New Proposal Calls for Contributors to Stop Merging Experimental APIs from Gutenberg to WordPress Core

The practice of merging experimental APIs from Gutenberg into WordPress core may soon be coming to an end. A new proposal, published by Automattic-sponsored contributor Adam Zielinski, calls for contributors to stabilize APIs before merging them into core. Over the years, approximately 280 experimental APIs have been merged from the Gutenberg plugin, which Zielinski audited in a ticket he opened …

ServerPress Is Shutting Down

ServerPress, makers of DesktopServer, a WordPress local development tool, announced it is shutting down after 12 years in business. The company emailed its customers and posted a farewell message on its website after disabling new purchases and is in the process of canceling renewals for existing subscriptions. ServerPress was founded by Steve Carnam in 2010. His leadership helped the company …

Gutenberg 13.8 Introduces Fluid Typography Support and Revamped Quote Block

Gutenberg 13.8 was released last week with some major enhancements that should delight block theme authors and users alike. The long-awaited fluid typography support landed in this version. It provides smooth scaling between smaller and larger viewports, adapting in a fluid way to varying widths. Release lead George Mamadashvili demonstrated how this works in a video: “Contrast that idea with …

Gutenberg Contributors Experiment with Custom Labeling of Blocks in List View

It’s easy to get lost among a sea of Cover, Group, and Paragraph blocks while navigating the block editor’s List View. Clicking around wildly will generally surface the block you’re seeking, but it’s not efficient or intuitive. Gutenberg contributors have some ideas and prototypes aimed at giving the List View more context. Rich Tabor proposed a solution where users can …

WordPress Theme Authors Are Moving to Host Fonts Locally

The WordPress Themes team is poised to change its guidelines on remote hosting Google Fonts and is once again strongly urging theme authors to host their fonts locally. Yoast-sponsored contributor Ari Stathopoulos published an update today to answer some questions the team has been receiving about fonts in themes: Historically, WordPress themes hosted in the w.org themes repository were not allowed to …

WordPress Contributors Consider Renaming Full-Site Editing

WordPress Executive Directory Josepha Haden Chomphosy is proposing contributors rename the terms “full-site editing” and “full-site editor” to something more user friendly. The terms came into use as WordPress moved into the Customization phase and are still used to differentiate the work being done on site editing as opposed to content editing in the block editor. Haden Chomphosy has identified …

Akismet 5.0 Adds New Spam Detection Feature That Analyzes How Comments Are Posted

For years, the vast majority of Akismet releases have been centered around bug fixes and improving compatibility with various plugins. Version 5.0 was released today, following 4.2.5 earlier this month, with a new feature that should improve Askismet’s ability to detect spam comments. Akismet engineer Christopher Finke explained how the plugin will now analyze how a comment is posted, in …

Review Signal Publishes 2022 WordPress and WooCommerce Hosting Performance Benchmarks

Kevin Ohashi from Review Signal has published the 2022 WordPress and WooCommerce hosting performance benchmarks. These benchmarks are some of the most trusted review sources in the hosting industry due to Ohashi’s transparent methodology. No hosting company sponsors the work. Instead, Ohashi charges a standard, publicly documented fee for participation that covers the cost of the tests. In 2022, Ohashi …