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Issue #126
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This week in WordPress

Elementor acquires Strattic

"In the theme of the #WCEU afterparty: another one bites the dust!" tweets Yoast founder Joost de Valk, linking to the unexpected yet should-have-seen-it-coming news that: Elementor has acquired Strattic.

Miriam Schwab founded Strattic in 2018 as the first WordPress hosting company to streamline the creation of static files managed via a headless install. It's now been rebranded as Strattic by Elementor.

Gossip Media marketer Melanie Amini tweets, "Proof that you catch more bees with honey. @miriamschwab is one of the kindest people I know and funny as hell and that's why her close relationship with @elemntor ultimately paid off. Build relationships and you will go far."

And this comment from user Rhinoosaurus in the WordPress subreddit: "Holy shit! The rest of my agency's creative team has certainly become tired of me going on about the benefits of headless/static/generated sites, especially in the context of Elementor/WP bloat and performance. Colour me very interested…"

Sarah Gooding has more at WPTavern: Elementor Acquires Strattic. Gooding notes, "Elementor has often been criticized for making WordPress sites sluggish so it's easy to see the appeal that static hosting brings. Having more customers on Strattic might lessen the urgency of fixing Elementor's well-documented speed issues."

It's a point of concern Elementor co-founder and CEO Yoni Luksenberg addresses up front in Elementor Acquires Strattic To Redefine WordPress Hosting: "This acquisition will allow us to leverage Strattic's technology to build static websites, helping to solve stability, speed, and security issues in the dynamic sites space."

Agency owner Phill tweets, "Interesting because Automattic invested in Strattic in its seed rd." Interesting indeed. TechCrunch covered that story back in February 2020: Strattic raises $6.5M to bring static WordPress to the masses.

It seems the Strattic team is cool with being acqui-hired, with engineer Ryan Hellyer commenting, "A few years back I contacted Miriam to see if she knew of any work that was going. It turned out she needed help with a new static hosting startup, which was right up my alley of interest. It feels like only a minute passed before she was telling me that we've been acquired and I'm moving to Elementor!"

If you're wondering how Strattic and Elementor work together, WPTuts tweets, "Let's take Strattic and headless WordPress for a spin with Elementor's latest acquisition and see how it works and how it stands up," linking to Paul Charlton's 24-minute deep dive into the acquisition.

WordPress 6.1 roadmap reveals focus on full-site editing to continue

Gutenberg lead architect Matías Ventura has identified refinements to experiences introduced in WordPress 5.9 and 6.0 as the main goal for the upcoming 6.1 release, reports Sarah Gooding in WordPress 6.1 to Focus On Refining Full-Site Editing, Next Phase Collaboration and Multilingual Features Anticipated in 2023-2025 at WPTavern.

Ventura published a roadmap for the next official release ahead of the closing session at WordCamp Europe where he was scheduled to join WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy for a demo. He wasn't able to make it but tweeted a thread with video demos of some exciting interface updates Gutenberg contributors are working on.

"I think it provides the missing context we needed for some of the things that @JosephaHaden and @photomatt eluded to in their Q&A," tweets #WPTalks co-host Daniel Schutzsmith.

Designer and WP Engine Principal Developer Advocate Brian Gardner tweets, "Some exciting things are planned for #WordPress 6.1. I'm thrilled to see the unifying of the template editor and the post editor experiences and continued emphasis on patterns."

"Looks like we're going to spend at least one more #WordPress release (6.1) hanging around, tidying up Phase 2. Perhaps the 'Gutenberg development is slowing down the project' people are onto something. 🤔" tweets Jason Cosper, a WordPress Product Advocate at Dreamhost.

Meanwhile, writer Roger Montii has published a write-up on how the WordPress community has reacted to 6.0 Arturo at Search Engine Journal. He covers feedback from users in the Advanced WordPress Facebook group and the WordPress subreddit.

Business Spotlight: LearnDash

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WordCamp Europe wrap-up

WordCamp Europe wrapped up last weekend and as Portuguese WordPress community organizer Pedro Fonseca tweets, "#WCEU was unforgettable ❤️."

Europe's biggest WordCamp concluded with the news that WordCamp Europe 2023 will be held in Athens, Greece, from June 8-10.
A group photo of attendees at WordCamp Europe 2022 in Porto, Portugal.
Here's a post-WordCamp Europe round-up:
  • If you missed this year's event, MasterWP writer Leonardo Losoviz has published a very long, very detailed recap: Some great stuff I've learnt from WordCamp Europe 2022.
  • Not as long but similarly insightful: Post Status' David Bisset shares 9 Things I Learned from WordCamp Europe 2022 (after watching the livestreams remotely).
  • In response to their #WCEU FOMO, Allie Nimmons and Michelle Frechette discuss how to make the most of a WordPress event on the Underrepresented in Tech podcast.
  • At the WPMinute, writer Eric Karkovack asks can WCEU help rejuvenate the WordPress community? Answering his own question: "In-person events are indeed coming back to the WordPress community – and not a moment too soon."
  • Matt Medeiros from the WPMinute has donated US$100 to Big Orange Heart after pledging to donate $5 for every selfie taken with GiveWP co-founder Matt Cromwell. Cromwell, Frechette's WPCoffeeTalk podcast, and StellarWP each matched Mederios's donation. "I challenge you to match a $100 donation too!" says Mederios in the latest issue of the WPMinute.
  • On the WPTavern Jukebox podcast, host Nathan Wrigley speaks to Remkus de Vries about How WordCamp Europe Got Started. de Vries, a long-time WordPress and WooCommerce builder, was one of the event's founders 10 years ago.
Meanwhile… "I've already known how incredible WordPress community is. However, when is your turn to get help, I'm realize how powerful and encouraging is for too many people. So proud and grateful, thanks Community. We are love 💗" tweets Flavia Bernárdez Rodríguez, a WordPress and WooCommerce instructor at the Escuela de Organización Industrial in Spain. After her car was broken into following WordCamp Europe, more than €4,321 was raised on GoFundMe to replace her stolen laptop and belongings, including an anonymous €2,000 donation.

Five for the Future adopting official definition for pledges

WordPress' Five for the Future program is poised to adopt an official definition for what constitutes pledges and contributions, reports Sarah Gooding at WPTavern.

WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy recently proposed the program—which encourages organizations to contribute 5% of their resources to WordPress development—make a clear distinction between ecosystem contributions and core project contributions.

Adam Warner, GoDaddy's Director of Field Marketing, comments, "I can't help but wonder about the argument to be made that the creation of themes, plugins and blocks that are made freely available are also contributions that move WordPress forward."

Gooding notes Haden Chomphosy's definition hasn't received much pushback and "appears to be already confirmed," with Automattic-sponsored community organizer Angela Jin now asking for feedback on how to identify and record Five for the Future contributions.

#WPCommunityFeels: Miriam Schwab

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This week, what's inspiring Strattic co-founder and CEO Miriam Schwab.
A podcast worth listening to: Confession: I don't listen to podcasts because my mind inevitably ends up wandering and ten minutes in I'm like "what did they say?" But I do love How I Built This which shares the incredible stories of entrepreneurs including a lot of hard truths. The stories are inspiring. Another fun podcast is The Rewatchables which rehashes movies we know and love.

A concept worth understanding: I don't know if this is exactly a concept, but in 99.9% of cases people have good intentions. Meaning, if someone does something that hurts you, they probably didn't mean to, or they may be going through something challenging. Apply benefit of the doubt as much as possible and I think it helps the world look much rosier.

A Twitter account worth following: VCs Congratulating Themselves (@VCBrags) is a parody account about the world of VC investors. It's hilarious and amazing.

An article worth reading: Paul Graham is one of the most veteran and experienced VC investors in the world, and he is also a prolific blogger. Generally he writes helpful articles about founding and building a startup, but a few years back he wrote a really touching post about being a parent. As a mom of seven, I could really relate and I thought he expressed what being a parent is like in a very functional but meaningful way.

A habit worth forming: Simple daily exercise. I don't have time to go to gyms or do extensive workouts. But I know how important exercise is for my present and future health, especially since I sit for about ten hours a day in front of a computer. I need to get my body moving. So I walk almost every morning for a half hour. That's it. It's simple, it's doable, and efficient. I really enjoy it because I get to listen to music and be in the sun. I know if I try to walk for longer, I won't actually do it, so this way I can be consistent and it's a goal I can achieve.

WordCamp Europe 2022 Recap

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The GoDaddy Pro, Pagely, ManageWP, and Sucuri teams have just returned from WordCamp Europe. For many of us, it was the first time meeting our coworkers in person. We were there as sponsors, but our real passion was for the time spent together with attendees.

While we're busy unpacking, this is a great opportunity to look back at all that transpired last week. With over 2,300 attendees, 70 speakers, 65 sponsors, 91 organizations, and 164 volunteers, there was no way to catch everything. We've got you covered with from the 800-attendee Contributor Day to the After Party.

Catch up on all the highlights, including Pagely’s Pirate Party, here.
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In other WordPress news...

  • Congratulations to Birgit Pauli-Haack who celebrated two big milestones last week. In the latest edition of Gutenberg Times, she writes, "Five years ago, I started curating news about Gutenberg after watching the first release video at WordCamp Europe that took place in Paris in 2017. This year, WordCamp Europe celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Last week, Saturday was the 20-year anniversary of Pauli Systems, the web development company I founded in 2002 and closed earlier this year. Just saying."
  • At WPTavern, Sarah Gooding covers WP Engine's acquisition of Delicious Brains' plugins. She notes the hosting company acqui-hired several members of the Delicious Brains team to continue supporting the products. Also: Delicious Brains founder Brad Touesnard shares his thinking behind the sale and why he wants to focus on SpinupWP in an interview with Matt Medeiros at the WPMinute.
  • The fourth edition of the Page Builder Summit will be held from June 20-24. Registration is now open for the free event, which will feature presentations from 35+ WordPress experts.
  • On a recent episode of the WPMinute podcast, Rachel Winchester, a UX/Product Designer at DigitalCube, challenges WordPress folks to think about how the platform could be used as a canvas for art. She shares her thoughts on WordPress as a paintbrush, not an NFT, and what she thinks about Gutenberg and full-site editing.
  • The team behind rtCamp, a 125-person agency and a WordPress VIP Gold agency partner, has launched a new tool called WordPress Plugin Compare Project (WPPC) to help users extend WordPress with the right plugins for their needs. Sarah Gooding at WPTavern says rtCamp is aiming to raise the bar for free plugins hosted on WordPress.org with the WPPC tool.
  • For the past six months, the team at Visual Composer has experimented with a four-day work week. CEO Michael Makijenko says the company has maintained productivity and quality, employees are happier, and everyone started to care more and be more proactive.
  • On the latest episode of the Press This podcast, Sam Munoz, the Community Manager for Developer Relations at WPEngine, discusses how women can thrive with WordPress. Munoz shares her ambitions for supporting women through her new role at the hosting company and how the WordPress community can support women to stay in tech.
  • Wordfence has disclosed a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Download Manager, a WordPress plugin installed on over 100,000 sites. The security company is urging users to update to the latest version of the plugin.
  • On the latest episode of the Post Status Comments podcast, a big group helps host David Bisset celebrate WordPress' recent 19th birthday: Mary Job, Nathan Wrigley, Naoko Takano, Olivia Bisset, Yvette Sonneveld, Taco Verdo, and Nyasha Green. It's an episode Bisset says "truly represents the global and diverse culture that the WordPress community represents" (Editor: I couldn't agree more.)
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