote>
<p>I realized at an early age that I *could* do whatever I wanted to do; I also learned there was a huge difference between being able to do something and wanting or enjoying to do something.</p>
<p>I was a pretty good all-around student &#8212; math, science, English and so forth &#8212; and was pushed toward pursuing a career with a big, important title like surgeon or attorney or chemist. I never had an interest in any of that &#8212; I couldn’t see myself going to school for years and years (and taking on even more debt than my four-year degree put me in) just because someone else thought I should.</p>
<p>Plus, the idea of “corporate America” never really appealed to me. Fighting the rat race every day to get to work in a skyscraper or suburban office complex, toiling away in a cubicle for eight hours, fighting the rat race to get home only to get up and do it all over again the next day. There must be something more.</p>
<p>I always wanted to be one of those people that woke up every day excited to go to work. I just never knew what that job should be.</p>
<h3>Growing up in a digital world</h3>
<p>My parents were elementary-school teachers so we always had access to the school computer (Literally, there was one. This was 1983 in rural Wisconsin!). When I reached high school, we had a shiny new Macintosh at home and it could dial into this thing called “The Internet.”</p>
<p>I chose to attend <a href="http://www.drake.edu/" target="_blank">Drake University</a> in part because it offered an Internet-connected PowerMac in every dorm room. (I cannot overstate how revolutionary this was in the early and mid 1990s!). I majored in Broadcast Journalism, enjoyed it and went on to work in the news media for a couple years, but it took all of a few weeks on campus to because completely enamored with HTML and early iterations of CSS.</p>
<p>I cobbled together a simple personal homepage using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_GeoCities" target="_blank">Geocities</a>, and when I got bored of posting personal tidbits surrounded by animated GIFs, turned to creating subpages for bands I liked. That morphed into creating a site dedicated to the Des Moines music scene. That site became pretty popular, mostly because it was 1998 and very few bands had their own website, much less one that looked professional and was updated regularly.</p>
<p>I found that web designers were few and far between in those years, and was able to create small sites on the side for various businesses, groups and organizations as a way to make beer money. However the web was still very much like the Wild West and there was not a clear career path at that time for aspiring web designers, other than moving to Silicon Valley. I decided to pass and concentrate on completing my degree.</p>
<h3>The years pass</h3>
<p>Fast-forward about 10 years to 2012. I turned 35, and that milestone culminated in me quitting a job that I absolutely despised, not because of the job itself but because of the absolute tyrant of a “boss.”</p>
<p>I had never walked away from employment in my adult life without knowing my next move. But this time it was necessary.</p>
<blockquote><p>Every day I had to sit there I became more and more miserable to the point that it was affecting my marriage and mental health.</p></blockquote>
<p>Luckily I had built a great personal and professional network and various job opportunities soon presented themselves. I began to think hard about finding a career rather than a mere job &#8212; something I could build upon and grow within. It’s what we all dream, but it seems that few achieve. I was determined to beat those odds.</p>
<p>A close friend had recently left a communications position at a large utility about 40 miles from where I live, in a larger city with ample professional opportunity. I had always resisted looking for employment in that community, only because of the time it would take each day traveling to/from work. But, this was a very good-paying job that had essentially landed in my lap. My friend gave the workplace rave reviews, so everything seemed to be falling into place.</p>
<p>I went through the whole rigmarole, interviewing several times with different people. Things were going well. It got to the point that on Friday, June 15, 2012, I received a call from the man whom would be my boss, letting me know that the field had been narrowed to me and one other person. He said as much as he was legally able, and reading through the lines, the job was mine. All I had to do was clear one final hurdle upon my return to Wisconsin.</p>
<p>For the first time in months, I could see the future unfolding and it felt good.</p>
<p>While my new “career” was not what I had expected to find I was perfectly content in my decisions. As I walked around Huntington Beach, CA that afternoon the cloudy skies gave way to beautiful, warm sunshine. I thought it was a sign that everything was going to be OK. I had no idea what was next.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/L-73JpAzyo/" target="_blank">A photo posted by Eric  Kuznacic (@kuznacic)</a> on Jun 17, 2012 at 10:28am PDT</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p><em>My hospital bracelet, one of the first things I recall seeing upon waking up from surgery</em></p>
<h3>The Fall</h3>
<p>I awoke the morning of June 16, 2012, with the intention of walking along the Pacific Ocean from La Jolla to Ocean Beach, CA. Once there my wife would pick me up after her meetings were over, marking the beginning of a few days of much-needed vacation time before heading home.</p>
<p>I had spent hours carefully mapping out my route, creating a personal Google Map with all the places I wanted to stop for rest, a bite to eat and so forth, as well as where I could cut down side streets to/from the beach.</p>
<blockquote><p>I thought I had it all planned out so well.</p></blockquote>
<p>I set out from our hotel, which sits on a bluff high above the Pacific Ocean and abuts two world-caliber golf courses. Google Earth had shown me a route of how to get across the golf course and to a path that would lead me down to the beach below. All I had to do was hop a fence and I was home-free.</p>
<p>Once over the fence I made a fateful decision to not follow my planned route, which would have taken me to a set of stairs that led to the beach. Instead I believed I had found a “shortcut” that would take me to the beach much more quickly and directly than my mapped route.</p>
<p>Little did I know that this was what I later was told the locals refer to as a “false path.” I carefully made my way down the cliff, slipping a few times due to the loose gravel and the fact that I was wearing slip-on shoes &#8212; not the best choice for a steep hike. Undeterred, I continued down this path until I came to a spot where going back up was not an option (due to the cliff giving way), and going down further would definitely mean taking a tumble of some sort.</p>
<p>My head swirled. What was I to do? Should I call 911? No, that would mean I’d have to admit I made a mistake and, I reckoned with myself, health insurance doesn’t pay for a cliffside rescue if there are no injuries. I tried and tried to climb back up, to no avail, until my clothes were completely drenched with sweat.</p>
<p>Sensing futility, I sat down to rest. That 10 or so minutes gave me a lot to think about. People always ask me if death was on my mind. I can honestly say that thought never once crossed my mind. I began trying to rationalize one of the few choices I had: To jump to a point where I could safely slide down a ways on my butt, allowing me to continue down the cliff. What’s the worst that can happen, I thought; a broken arm and some scrapes.</p>
<p>I decided this was my only choice and spent a few minutes pumping myself up. The plan was to launch myself from where I was stuck, trying to reach a rock that stuck out of the cliff, perhaps 6-8 feet away. If I could just grab onto that rock, I could gather myself before letting go in an attempt to let gravity do its thing. I snapped a couple photos of where I was at, just in case no one believed what was shaping up to be quite the story.</p>
<p>I am not a religious man, but I said a silent prayer and went for it. I jumped as far as I could, getting my hands on the intended target rock, only to feel my fingers slip off. Down I went.</p>
<blockquote><p>All I remember was smacking my face on the cliffside, then free-falling for what felt like an eternity, followed by a slide even further down.</p></blockquote>
<p>I never lost consciousness, and when I came to a rest I was somehow able to adjust my body so that I was sitting up straight, faced with the most picturesque Pacific Ocean view imaginable.</p>
<p>I screamed for help for a minute or two before realizing it was hopeless. I was still fairly high above the beach, it was windy, the waves were crashing against the shore, and there was no one directly below. It quickly became apparent that if I were to survive, it was up to me and only me.</p>
<p>Upon gathering myself enough to realize the situation and that my injuries were very severe, my first fear was that I was paralyzed. My right leg was crumpled below me in a way that defies explanation and at first I could not feel it. My right shoe had slipped off in the fall, so I grabbed my right heel and found that there was feeling. That calmed me enough to be able to fish my phone out of my left pocket, something I could not have done had it been in my right pocket.</p>
<p>I called 911 for the first time in my life. People from San Diego later told me that I should not have had reception in that spot, and sure enough when I later checked, the service map was white (no service) where I was. Miraculously the call went through and I spent the next 26 minutes on the phone with the operator. Luckily I knew right where I was and a lifeguard on a Waverunner was able to locate me and signal to others where I was at.</p>
<a href="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/eric-kuznacic-fall-aftermath.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1450" src="http://20094-presscdn.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/eric-kuznacic-fall-aftermath.jpg" alt="This is how I looked the morning after my accident" width="604" height="453" /></a>This is how I looked the morning after my accident
<p>My right femur has been broken into three pieces. My right orbital bone was shattered &#8212; much like a windshield after being hit by a rock &#8212; as a result of my face slamming against the rocks. I was bleeding profusely from above my right eye and had serious scrapes and abrasions below the waist from sliding down the cliff after a free fall.</p>
<p>At this point the adrenaline was pumping pretty good, but once my rescuers arrived I started to go into shock. They gave me a shot to counteract those effects, and I was able to tell them to call my wife to let her know I was OK. I still did not realize the extent of my injuries.</p>
<blockquote><p>I thought I would be going to the ER and would be released later that day. I was wrong.</p></blockquote>
<p>I spent the next three-and-a-half days in the hospital, followed by another day in a hotel awaiting our flight home to Wisconsin. Even though I was full of painkillers I was in more pain than I could ever have imagined.</p>
<h3>The Aftermath</h3>
<p>If you’ve read this far you might be wondering what this all has to do with WordPress. Needless to say, faced with a long recovery and unable to drive, I didn’t get that job with the utility.</p>
<p>Once at home I was couch-bound for nearly four months as my leg slowly healed. I’ve never been a huge movie fan and one can only watch so much TV before becoming very bored. I convinced my wife that I needed a new laptop to pass the time.</p>
<p>Two years earlier I had been introduced to WordPress via a non-profit organization whose board of directors I joined. They needed someone to keep their website up-to-date, and it just so happened they recently had converted it to WordPress. At that time I did not view WordPress as an avenue toward personal and professional freedom and satisfaction, but it certainly was easier than writing code by hand and scored points for being a handy and easy-to-understand tool.</p>
<p>I have always been a fan and supporter of open-source software, and how digital collaboration has helped shape the Internet and world.</p>
<blockquote><p>As I lay on that couch and as the summer days passed, I read up on WordPress. The more I read, the more it intrigued me.</p></blockquote>
<p>I learned there was a thriving WordPress community of like-minded individuals, entrepreneurs and others making a living, and while I may not have known anyone locally, advice and assistance was readily available online.</p>
<p>I dove in head-first, initially because I needed something to help pass the time during my recovery. As I learned and experimented, I came to view WordPress and website development as something that I could once again do to earn a little bit of money and help pay the bills.</p>
<p>I had a pretty good local network due to my community volunteerism, and soon found a mid-size nonprofit organization who needed help maintaining its current website. That site was built upon some sort of proprietary CMS that did not work anywhere near as well as WordPress. After a few months, talk turned to building a new site and I strongly advocated for WordPress.</p>
<p>It worked, and the rest, as they say, is history. I am not saying that the journey was an easy one; developing that first site was filled with missteps, mistakes and things I had to re-do several times.</p>
<blockquote><p>But I was learning, I was independent, and I was making the best out of sitting on the couch 90 percent of the time.</p></blockquote>
<p>That first project turned out well enough to impress the organization, and led them to suggest my services to others. Soon I had a handful of clients who turned to me because they had heard of this tool called WordPress but needed an “expert” to guide them. This led me to believe that this was a sustainable business, and perhaps could be the career that I had sought for so long.</p>
<blockquote class="instagram-media"><div>
<div>
<div></div>
</div>
<p> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/ic0Qexgz91/" target="_blank">Always good to be in #oceanbeach #sandiego</a></p>
<p>A photo posted by Eric  Kuznacic (@kuznacic) on Dec 27, 2013 at 7:29pm PST</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p><em>How I feel every day when I wake up and realize I am my own boss</em></p>
<h3>What WordPress means to me</h3>
<p>I love everything about WordPress, but also realize that I am nowhere close to mastering this wonderful tool. I think that is what drives me to get up every morning &#8212; the chance to learn something new, to solve a problem, to seek out solutions, to expand my skill set for future projects. And, most importantly, WordPress provides me a vehicle through which I am able to set my own course, be my own boss, and build things my own way.</p>
<p>I love the WordPress community and all those whom I have met or interacted. You are some very, very smart people! I relish the chance to extend my interest in volunteerism to the WordPress community, giving back to those who are just learning. I have attended WordCamps near and far, and in January 2016 founded a <a href="https://www.meetup.com/Janesville-Area-WordPress-Users" target="_blank">local WordPress Meetup group</a> in the city where I live. I also spent three semesters teaching &#8220;WordPress 101&#8221; at the local technical college. These experiences, all because of WordPress, introduced me to others locally who share my love of WordPress.</p>
<p>I officially launched <a href="https://www.wtftechsolutions.com" target="_blank">Why The Fuss? Technical Solutions</a>, my one-man design and development shop, on June 1, 2013, just two weeks shy of the one-year anniversary of my accident. I have been asked why I did not wait until June 16 to launch as a symbolic date. I have never before really told anyone why.</p>
<p>The doctors told me it would be a full 12 months before I was fully back up on my feet. I viewed launching my business as a way to prove to myself that while time frame was accurate, on June 16, 2013 I wanted to be able to look back at what the previous year had laid bare for me with a positive outlook toward the future.</p>
<blockquote><p>I am well aware of the fact that I do not know everything there is to know, about WordPress or life in general. But this excites me and drives me to do more.</p></blockquote>
<p>In the past this type of situation would have driven me crazy, as I did not have such a heavy investment in whatever I was doing; it was just a job.</p>
<p>WordPress has helped me find a career, one I never would have found if not for a series of unfortunate events and fateful decisions. I look forward to continuing this journey of personal and professional fulfillment.</p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: I fell. WordPress helped me up." class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=I%20fell.%20WordPress%20helped%20me%20up.&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Ffell-wordpress-helped%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: I fell. WordPress helped me up." class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Ffell-wordpress-helped%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Ffell-wordpress-helped%2F&title=I+fell.+WordPress+helped+me+up." rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: I fell. WordPress helped me up."></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/essays/fell-wordpress-helped/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/102616-min-150x150.jpg&description=I fell. WordPress helped me up." rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: I fell. WordPress helped me up."></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/fell-wordpress-helped/" title="I fell. WordPress helped me up."></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/fell-wordpress-helped/">I fell. WordPress helped me up.</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 26 Oct 2016 12:00:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Eric Kuznacic";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:82:"WPTavern: Weglot Multilingual WordPress Plugin Passes €10,000 in Monthly Revenue";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63048";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:90:"https://wptavern.com/weglot-multilingual-wordpress-plugin-passes-e10000-in-monthly-revenue";s: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:6542:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/weglot.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/weglot.jpg?resize=781%2C350&ssl=1" alt="weglot" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63101" /></a></p>
<p>Augustin Prot and Rémy Berda, co-founders the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/weglot/" target="_blank">Weglot</a> multilingual plugin for WordPress, started their operation in a small apartment in September 2015. Weglot was originally a simple JavaScript project that offered a language switcher so that users could view websites in different languages. After testers started asking for a solution that could be used with WordPress without causing SEO problems, Weglot co-founders scrapped the JavaScript idea and put all their energies towards creating a WordPress plugin that would follow best practices.</p>
<p>Berda, the engineer who built the plugin, said he developed it from a &#8220;non-WordPress&#8221; point of view and the team was excited when they started getting one person a day downloading the plugin. They jumped into the WordPress market sight unseen, with no contacts and very little understanding of the community.</p>
<p>In February 2016, after finishing out the previous month with 291€ in revenue, Weglot co-founders officially launched their <a href="https://weglot.com/pricingwp" target="_blank">SaaS-based commercial offerings</a> to extend the capabilities of the free WordPress.org plugin. They brought the plugin out of beta and decided to sponsor and attend WordCamp Paris to connect with the community.</p>
<p>&#8220;WordPress was just a name that we had heard of but didn’t know anything about it,&#8221; Berda said. &#8220;Sponsoring the WordCamp was without a doubt what really launched us. Within two days, we had met and exchanged with many people from the WordPress community. After the WordCamp, we started to get more and more users.&#8221;</p>
<p>I asked Berda what surprised him about WordPress and its commercial ecosystem as someone who was brand new to the community in 2015. He said they knew coming into it that many websites were built on the software but couldn&#8217;t imagine the size or the strength of the community.</p>
<p>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t imagine that WordPress was so &#8216;community&#8217; based,&#8221; Berda said. &#8220;Events, meetups, WordCamps (in so many cities), blogs, and even a French Slack group.&#8221;</p>
<p>Berda said he and his co-founder were also surprised by how infrequently the SaaS model is used in the WordPress ecosystem.</p>
<p>&#8220;People were reluctant to use a SaaS approach at first &#8211; they prefer to buy a piece a software even if it means no support,&#8221; Berda said. &#8220;It was surprising to us because outside WordPress, SaaS has surpassed the &#8216;software&#8217; approach for many reasons. The good thing we&#8217;ve seen is that it changed rapidly between the end of last year and today. It seems the SaaS approach we have is no longer a problem for our users as they understand the value.&#8221;</p>
<p>In July 2016, Weglot passed €3,500 in monthly revenue, which enabled the team to rent a small office where they could be fully dedicated to the project. Prot and Berda have added a customer support specialist and Weglot&#8217;s monthly recurring revenue is on a steady uphill climb. Last week the plugin <a href="http://blog.weglot.com/0-7000euromonthly-beginning-journey/" target="_blank">passed 5,000 active installs</a> and Berda said they passed 10,000€ per month in actual revenue (7,000€/month in recurring revenue).</p>
<p>Weglot now has paying customers in 75 countries and Berda gave us a break down of their top seven in terms of MRR (Monthly Recurring revenue):</p>
<ul>
<li>France : 20%</li>
<li>USA : 13%</li>
<li>UK  : 6.4%</li>
<li>Spain : 6.3%</li>
<li>Germany : 4.4%</li>
<li>Canada : 3.5%</li>
<li>Italy : 3.4%</li>
</ul>
<p>As Weglot&#8217;s founders are French, it isn&#8217;t surprising the product has taken off in France. Over the past few years <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-paris-2014-uniting-the-french-wordpress-community" target="_blank">the French WordPress community has become more united and connected</a> with WordPress-related events expanding into other cities beyond Paris. The challenges of multilingual publishing is an important topic at these events and other WordCamps around Europe, and Weglot seems to be solving some of these problems for users.</p>
<p>Compared to more established competitors in the multilingual plugin space, like <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/" target="_blank">Polylang</a> (with 200,000+ active installs) and the 100% commercial <a href="https://wpml.org/" target="_blank">WPML</a> plugin, which boasts a 40-person team, Weglot is still considered a small player. Berda said they hope to distinguish the plugin from its competitors by providing a quicker, simpler setup, a clean approach for SEO, and broader compatibility with WordPress&#8217; ecosystem of themes and plugins.</p>
<p>&#8220;Weglot has a technical approach that is really different from other plugins,&#8221; Berda said. &#8220;For translated pages, Weglot lets WordPress build the webpage normally and hooks at the end of the code to translate the content. By doing so, Weglot works on a HTML page, making its content source-agnostic and thus solving many compatibility problems.&#8221;</p>
<p>The plugin also uses rewrite rules to create different URLs for each language offered on the site. For example, <strong>mywebsite.com/contact</strong> returns a page in English, <strong>mywebsite.com/fr/contact</strong> displays the French version, and <strong>mywebsite.com/es/contact</strong> returns the page in Spanish.</p>
<p>&#8220;This approach combined with adding tags &#8216;alternate&#8217; hreflang in the page, means that Weglot meets <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en" target="_blank">SEO best practices recommended by Google</a>,&#8221; Berda said.</p>
<p>Apart from finding the right technical approach, Berda said one of the biggest challenges has been maintaining a high level of support. His team has committed to supporting both free and paying customers through forums and live chat. Over the next six months Weglot is aiming to grow its revenue to €20,000/ month, expand its support team, and establish its SaaS approach as a viable business model in the WordPress multilingual plugin space.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 25 Oct 2016 19:56:43 +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: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:106:"WPTavern: WordPress and Web Development Communities Get Together to Help Non-Profits at Website Weekend LA";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63108";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:117:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-and-web-development-communities-get-together-to-help-non-profits-at-website-weekend-la";s: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:3114:"<p>This past weekend, people from the web development and WordPress communities <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-to-take-center-stage-during-website-weekend-los-angeles-oct-22-23">gathered in Los Angeles</a> to attend <a href="http://websiteweekend.la/">Website Weekend LA</a>. Organized by Alex Vasquez and Natalie MacLees, in association with the Los Angeles chapter of <a href="https://www.girldevelopit.com/">Girl Develop It</a>, attendees helped non-profit organizations with their sites.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/alexjvasquez">@alexjvasquez</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/nataliemac">@nataliemac</a> wrapping up a great weekend of talented web folk donating their time to help non-profits. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gdiwwla?src=hash">#gdiwwla</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/connect16?src=hash">#connect16</a> <a href="https://t.co/GhQhFq07by">pic.twitter.com/GhQhFq07by</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Rachel Carden (@bamadesigner) <a href="https://twitter.com/bamadesigner/status/790362187076214784">October 24, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Roy Sivan, Senior WordPress Developers at Disney, attended the event and <a href="https://www.thewpcrowd.com/wordpress/website-weekend-la-recap/">published a recap</a> on The WP Crowd website. According to Sivan, each organization was assigned a lead developer, 2-3 junior developers, a project manager, and a user experience designer. Sivan&#8217;s team worked on <a href="http://thero.org/">Thero.org</a>, a non-profit in San Diego, CA, that provides mental health resources.</p>
<p>Sivan&#8217;s team revamped the site&#8217;s search functionality making it similar to <a href="http://www.zillow.com/">Zillow</a>. When visitors search the site, they are taken to a map page that has markers displaying the facility&#8217;s location. The markers also link to their profile on the site. The team also performed optimizations to speed up the site and reworked the donation page to improve its flow.</p>
<p>Although the event was geared towards non-profits, Sivan says the teams benefited by sharing knowledge with each other, &#8220;I talked to many lead developers through the weekend, and some non-lead,&#8221; Sivan said.</p>
<p>&#8220;While the non-profits were the main focus for the weekend, we were clearly all there to help them, many developers got a good tutorial or two in advanced coding especially on a team. Ryan on our team helped Kelly setup DesktopServer, and we both taught them how to use GIT for versioning, SASS and finally gulp for processing.</p>
<p>&#8220;I even got a chance to bestow some AngularJS knowledge since the map and search results sidebar on the map were an AngularJS application powered by custom routes and endpoints of the WordPress REST API.&#8221;</p>
<p>Sivan says he was astonished by the amount of people in the community that came together to volunteer their time and skills to help non-profit organizations and that he&#8217;s looking forward to attending the event again next year.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 25 Oct 2016 18:58:59 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:25:"Matt: Common at Tiny Desk";s:7:"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=46868";s:7:"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/2016/10/common-at-tiny-desk/";s: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:443:"<p></p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.npr.org/series/tiny-desk-concerts/">Tiny Desk concert</a> at the <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/10/03/496433228/common-tiny-desk-concert-at-the-white-house">White House with Common</a> and some of my favorite musicians <a href="http://www.robertglasper.com/">Robert Glasper</a>, <a href="http://music.derrickhodge.com/">Derrick Hodge</a>, and <a href="http://bilalmusic.com/">Bilal</a> was incredible.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 25 Oct 2016 14:28:04 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:81:"WPTavern: WordPress 4.7 to Introduce User-Specific Language Setting for the Admin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63054";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-to-introduce-user-specific-language-setting-for-the-admin";s: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:1948:"<p>WordPress 4.7 will allow users to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/38705" target="_blank">select a language to use in the admin</a>. Prior to this change, using a different language for the admin required installing the necessary translations and editing the <em>wp-config.php</em> file or using a plugin.</p>
<p>A user-specific language setting makes it possible to run a WordPress site in one language on the front end and administrate it in another without all of the previous hassle. For example, if a German newspaper site has contributors from all around the world, WordPress 4.7 makes it possible for each contributor to use the admin in his or her native language. The setting is available as a language dropdown on the user profile edit screen at <strong>wp-admin/profile.php</strong>.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/admin-language-setting.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/admin-language-setting.png?resize=1025%2C325&ssl=1" alt="admin-language-setting" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63059" /></a></p>
<p>During my first test of the new feature I thought it was broken, but it turns out the setting is not visible if the site language is set to the default en_US. Change the site language under Settings to something else and WordPress will then show available translations in the user profile language dropdown.</p>
<p>The user-specific language setting comes as a result of work on a two-year-old <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/29783" target="_blank">ticket</a> and contributors&#8217; discussions at several European WordCamps during the past few years. It introduces a new <code>get_user_locale()</code> function that plugin developers will want to be aware of, especially those who have built other solutions that allow users to set a language for the admin.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 24 Oct 2016 21:22:03 +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: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:103:"WPTavern: LinkedIn Learning Is Offering Free Access This Week to Its Library of More Than 5,000 Courses";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63072";s:7:"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/linkedin-learning-is-offering-free-access-this-week-to-its-library-of-more-than-5000-courses";s: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:2104:"<p><a href="https://www.lynda.com/">Lynda.com</a>, a site that offers <a href="https://www.lynda.com/subject/all">thousands of online training courses</a> is giving everyone an opportunity to access any course they want for free. Dubbed the &#8220;<a href="https://learning.linkedin.com/week-of-learning">Week of Learning</a>&#8220;, starting today and ending on October 30th, visitors can take any course they want without any strings attached. The only thing that&#8217;s required is a LinkedIn account which is used to login to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/?trk=lilblog_src.li-other_c.WOL-announcement-10-21-16_brandspark_learning&cid=70132000001AyziAAC">LinkedIn Learning</a>.</p>
<p>Morten Rand-Hendriksen, an instructor for a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/725535">number of courses</a> on Lynda.com, is excited about the event, &#8220;It gives everyone a chance to check out all the amazing content available on LinkedIn Learning and further their personal skills and professional careers,&#8221; Hendriksen said.</p>
<p>To help newcomers decide which courses to take, Jillian Senechalle has compiled a list of the <a href="https://learning.linkedin.com/blog/whats-new/starting-this-monday--a-100--free-week-of-learning--for-the-firs">10 most viewed courses</a> this year. Some of them include, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/excel-2013-essential-training?trk=lilblog_src.li-other_c.WOL-announcement-10-21-16_brandspark_learning&cid=70132000001AyziAAC">Excel 2013 Essential Training</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/communication-fundamentals?trk=lilblog_src.li-other_c.WOL-announcement-10-21-16_brandspark_learning&cid=70132000001AyziAAC">Communication Fundamentals</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/javascript-essential-training?trk=lilblog_src.li-other_c.WOL-announcement-10-21-16_brandspark_learning&cid=70132000001AyziAAC">JavaScript Essential Training</a>. If you&#8217;ve ever wanted to take a course on Lynda.com but didn&#8217;t have the funds, now is your chance.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 24 Oct 2016 21:18:10 +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:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"WPTavern: Automattic Releases Free WordPress Stickers App for iOS 10";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=62709";s:7:"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:79:"https://wptavern.com/automattic-releases-free-wordpress-stickers-app-for-ios-10";s: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:2713:"<p><a href="http://www.apple.com/ios/ios-10/" target="_blank">iOS 10</a> was released last month with support for stickers in the the iMessage apps for iPhone and iPad. If you want to add a little WordPress flavor to your mobile communications, check out the new free <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wordpress-world-stickers/id1139958755" target="_blank">WordPress World</a> iMessage sticker app from Automattic. The app includes some of the company&#8217;s mascots and logos, such as WooCommerce and Jetpack, as well as a collection of &#8220;sticker-ized&#8221; <a href="http://jawordpressorg.github.io/wapuu/" target="_blank">wapuus from the community</a>.</p>
<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/stickers-screens.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/stickers-screens.png?resize=1025%2C910&ssl=1" alt="image credit: WordPress.com" class="size-full wp-image-63040" /></a>image credit: <a href="https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2016/10/14/express-yourself-with-new-wordpress-stickers-for-ios-and-imessage/">WordPress.com</a>
<p>The sticker set is also being ported for use with Telegram, which has supported an <a href="https://telegram.org/blog/stickers-revolution" target="_blank">open sticker platform</a> since May 2015. <a href="https://twitter.com/astralbodies" target="_blank">Aaron Douglas</a>, an iOS mobile developer at Automattic, has added the stickers from the iOS app into a <a href="https://telegram.me/addstickers/WPWorld" target="_blank">WordPress World sticker pack for Telegram</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/stickers-telegram.png?ssl=1"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/stickers-telegram.png?resize=1025%2C1395&ssl=1" alt="stickers-telegram" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-63074" /></a></p>
<p>&#8220;The process of porting is manual but doesn&#8217;t take a terrible amount of time,&#8221; Douglas said. &#8220;The only weird thing is Telegram associates an emoji with every sticker so finding an appropriate emoji for a particular sticker is tricky. Some people on Telegram just pick random emoji and they don&#8217;t care about the equivalence.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Telegram sticker collection matches those in the iMessage sticker app after an update Douglas pushed this morning. Just a handful of the planned stickers are currently available, but users will automatically receive the new ones as the iOS app and Telegram pack are updated. Douglas said Automattic is planning to add more Wapuu created for the WordCamps and is looking into commissioning a few new ones for the app.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 24 Oct 2016 17:58:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:57:"Post Status: WordPress REST API in Core — Draft podcast";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=30103";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:61:"https://poststatus.com/wordpress-rest-api-core-draft-podcast/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1885:"<p>Welcome to the Post Status <a href="https://poststatus.com/category/draft">Draft podcast</a>, which you can find <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008">on iTunes</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/m/Ih5egfxskgcec4qadr3f4zfpzzm?t=Post_Status__Draft_WordPress_Podcast">Google Play</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast">Stitcher</a>, and <a href="http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1061/rss">via RSS</a> for your favorite podcatcher. Post Status Draft is hosted by Joe Hoyle &#8212; the CTO of Human Made &#8212; and Brian Krogsgard.</p>
<p><span>In this episode, Joe and Brian talk about the WordPress REST API and the core approval process</span></p>
<a href="https://audio.simplecast.com/50492.mp3">https://audio.simplecast.com/50492.mp3</a>
<p><a href="http://audio.simplecast.com/50492.mp3">Direct Download</a></p>
<h3>Topics</h3>
<ul>
<li>The API&#8217;s journey</li>
<li>How Core projects work</li>
<li>What to know about the API know that it&#8217;s in trunk</li>
<li>What that means for the future of the API</li>
</ul>
<h3>Links</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://apisyouwonthate.com/">Build APIs you won&#8217;t hate</a></li>
<li><a href="http://wp-api.org/index-deprecated.html">Legacy v1 API</a></li>
<li><a href="https://getmoxied.net/lean/">LEAN</a></li>
<li><a href="http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/mcmansion-hell-devil-details/">McMansion Hell: The devil is in the details</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Sponsor: OptinMonster</h3>
<p><span><a href="http://optinmonster.com/the-new-google-mobile-friendly-rules-for-popups/">OptinMonster</a> allows you to convert visitors into subscribers. You can easily create &amp; A/B test beautiful lead capture forms without a developer. Check out <a href="http://optinmonster.com/">OptinMonster</a> today!</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 24 Oct 2016 13:39:19 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Katie Richards";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:18:"Matt: Taking Sides";s:7:"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=46861";s:7:"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://ma.tt/2016/10/taking-sides/";s: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:858:"<p>From <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1986/wiesel-acceptance_en.html">Elie Wiesel&#8217;s Nobel Peace Price acceptance speech in 1986</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>And then I explained to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remain silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.</p></blockquote>";s: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, 22 Oct 2016 17:32:35 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"Matt: Defrauding an Election";s:7:"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=46846";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:45:"https://ma.tt/2016/10/defrauding-an-election/";s: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:1186:"<p>Wired has a fun and informative look at <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/10/wireds-totally-legit-guide-rigging-presidential-election/">How to Rig a Presidential Election in 1000 Easy Steps</a>. Basically it&#8217;s impossible &#8212; I hadn&#8217;t really thought of this before, but every precinct has its own officials from both parties that certify everything, there are just a ton of people involved at every step of the process. All that said, I would love if voting platforms <a href="http://www.osetfoundation.org/">were completely open source software and had paper receipts that could be verified manually</a>.</p>
<p>Also speaking of politics getting dirty, the San Francisco State Senate race has had a ton of falsehoods and attacks from Scott Weiner, someone I&#8217;ve met before and previously thought was a nice guy, but <a href="http://48hills.org/2016/10/20/scott-wieners-deceitful-guardian-mailing/">the latest mailers I&#8217;ve seen have just been deceitful</a> (especially considering the Guardian actually <a href="http://www.sfbg.com/2016/10/06/endorsements-the-case-for-six-progressive-supes-kim-for-state-senate/">endorsed his opponent, Jane Kim</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, 21 Oct 2016 23:12:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:83:"WPTavern: Peter Meth Launches Kickstarter Campaign to Produce 7″ Wapuu Plush Toys";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63019";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"https://wptavern.com/peter-meth-launches-kickstarter-campaign-to-produce-7-wapuu-plush-toys";s: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:2894:"<p><a href="https://ja.wordpress.org/about-wp-ja/wapuu/">Wapuu</a> is the <a href="https://wptavern.com/community-translation-and-wapuu-how-japan-is-shaping-wordpress-history">unofficial mascot</a> of the WordPress project and is quite the traveler appearing at WordCamps all over the world. While there is a <a href="https://mercantile.wordpress.org/">variety of swag</a> featuring Wapuu, outside of handmade items, there isn&#8217;t a way to obtain a plush toy.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WapuuPlushToy.jpg?ssl=1"><img class="size-full wp-image-63021" src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WapuuPlushToy.jpg?resize=700%2C770&ssl=1" alt="Wapuu Plush Toy Prototype" /></a>Wapuu Plush Toy Prototype
<p>Peter Meth, a Senior PHP Consultant based in Toronto, Canada, is looking to change that with a <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1035100786/plush-wapuu-collectible-unofficial-wordpress-masco">crowdfunding campaign</a> using Kickstarter. Meth is seeking $11,338 to create a number of 7&#8243; Wapuu plush toys.</p>
<p>&#8220;The factories that produce most of these items are in China and there are large minimum orders,&#8221; Meth said. &#8220;I have done the calculations and have tried to keep the Kickstarter goal at a minimum.&#8221;</p>
<p>Meth has previous experience creating plush toys for other software projects. Last year, he <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1035100786/truenorth-php-woolly-mammoth-plush-toy">successfully raised $35K</a> from 432 backers to create a PHP Woolly Mammoth plush toy. While the web version of Wapuu features the WordPress logo, the plush toy does not.</p>
<p>&#8220;The WordPress logo is a trademark of the WordPress Foundation,&#8221; Meth said. &#8220;I did not get permission to use their logo. I am in no way affiliated with WordPress. This product is a plush toy, not software and on his chest is just a regular W with a circle around it.&#8221;</p>
<p>If successfully funded, backers won&#8217;t receive the product for at least a few months as the orders are created, processed, and shipped from China to Canada. Meth will then package the orders and ship them to backers, &#8220;I have done it before and have figured out the best ways to get these items to backers quickly and efficiently,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Pledges range from purchasing one plush toy up to five. There&#8217;s also a pledge available for about $763 where companies can have their advertising materials shipped with each toy.</p>
<p>So far, Meth has raised <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1035100786/plush-wapuu-collectible-unofficial-wordpress-masco">$676 from 20 backers</a> with 29 days left to go. Considering the lack of Wapuu plush toys in existence, these would be excellent collectibles to give away at WordCamps.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 21 Oct 2016 20:22:13 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57:"WPTavern: WordCamp Orlando Rescheduled for November 12-13";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:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63014";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-orlando-rescheduled-for-november-12-13";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:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1336:"<p>WordCamp Orlando which was originally scheduled for October 9-10 will now take place the weekend of<a href="https://2016.orlando.wordcamp.org/2016/10/12/wordcamp-orlando-2016-is-rescheduled/"> November 12-13</a>. The event <a href="https://2016.orlando.wordcamp.org/2016/10/05/wordcamp-orlando-canceled-due-to-hurricane-matthew/">was cancelled</a> after the venue was ordered closed due to Hurricane Matthew.</p>
<p>The event is being held at the UCF Rosen Campus and features a different schedule than the October event. Saturday will have a networking brunch, keynote session, and three tracks of hour-long sessions. The Developer&#8217;s and WordPress for Beginners workshops will be held on Sunday along with a track of sessions dedicated to business and marketing.</p>
<p>Lisa Melegari, lead organizer for WordCamp Orlando, says the team was unable to re-negotiate a discounted rate for hotel rooms with Rosen Shingle Creek. If your reservation was cancelled due to the storm, she suggests contacting the hotel directly and try booking the room at the same rate.</p>
<p>Extra tickets will go on sale once sessions are decided and speakers are confirmed. Those who purchased tickets for the October event and did not request a refund are able to use the same ticket to attend in November.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 21 Oct 2016 19:24:39 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"WPTavern: LoopConf Rescheduled for February 6-8, 2017, in Salt Lake City, Utah";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=63008";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"https://wptavern.com/loopconf-rescheduled-for-february-6-8-2017-in-salt-lake-city-utah";s: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:2433:"<p><a href="https://loopconf.com/">LoopConf</a>, a conference geared towards WordPress developers has been rescheduled for February 6-8, 2017, and will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah. The event was originally scheduled to take place in Florida but <a href="https://wptavern.com/loopconf-postponed-due-to-hurricane-matthew-wordcamp-orlando-is-questionable">was cancelled</a> due to Hurricane Matthew.</p>
<p>Ryan Sullivan, lead organizer of the event who lives in Salt Lake City, says one of the reasons he chose his hometown is to take advantage of local connections.</p>
<p>&#8220;When we chose to reschedule LoopConf, there was a very large financial impact attached to that,&#8221; Sullivan said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Had we chosen another resort destination, our money would have been committed to the logistics and venue there, and we would have had to scale back on attendee experience.</p>
<p>&#8220;That wasn’t something we were willing to sacrifice, so we brought the event back home so we could lean on some local connections, and still put on a fantastic event without asking anything else of the attendees or sponsors.&#8221;</p>
<p>Tickets that were purchased for the Florida event are automatically being transferred to the Salt Lake City event. Those who can&#8217;t make it and would like to request a refund need to send an email to info @ loopconf.com and add Refund Request to the subject line. Refund requests should be submitted before October 31st.</p>
<p>Those who couldn&#8217;t attend the event in October but can in February are in luck as <a href="https://ti.to/loopconf/loopconf-2016">tickets are back on sale</a> to the public, &#8220;We’re hoping to bolster and regain some of what we’ve lost, and we know that won’t be possible without the support of the WordPress community at large,&#8221; Sullivan said.</p>
<p>Sullivan has also negotiated a deal with the <a href="http://saltlake.littleamerica.com/">Little America</a> hotel located a few blocks from the venue. Room rates are $179 per night instead of the usual $229 and ground transportation will be provided each day to and from the venue. While rooms are not currently available for reservation at the lower price, Sullivan says a special link will be published soon.</p>
<p>For detailed information on the event and to purchase tickets, visit the <a href="https://loopconf.com/">LoopConf</a> website.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 21 Oct 2016 18:26:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:106:"WPTavern: BuddyPress 2.7 Released, Features Groups Query Overhaul and Improvements for Site Administrators";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=62866";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:116:"https://wptavern.com/buddypress-2-7-released-features-groups-query-overhaul-and-improvements-for-site-administrators";s: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:4016:"<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/samsbrooklyn.jpg?ssl=1"><img src="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/samsbrooklyn.jpg?resize=886%2C487&ssl=1" alt="photo credit: Eater NY" class="size-full wp-image-62882" /></a>photo credit: <a href="http://ny.eater.com/2010/11/12/6710425/leave-the-attitude-at-the-door-at-sams-restaurant">Eater NY</a>
<p><a href="https://buddypress.org/2016/10/buddypress-2-7-0-migliaccio/" target="_blank">BuddyPress 2.7</a> &#8220;Migliaccio&#8221; was released yesterday, named after the family who runs Sam’s Restaurant in Brooklyn. The sign in front of the establishment features steaks and chops, but the restaurant&#8217;s pizza is &#8220;one of the great under-appreciated pies in all of NYC,&#8221; according to BuddyPress core developers.</p>
<p>This release is heavy on features for developers, in line with the project&#8217;s <a href="https://wptavern.com/buddypress-2-7-development-kicks-off-project-shifts-focus-to-developers-and-site-builders" target="_blank">recent change of course</a>. The BuddyPress core team is now focusing on the experience of developers and site builders, as opposed to providing something that is 100% turnkey.</p>
<p>Version 2.7 delivers significant performance improvements to sites that are using the Groups component. <a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/group-queries-have-been-rewritten-for-bp-2-7/" target="_blank">Group queries have been completely re-written</a> to be less memory-intensive by following WordPress&#8217; move to use the &#8220;split&#8221; model for object queries.</p>
<p>&#8220;The changes we’ve made for BP 2.7 should lead to a huge performance improvement on sites using persistent caching,&#8221; BuddyPress lead developer Boone Gorges said. &#8220;When querying groups, not only are group objects now fetched from the cache when available, but the ID queries themselves are cached as well.&#8221;</p>
<p>Version 2.7 is rather lean on user-facing features but one helpful addition is a new email token that makes it possible for users to <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6932" target="_blank">unsubscribe from BuddyPress-generated emails</a>. The unsubscribe links have been added to the emails that are listed on the email settings page.</p>
<p>This release also introduces many improvements for site administrators, which will make BuddyPress easier to manage and customize:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Use WP Page Names for Headings of BP Directory Pages</strong><br />
Whatever you choose as the title of your Activity, Sites, Members, or Groups directory pages on the back end, is what you’ll get as the heading on the front end.</li>
<li><strong>Use the Site Icon as Your Site’s Profile Photo</strong><br />
BuddyPress sets the site admin’s profile photo as the default site profile photo on the Sites Directory page. You can now use the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_a_Favicon#WordPress_Version_4.3_or_later" target="_blank">Site Icon introduced in WordPress 4.3</a> instead.</li>
<li><strong>Member Type and Group Type Filters in Users and Groups Admin Screens</strong><br />
Easily filter your members and groups by type and set types in bulk on the users and groups list tables in the dashboard.</li>
<li><strong>Improved Profile Date Field</strong><br />
New Date Field settings, “Date format” and “Range”, make it easier for site administrators to decide how date-based data will be collected and displayed.</li>
</ul>
<p>This is the first release since the project&#8217;s new developer-oriented direction was announced. The improvements shipped in 2.7 reflect the core development team&#8217;s commitment to better serve those who are developing and managing BuddyPress sites. For a list of all the changes and links to documentation, check out the full <a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/releases/version-2-7-0/" target="_blank">2.7 changelog</a>.</p>
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