I began my journey into remote work while teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in South Korea. I was 23 years old at the time. By day, I spent my time wrangling elementary and middle-school kids. At night, I was writing tutorials, building themes and plugins, and taking any work that landed on my [figurative] desk. My home office …
Classic Widgets Plugin Disables WordPress 5.8’s Upcoming Block-Based Widgets System
Yesterday, WordPress released a core plugin named Classic Widgets. Core contributors Tonya Mork and Andrew Ozz created the plugin under the WordPress Contributors account. It allows end-users to disable the upcoming block-based widgets system. Support is expected through 2022 or as long as necessary according to the plugin description. Decided last month by a small group of core leads following …
Dark Mode Plugin Repurposed and Renamed to WP Markdown Editor, Change Leaves Users Confused
Last year, I asked Tavern readers if WordPress should notify end-users when a plugin’s owner changes. The post was not entirely based on theory. There have been some cases of real-world confusion. The consensus from the comments on that post seemed to be that, yes, such notifications would be welcome. When I wrote that post, there was already another plugin …
Jetpack 9.7 Makes More Features Available without Connecting to WordPress.com
Jetpack 9.7 was released today with updates under the hood that ensure the plugin’s blocks are compatible with the full-site editing features coming in WordPress 5.8. It also changes how sites access features that require the WordPress.com infrastructure. A pull request merged in version 9.7 changes the connection flow to make Jetpack active as soon as the plugin enables a …
A WordPress Voting Guide to the Webby Awards
The People’s Voice voting for the 25th annual Webby Awards closes in three days on May 6, 2021. Since 1996, the Webbys have recognized excellence on the internet among what is now seven major media types: websites, video, advertising, media and PR, social, apps, mobile, voice, games, and podcasts. After nearly 13,500 entries were submitted from 70 different countries, the International …
Alpha Particle and Flowspoke Acquire Kanban for WordPress for $15K
Digital consultancies Alpha Particle and Flowspoke have acquired the Kanban for WordPress plugin, a tool that puts Kanban boards into the admin to measure progress on a goal. The plugin is used for agile project management, sales tracking, editorial scheduling, and other planning purposes. WordPress developer Corey Maass created Kanban for WordPress in 2015 but struggled to market it enough …
Gutenberg 10.5 Embeds PDFs, Adds Verse Block Color Options, and Introduces New Patterns
I reach over to grab my phone to check the time. I am debating whether I should stay awake and watch one more episode of The Walking Dead — it would be my fourth, maybe fifth, binge of the series. 11:12 pm. I noticed that Slack was blowing up my phone. I had it on silent, so I had to …
Gravity Forms 2.5 Launches With an Overhauled UI and Focus on Accessibility
The Gravity Forms team formally announced version 2.5 of its form plugin yesterday. The product, owned by RocketGenius, promises an overhauled experience that is more in line with the core block editor. The team also wanted to put accessibility at the forefront of this release. The design is fresh, ditching pieces of the older WordPress UI in favor of cleaner …
Churel Is a Colorful and Minimalist Block-Ready WordPress Theme
WordPress theme development company Themix released its third free theme to the official directory this week. Churel is described as a theme for organizations and businesses that also works for traditional blogging. The development team has a keen eye for modern color schemes and font families. The theme has a refreshing design that is rare for the free theme directory, …
Will We See In-Person WordCamps in 2021? An Open Discussion on a Path Forward
Now that COVID-19 vaccinations are becoming more widespread, many hope that in-person WordCamps can once again be a reality. There is no official path forward just yet, and decisions will likely be locally based in the coming months. Angela Jin, a community organizer for Automattic, announced an open discussion around the topic. Currently, all WordCamps are online-only events. There is …








