Matt Mullenweg and Jamstack Community Square Off, Making Long-Term Bets on the Predominant Architecture for the Web

Over the past two weeks, Matt Mullenweg and Jamstack community leaders have forged a new rivalry, after Mullenweg told The New Stack that he sees Jamstack as “a regression for the vast majority of the people adopting it.” “The usability and functionality is actually lower,” Mullenweg said to Richard MacManus in an email. “Even rebuilding sites in Jamstack harkens back …

Matt Mullenweg Clarifies Jamstack Remarks

Two weeks ago, Matt Mullenweg made some pointed remarks in an article from The New Stack, calling Jamstack “a regression for the vast majority of the people adopting it.” In preparation for an upcoming article that will include comments from leaders across both the WordPress and Jamstack communities, I asked Mullenweg if he stands by his remarks characterizing Jamstack as …

GoDaddy Acquires SkyVerge, Creator of Over 60 WooCommerce Add-Ons

On September 14, GoDaddy announced it had acquired SkyVerge, a major WooCommerce-focused development company, for an undisclosed amount. At the moment, GoDaddy is playing it close to the vest in terms of its future plans. It has not publicly announced anything beyond a continued commitment to current customers. The initial announcement makes note that SkyVerge’s free plugins on WordPress.org have …

Gutenberg 9.0 Brings Major Improvements to Navigation Screen and Query Block

If you haven’t played around with Gutenberg’s experiments lately, the Navigation block is getting some exciting updates. Version 9.0 was released today with drag-and-drop support added to the list view of navigation items. Contributors have been working through several different prototypes aimed at unifying the controls and simplifying the menu building process. The Navigation screen included in version 9.0 has …

Upcoming API Change Will Break Facebook and Instagram oEmbed Links Across the Web Beginning October 24

In an extraordinarily inconvenient API change, Facebook and Instagram will be dropping unauthenticated oEmbed support on October 24, breaking content across millions of websites. The change will force users to generate an app ID with a developer account in order to continue embedding links via oEmbed: Changes to tokenless access for User Picture and FB/IG OEmbed endpoints: By October 24, 2020, developers must leverage …

Podcasting During the Pandemic: Castos Sees 300% Growth in New Podcasters

“My Podcast Set I” by brainblogger is licensed with CC BY 2.0. Podcasting, like many other industries during the pandemic, is seeing a strong shift over the past six months, which has resulted in more shows and fewer listeners. While some avid podcast fans have taken solace in listening to their favorite shows to stay connected, many listeners who previously had podcasts …

Deque Systems to Host Axe-Con Virtual Accessibility Conference, March 10-11, 2021

Deque Systems, a widely respected accessibility firm that has contributed to setting up automated accessibility testing for WordPress core, will be hosting a new “Axe-con” virtual conference focusing on digital accessibility. Axe-con is named for the company’s axe-core project, an open source library and accessibility testing engine that can be customized to integrate with all modern browsers and testing frameworks. …

Jetpack Launches Email Marketing Tools with Creative Mail Integration, WooCommerce-Triggered Store Emails Coming Soon

Jetpack is firing up a new suite of email marketing tools in partnership with Endurance International Group’s Constant Contact brand. Last week version 8.9 of the plugin introduced a new newsletter signup form inside its Form block, based on an integration with the Creative Mail plugin that Constant Contact recently launched as a solution tailored specifically to WordPress and WooCommerce. …