WordPress sites may soon see a slight performance improvement on page loads, thanks to a fix for a performance regression in the core lazy loading feature. An analysis published in July 2021 showed that lazy loading applied too aggressively can have a negative impact on performance and that it’s better to eagerly load the images within the initial viewport. WordPress’ …
WP Tavern’s 2021 Year in Review
Abstract Lights by Marcus Kazmierczak A friend prompted me to fix an issue with the WP Tavern archives page a few days ago. Not all of 2021’s posts were visible. As I glanced over the updated list, I realized our team put in a lot of work for the year. In the day-to-day mix of things, it is easy to …
A Throwback to the Past: Retro Winamp Block
In mid-November, I happened upon a block plugin called Retro Winamp Block. As many of our readers know, I am always on the lookout for those WordPress extensions that remind me of the era when I first started using computers and exploring the web. The plugin seemed to fit the bill. It had “retro” in the title, so it had …
Multiple State of the Word Attendees Test Positive for COVID-19
State of the Word 2021 in NYC Matt Mullenweg’s 2021 State of the Word address was held in New York City nine days ago with a live studio audience. On Sunday, December 19, all in-person attendees were notified by email that they were possibly exposed to COVID-19 after one of the attendees tested positive. Although proof of vaccination was required …
WP Engine Acquires Brian Gardner’s Frost, Opens It to the Public
Brian Gardner announced today that WP Engine has acquired his latest project, Frost. In an email sent out to all customers, Gardner said his team had issued refunds to all current customers. The business model is changing, and Frost will be a freely-available project going forward and focus on full site editing. Frost is a WordPress theme that Gardner released …
Ask the Bartender: Will It Become Easier To Create Block Patterns?
Do you know if WordPress FSE is working to make it easier to create block patterns? Templates and Parts need to just click a button to download them. But patterns are very manual, and you need to register all of them programmatically. Thiago You are not the first person to ask this question, and it is something that I have …
WordPress 5.9 to Introduce Language Switcher on Login Screen
More than half of all WordPress sites (50.5%) are using translations for non-English speaking locales. It’s only natural that these users would want the ability to register, log in, and reset their passwords in their own languages. A new language switcher on the login screen has finally made its way into core, four years after the ticket was opened. WordPress …
Disable Over a Dozen WordPress Features With the No Nonsense Plugin
One of the best things about WordPress is the hundreds of ways of turning things off. There are likely dozens of plugins for disabling various items, each with its own unique set of options. No Nonsense is no different. It is a plugin that allows users to control whether they want to use over a dozen features. The plugin was …
Yes, a Block-Based Version of the Kubrick WordPress Theme Exists
It is literally the one thing that no one was asking for, but we can all collectively agree it is kind of cool. A block-based version of the old-school Kubrick WordPress theme exists. Gutenberg lead Matías Ventura tweeted a quick video of it in action yesterday. Fellow Automattic engineer Riad Benguella had put the theme together. Wait, what? (I had …
David Gwyer Teases Block Theme Generator App, Plans for a Community of Creators
David Gwyer has been teasing ThemeGen over the last couple of weeks. It is his upcoming block theme generator app. Piece by piece, it has seemed to be coming together and could prove invaluable for theme developers. Currently, it is in beta testing. He provided me with a link to an early preview to get my feedback on the tool. …