Last month WPZOOM released a free plugin called Block Patterns for Food Bloggers that I finally got the chance to test. Food blogs commonly have a strong focus on category and tag-driven grid layouts with big featured images and multiple sections showcasing different types of recipes. Prior to the block editor, customizing these types of layouts would be beyond reach …
Gutenberg Times to Showcase the Pew Research Center’s “Block First Approach” in a Live Q&A on July 22, 2022
The Gutenberg Times will be hosting representatives from the Pew Research Center in its Live Q&A session on July 22, 2022, with co-hosts Birgit Pauli-Haack and Anne McCarthy. After an eight-month hiatus, the show will return with guests who are doing some exciting things with Gutenberg out in the wild. The Pew Research Center is a non-profit organization that conducts …
Anders Norén Remakes Davis Theme as Davis Blocks with Full-Site Editing Support
WordPress theme author Anders Norén has remade his popular Davis theme to support full-site editing. The new theme, Davis Blocks, is sporting the same clean design as its predecessor, and can be used as a starter theme or a lightweight blog theme. Norén said he built Davis Blocks to be as small as possible, while retaining the same appearance as …
WordPress Performance Team Proposes Developing a New Plugin Checker Tool
WordPress’ Performance team is kickstarting a proposal for developing a plugin checker tool similar to the theme check plugin, which ensures themes are meeting the latest standards and best practices. In 2021, WordPress’ Meta team built a code scanner that detects potential security risks, such as unescaped SQL queries in plugin code, with the goal of reducing the Plugin Team’s load through …
Software Freedom Conservancy Calls for GitHub Boycott
The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), a non-profit that provides infrastructure support for free and open source software projects, is urging developers to stop using GitHub and move their projects to other platforms. The organization has historically had a number of public grievances with GitHub, which it outlines on its Give Up On GitHub site. GitHub’s public launch of Copilot last week was the final …
WordCamp US 2022 Tickets Now On Sale: Limited to 650 Attendees
WordCamp US will be hosting its first in-person event since 2019 in San Diego this year. The three-day event will run from September 9-11 at Town and Country Resort. Tickets went on sale today and are still available but likely to sell out soon. Unlike previous years, which had attendees number in the thousands, WCUS 2022 will be capped at 650 …
WordPress Contributors Propose Improving Block Themes’ Visibility in the Directory
WordPress theme authors and contributors from the Themes team are exploring ways to make block themes more prominent on the official directory. These are themes that are specifically tagged with support for full-site editing. Despite WordPress having a block theme for its most recent default theme, authors have been slow to create more. There are currently only 86 themes that …
Wei: A Free Minimalist WordPress Theme from Rich Tabor
Rich Tabor’s new Wei theme is one of the most well-designed contributions to hit WordPress.org’s free themes directory this month. Wei is a minimalist block theme that keeps things simple while offering users a range of artfully selected accent color combinations. It also includes support for full-site editing and Global Styles for a wider range of site customizations. Wei joins …
ClassicPress On the Rocks: Directors Resign, New Leadership Installed
Recent turbulence in the ClassicPress community has resulted in the directors resigning and new leadership installed. The WordPress fork is run under a non-profit organization called the ClassicPress Initiative. It supports work on a pared back version of WordPress, based on version 4.9, that uses the TinyMCE classic editor as the default option with no block editor. The project appeared …
GoDaddy Responds to Mullenweg’s Accusations: “We All Have the Same Goal”
In a recent Twitter storm, Matt Mullenweg characterized GoDaddy as “a parasitic company,” that is “an existential threat to WordPress’ future.” In a series of tweets that were subsequently deleted, Mullenweg contended that GoDaddy is lacking support for WordPress and WooCommerce, relative to how much the company is benefiting from the projects. He also said the company’s investment in proprietary …