Last week, a GitHub pull request I had been watching since October 2020 on the Gutenberg repository was finally merged into the codebase. It changes the structure of the WordPress Gallery block to be a container for nested Image blocks. The new format is expected to land in WordPress 5.9. For those who want to begin testing it early, it …
WordPress Contributors Actually Do Listen to Feedback and Engage With the Community
I am a writer. That gives me a license — not to be overused — to steer into hyperbole once in a while. I get to be critical, sometimes overly, because I can come back the next day and shower the WordPress project with praise. Perhaps, at times, I forget to be as fair or kind as I should be. …
Jeremy Keith Resigns from AMP Advisory Committee: “It Has Become Clear to Me that AMP Remains a Google Product”
Jeremy Keith, a web developer and contributor to the web standards movement, has resigned from the AMP Advisory Committee. Keith was selected for the committee last year, despite his well-documented criticisms of the AMP project. In his resignation email, he cites Google’s control of the project and its small percentage of open source parts as reasons for his growing resentment: …
How To Set Up Free Email Accounts With WPMU DEV’s Managed WordPress Hosting
Congratulations! Your sites are hosted on WPMU DEV’s next generation WordPress hosting, which includes free email hosting. Now, let’s set up your emails. Free email hosting is included with all WPMU DEV hosting plans (not sold separately).View our hosting plans You have probably seen businesses advertising their website on their shopfront, vehicle, promos, etc. using their Gmail, Hotmail, or ISP …
Gutenberg 11.3 Introduces Dimensions Panel, Adds Button Padding Support, and Speeds Up the Inserter
Earlier today, Gutenberg 11.3 landed in the WordPress plugin directory. The latest update introduces a new dimensions panel for toggling spacing-related block options. The Button block now supports the padding control, and the Post Featured Image block has new width and height settings. One of the release’s highlights was a speed improvement for both opening and searching within the inserter. …
WordPress.org Experiments with Rejecting Plugin Submissions with the “WP” Prefix to Mitigate Potential Trademark Abuse
Many in the WordPress developer community were surprised to learn that WordPress.org is rejecting plugins with the “WP” prefix in the name after Joe Youngblood tweeted the rejection note he received. Although that restriction was put into place approximately seven months ago, there was no official communication on the change. WordPress is now claiming that the @WordPress Foundation has demanded …
A Second Look at ElmaStudio’s Aino Theme and Companion Block Plugin
I am about a month away from my second anniversary writing for WP Tavern. There has been one project that I have followed since the beginning of this journey. In some ways, we are learning the ropes and growing in this block-based WordPress era together. In 2019, just before taking on this role, one of the first story notes I …
Early WordPress 5.9 Look: The Road Toward Deeper Responsive Block Design
Gutenberg project lead Matías Ventura announced the Preliminary Road to 5.9 on the Make Core blog earlier today. He covered several big picture items, including several sub-points for each. He also linked to a GitHub issue with specific tasks and tickets that need work. The post covers notes on block patterns, navigation menus, the theme.json interface (global styles), design tools, …
Wordfence and WPScan Publish Mid-Year WordPress Security Report
WPScan is on track to post a record-breaking year for WordPress plugin vulnerabilities submitted to its database, according to a collaborative mid-year security report the company published with Wordfence. In the first half of 2021, WPScan has recorded 602 new vulnerabilities, quickly surpassing the 514 reported during all of 2020. The report is based on attack data from Wordfence’s platform …
FSE Outreach Round #9: Building a Higher Ed Header
It feels like it has been ages since the WordPress community has had a call for testing Full Site Editing (FSE) features. The FSE Outreach Program was on a small hiatus. However, the WordPress 5.8 launch was also underway last month. The program is an open call for testing various components of FSE. Thus far, volunteers have successfully provided feedback …







