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Issue #149
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This week in WordPress

State of the Word will be livestreamed from NYC on December 15

In amongst his retweets of Tumblr memes and Goncharov and helping folks leave Twitter—both users and ex-engineers—WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg gave WordPress a plug this week. He retweeted David Bisset's news that "December 15th will be @photomatt's 'State of the Word' where he reviews the last year of #WordPress, future, and show graphs and.. stuff."

Sarah Gooding has the details at WP Tavern: State of the Word 2022 Will Be Livestreamed from New York City on December 15. Similar to last year, Mullenweg will deliver his annual address to a live audience. But unlike last year when prominent members of the WordPress community were invited to attend, anyone can request an invitation to attend.

WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomposy posted at WordPress.org: "Join Matt as he provides a retrospective of 2022, the latest WordPress releases, Site Editor advancements, and a return to in-person events around the globe, among other topics."

Freelance developer Henri Helvetica tweeted, "Would attend this if I could. But I hope to hear about the work the Core Performance team has been doing for the platform. That and maybe about T🍑mblr. 🙃"

Wholegrain Digital shares vision for a greener WordPress

Wholegrain Digital's Tom Greenwood has shared his team's vision for what a sustainable WordPress community would be like.

Following the launch of oursustainablewp.org earlier this month, Greenwood said his team— described as "London's original sustainable WordPress agency" on their website—wanted to contribute to the conversation "and so we've put together an outline vision, combining some of our thoughts from where we are now with some of the vision that I presented back in 2017 at WordCamp Europe in Paris."

Wholegrain Digital's vision covers ways the WordPress community could create a sustainable future through collaboration, code efficiency, rethinking events, using renewable energy in hosting, and openly sharing knowledge.

In his lightning talk at WordCamp Europe 2017, Greenwood, a leading voice in the sustainable design scene, spoke about zero carbon WordPress.

In related news, Hannah Smith from the Green Web Foundation, and a founding member of the oursustainablewp.org initiative, joined the WP Tavern Jukebox podcast this week to talk about why we need to make websites more sustainable.

Dan Knauss leaves Post Status

Sad news this week for the Post Status team: "This is my last post as editor of Post Status. Thanks to all our great contributors, guests, members, sponsors, and people who keep #WordPress lively!" That tweet from Dan Knauss, who has accepted a full-time gig at StellarWP "writing about generally technical things," as he put it in Post Status Slack.

"Of course, this doesn't seem like moving much at all," Knauss wrote in his announcement post, Jobs Change, Membership Doesn't, adding "One of the great things about the distributed work culture of WordPress is that it's all here every day — online, on Twitter, and in Post Status Slack — wherever we are in the world."

In Post Status Slack, Newsletter Glue's Lesley Sim wrote, "… what a heartfelt goodbye post. I look forward to nothing changing and continuing to have lots of chats with you in the future!! Thank you for all the incredible work you've done for post status. StellarWP is getting someone stellar!!"

Agencies come together to discuss WordPress Enterprise paradox

Human Made co-founder Tom Willmot joined Dan Knauss on the Post Status Draft podcast last week to talk about the challenges and opportunities facing Enterprise WordPress.

The conversation came about after Magne Ilsaas, CEO and founding partner of enterprise agency Dekode, published The WordPress Enterprise Paradox earlier this month. In the piece, Ilsaas outlined his concerns about the future of enterprise WordPress agencies that don't work together.

It prompted Willmot to tweet, "Good post on @post_status from our friends at @dekodeno on what we need to do differently as Enterprise WordPress agencies if we want to continue to grow and flourish. 🧵👇" Willmot also hosted a live discussion with Ilsaas and others from enterprise agencies (202 people tuned in).

According to Dan Knauss at Post Status, "Their main concern is the challenges that arise from not having a well-defined brand and market that allows 'WordPress for the Enterprise' to stand out—without being tied to a particular WordPress company or host."

Where does WordPress fit in the enterprise tech industry? Knauss goes down a rabbit hole exploring jargon, the current state of play, and the WordPress Way in The Enterprise.

Happy Black Friday!

It's Black Friday and "The number of plugin deals is staggering. Almost too many to scroll through!" posted the WPMinute's Eric Karkovack in Post Status Slack this week.

Or as Pagely co-founder Josh Strebel joked, "Black Friday, F yah! Get a free pink check mark (nod to tumblr's epic troll) and pay 93% more for Pagely. I'll let @Jeff Matson fill you in."

Post Status has published an extensive round-up of 2022 Black Friday / Cyber Monday WordPress Deals. So too has Ben Townsend, who's back with LayerWP's epic WordPress Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals round-up for the second year in a row.

"To all the WordPress businesses/makers/developers.... Wishing you the very best for Black Friday sales this year. Sending good vibes to you all!!!" tweeted Townsend.

"Love WordPress Black Friday Deals, we've got LOADS (271 in fact) on this searchable / filterable page. Enjoy!" tweeted Nathan Wrigley from WP Builds, linking to WordPress Deals for Black Friday / Cyber Monday / Halloween 2022.

It seems this year hasn't been a memorable one for DevriX CEO Mario Peshev who tweeted, "The least exciting Black Friday I can remember. Is it just me or are most offers nowadays not really lucrative? Any good picks I'm missing?"

Business Spotlight: LearnDash

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LearnDash
LearnDash is taking cutting-edge e-learning methodology and infusing it into WordPress. We're trusted to power the learning programs for major universities, small to mid-size companies, startups, entrepreneurs, and bloggers worldwide.

#WPCommunityFeels: Iain Poulson

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This week, what’s inspiring Iain Poulson, co-founder of FlipWP and product manager of Advanced Custom Fields at WP Engine.
A podcast worth listening to: I’m a big fan of the Press This podcast. I’m in awe of how consistent David Vogelpohl was. It’s now in the hands of the excellent Doc Pop.

A concept worth understanding: If you’re building software then having a basic understanding of SQL is something I highly recommend. A lot of frameworks, including WordPress, abstract away the database layer of SQL queries, but having good knowledge of how to write queries, join tables, and aggregate data is an essential skill for a variety of roles.

A Twitter account worth following: I’ve been following Ian Nuttall for a while, but his recent content on programmatic SEO has been really interesting, especially as he uses WordPress in his stack and a number of essential plugins, like ACF, WP Migrate, and WP All Import, to build out his sites.

An article worth reading: Rocks, Pebbles, Sand by Jason Cohen is an essential read if you want to learn more about project management, prioritization, and product strategy.

A habit worth forming: Aside from the usual habit of reading more, at the start of the year I found tracking my habits and daily tasks helpful in being more productive and achieving more. I use the Everyday app to track and record my progress.

Explore the New GoDaddy Pro Academy with Kristina Romero

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Whether you're looking to start a new web design business or grow an existing one, the GoDaddy Pro Academy has the resources you need!

In this session, Kristina Romero previews some of the new tools that the GoDaddy team has put together to help your business succeed, whether you offer design, development, care plans, SEO services, or consulting, there are resources for you! We will also hold a live Q&A after the webinar.

This free virtual event is presented by GoDaddy Pro and will take place on Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at 3pm EST.

Learn more and register here 👉 Explore the New GoDaddy Pro Academy with Kristina Romero
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In other WordPress news...

  • Gutenberg 14.6 is out and introduces list-based editing for the navigation block, a keyboard shortcut for turning paragraphs into headings, a new color palette generator, and more. As always, the Core team has shared a full list of updates at WordPress.org.
  • WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy's goal of creating a developer-focused communications site is one step closer to fruition. WordPress.org's new developer blog—which will focus on updates related to agency developers, theme and plugin creators, developer case studies, and more—is now in beta and open for feedback.
  • After launching OpenPress, Mike McAlister, a principal software engineer at WP Engine, has created openpress.social, a dedicated site where the design concept can "live and evolve." "Excited to see people reaching out with complimentary concepts, alternate takes, plugins in flight, and more," he tweeted this week.
  • BuddyPress 11.0.0, due out on December 14, will improve the way the plugin loads JavaScript and CSS assets so that they are only loaded on community pages, reports Sarah Gooding at WP Tavern. Previously, the plugin would load them indiscriminately on every page.
  • The WordPress Security Team will drop support for WordPress 3.7 through 4.0 on December 1. These versions' final releases will come the day prior: November 30.
  • Voting for The WP Awards 2022 ends on November 30 with results announced on December 12. Last year's awards received 2,138 total votes, but activity is expected to ramp up this year with a higher social media and email list headcount.
  • This week's episode of WPwatercooler brings on WP Engine software engineer Anthony Burchell. Burchell talks (and for the episode's video version, demonstrates) 3D modeling in WordPress.
  • Is WordPress becoming less "pluggable"? In a recent WP Minute episode, Extendify's Head of Product Richard Tabor talks about the way Gutenberg and Site Editing developments have changed the plugin landscape.
  • Tumblr will soon add support for ActivityPub, an open and decentralized protocol for connecting to Mastodon and other social media platforms, according to Matt Mullenweg. In a piece for WP Tavern, Sarah Gooding digs into this advancement in interoperability and others as Twitter continues to struggle.
  • Looking ahead to 2023, the WP Minute's Eric Karkovack has published a wish list of things he'd love to see from WordPress next week. More than just technical enhancements, his hopes include improved communication from project leadership, WordPress product makers working together, the return of small WordCamps, and continued stability in the community and platform.
  • It's been nearly a year since Topher de Rosia joined the WP Photos project as a moderator. Now, more than 5,000 photos in, he has shared some fascinating insights on the cameras used for these photos and along with some of the project's milestone images.
  • Matt Cromwell, marketing and operations manager at Stellar WP and co-founder of GiveWP, joined this week's episode of Press This to discuss how plugins can help nonprofits. Cromwell chats new donation form blocks for Stripe, multi-fund capabilities, and other integrations that boost plugins' ability to support nonprofit organizations this Giving Tuesday.
  • WP Mayor turned 12 today. Mark Zahra, CEO of RebelCode, the team behind WP Mayor, wrote after 12 years of experimentation and discovery, "we now look ahead to a brighter future together, focusing on providing our readers and fellow WordPress businesses with exactly the value they're looking for."
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