Year: 2020

  • Exploring Seedlet, Automattic’s Block-First WordPress Theme

    Exploring Seedlet, Automattic’s Block-First WordPress Theme

    On August 26, Automattic launched a new theme titled Seedlet that focused on integrating with the WordPress block editor. A few days later, it was also live in the WordPress.org theme directory. The theme development team wanted to produce a theme that would be in a good position to transition to full-site editing later this…

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

    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…

  • More Power in the Hands of WordPress Support Forum Users

    More Power in the Hands of WordPress Support Forum Users

    What level of control should users have over their WordPress support forum topics? That is the question at the heart of a recent discussion opened by Mika Epstein on the Make Support blog. The goal is to grant more power to users, particularly when they post private or privileged information to the public forums. The…

  • iThemes Enters the WordPress Membership Plugin Market, Acquires Restrict Content Pro

    iThemes Enters the WordPress Membership Plugin Market, Acquires Restrict Content Pro

    Last Tuesday, iThemes announced it had acquired the Restrict Content Pro plugin from Sandhills Development. iThemes is part of the Liquid Web family of brands. Pippin Williamson, Managing Director at Sandhills, said the company had no intention of selling the plugin last October when talks of the acquisition began. However, moving forward has created some…

  • WordPress Support Team Seeks to Curb Support Requests for Commercial Plugins and Themes

    WordPress Support Team Seeks to Curb Support Requests for Commercial Plugins and Themes

    WordPress’ Support Team contributors are discussing how they can curb support requests for commercial products on the official WordPress.org forums. Users sometimes seek help for commercial product upgrades on the forums of the free version, not knowing that the moderators’ official policy is to refer them to the extension’s commercial support channel. In other instances,…

  • Gutenberg 8.9 Brings Block-Based Widgets Out of the Experimental Stage

    Gutenberg 8.9 Brings Block-Based Widgets Out of the Experimental Stage

    On Wednesday, September 2, Gutenberg 8.9 launched with a set of new features, enhancements, and several bug fixes. The development team took the block-based widgets system out of its experimental stage, making it the default experience for all plugin users. Block-based widgets have taken months upon months of work. The team has surpassed some of…

  • Sunlit 3.0 for iOS Released, Featuring New Post Editor and Improved Discovery Interface

    Sunlit 3.0 for iOS Released, Featuring New Post Editor and Improved Discovery Interface

    Sunlit 3.0 was released this week and is now available in the App Store. The free photoblogging app is a companion app to the Micro.blog indie microblogging platform. Sunlit has some similarities to Instagram minus the deadweight of ads and algorithms. Users can follow each other, comment on posts, and timeline photos are displayed in…

  • WordPress Plugin Authors Should Avoid Confusing Users When Naming Blocks

    WordPress Plugin Authors Should Avoid Confusing Users When Naming Blocks

    On May 4, the StudioPress development team made a small but significant user-facing change to its Atomic Blocks plugin (now rebranded to Genesis Blocks). It removed the “AB” branding from its block titles. This minor update changed block titles such as AB Accordion and AB Button to Accordion and Button, respectively. On the surface, this…

  • WordPress 5.5.1 Released with Backfill for Deprecated JavaScript Globals

    WordPress 5.5.1 Released with Backfill for Deprecated JavaScript Globals

    WordPress 5.5.1 was released yesterday with 34 bug fixes, 4 enhancements, and 5 bug fixes for the block editor. Version 5.5 removed 19 legacy JavaScript localization objects, in favor of using the new functions and utilities found in the i18n package introduced in WordPress 5.0. One of the most notable changes in this maintenance release is the inclusion of a backfill for…

  • Jetpack 8.9 Adds Donations Block, Newsletter Form, and Social Previews

    Jetpack 8.9 Adds Donations Block, Newsletter Form, and Social Previews

    Jeremey Herve, a Jetpack developer at Automattic, announced the release of Jetpack 8.9 earlier today. The update brings several major features to the plugin’s users. Jetpack now sports a new social preview option in the block editor, a newsletter signup form type, and a block for handling donations. Version 8.9 also adds support for the…

  • WordSesh EMEA 2020 Kicks Off September 2, Featuring Short Talks and Micro-Tutorials

    WordSesh EMEA 2020 Kicks Off September 2, Featuring Short Talks and Micro-Tutorials

    The second edition of WordSesh EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) is happening in less than 48 hours on September 2. The virtual event’s schedule is tailored to attendees living in the Eastern hemisphere. In its first year running, WordSesh EMEA attracted a solid turnout of close to 1,000 attendees and was the proving ground…

  • One Year After Beta, Elmastudio’s Aino Blocks Plugin Lands in the Plugin Directory

    One Year After Beta, Elmastudio’s Aino Blocks Plugin Lands in the Plugin Directory

    One year ago today, Elmastudio launched a beta version of its Aino WordPress theme and Aino Blocks plugin. While the team pushed the theme live in the theme directory earlier this year, it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that they officially released their blocks plugin. Elmastudio’s beta launch was one of the first…

  • WordCamp Austin Opens Call for Musicians

    WordCamp Austin Opens Call for Musicians

    WordCamp Austin 2020 is putting out a call for musicians, alongside its call for speakers. The event’s organizers are rising to the challenge of creating a unique experience for attendees, while working within the constraints of a virtual format. Because the city prides itself on being “the live music capital of the world,” due to…

  • Stepping Into a Market With Major Players, Mario Peshev Acquires WP-CRM System

    Stepping Into a Market With Major Players, Mario Peshev Acquires WP-CRM System

    Mario Peshev, the CEO of WordPress agency DevriX, officially announced he had acquired the WP-CRM System plugin this week. Formally, his company Premium WP Support is taking the reins for the project. Scott DeLuzio, the creator and previous owner of the plugin, published the news on his blog last month. DeLuzio originally built the plugin…

  • MotoPress Acquires Gutenix WordPress Theme

    MotoPress Acquires Gutenix WordPress Theme

    MotoPress, a theme and plugin shop in operation since 2013, has acquired the Gutenix WordPress theme and its commercial ZeGuten blocks plugin for Gutenberg. The free theme currently has more than 700 active installs after nine months on WordPress.org. MotoPress already has a number of successful niche WordPress themes and plugins but Gutenix fills the…

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