WordPress 4.8.2 is available for download and users are encouraged to update as soon as possible. This release patches eight security vulnerabilities and has six maintenance related fixes. Hardening was also added to WordPress core to prevent plugins and themes from accidentally causing a vulnerability through $wpdb->prepare() which can create unexpected and unsafe queries leading…
DonateWC is a new initiative by Ines van Essen, Happiness Engineer at Automattic, that aims to provide an opportunity for less fortunate people to attend large WordCamps. Essen was inspired to create the non-profit organization after realizing how expensive it was to attend WordCamp US 2015. “As I did not work for a company that…
SWFUpload is an open-source library that was used by WordPress in 2011 and earlier that allowed users to upload files. The library was abandoned and replaced with Plupload in WordPress 3.3, released in 2011. Despite being replaced, WordPress continued to bundle the library for plugins that didn’t migrate to Plupload. In 2013, the core team…
WordCamp Ann Arbor, MI, is set to take place October 13-14 and for the second year in a row, organizers will host a secondary event called WordCamp WarmUp. WordCamp WarmUp provides an environment for attendees to break the ice and meet new people before the main event. Janelle Reichman is co-organizing WordCamp WarmUp. “I’ve been…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I are joined by Andrea Middleton, Dot org Wrangler at Automattic. Middleton supports WordPress community organizers by helping them plan community events that inspire people to do more with WordPress, connect the community, and contribute to the WordPress project. We discussed a variety of topics including, whether or…
WordPress 3.7 ‘Basie’ was released on October 24, 2013 and introduced automatic updates for minor releases to the masses. Although it’s not labeled as such, WordPress 3.7 has effectively acted as a LTS version or Long-term support. Security updates and crucial bug fixes have been ported back to previous branches up to 3.7. In this…
Every now and then, I’ll come across a user experience in WordPress that makes me scratch my head. Earlier today, I needed to edit a comment’s details before restoring it from the Trash. However, WordPress doesn’t allow this without restoring it first. After restoring the comment, it disappeared from the trash and nothing happened. This…
Over the years, I’ve received requests from people wanting their comments removed from the site. I recently received a request from a reader that I remove a comment they made three years ago because it was showing up in Google search results for their name. Normally, I ignore these requests as it makes me feel…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I discuss a new initiative that will help educate users on the benefits of upgrading PHP. We share our thoughts on Facebook denying a request to remove its Patent clause from REACT’s license. We highlight a new onboarding wizard aimed at themes and discuss what Gutenberg means for…
As work continues on Gutenberg, members of the community are discussing its impacts on WordPress’ future. Morten Rand-Hendriksen considers Gutenberg to be a watershed moment, “This is a revolution,” he said. “This is a watershed moment for WordPress. This is entirely new and fundamentally different from how WordPress works and how we work with it…
Over the past few months, reviews for Gutenberg have trended towards a love/hate relationship without much in between. To figure out why this is, Millie Macdonald and Anna Harrison of Ephox, the company behind TinyMCE, analyzed the feedback and concluded that many of the issues likely stem from timing. “In short, the nuances in the…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I open the show by discussing our observations of social media lately. Our feeds are filled with anger and for me personally, Twitter is becoming less useful. We discussed the news of the week, including a lengthy conversation about Automattic opening up the WordPress.org ecosystem of plugins and…
In addition to taking place in a new location this year, WordCamp US will have a Community Bazaar. An area will be set aside in the venue allowing those chosen to showcase their WordPress communities. Raquel Landefeld, Randy Hicks, and Dustin Meza are organizing the Bazaar. Landefeld says the idea was inspired by the people…
There’s a lot of great WordPress content published in the community but not all of it is featured on the Tavern. This post is an assortment of items related to WordPress that caught my eye but didn’t make it into a full post. Using WordPress to Publish Law Reviews Kevin O’Keefe of Above the Law,…
Earlier this year, WordPress.com launched an experiment giving Business plan subscribers the ability to install third-party plugins and themes. Automattic concluded the experiment earlier this week and officially made the features part of the subscription plan. “With support for plugins and third-party themes, WordPress.com Business users will be able to connect their sites to great…