Research and analyst firm, RedMonk, released its programming language rankings for January 2015. RedMonk looks at programming language discussions on Stack Overflow and usage on GitHub in an effort to extract insights into potential adoption trends. The results from the analysis are not clear indications of general usage but rather, an examination of the correlation…
After experiencing a significant delay in late 2014, the folks over at SIDEKICK have launched a new website along with Composer. Composer is a tool that allows you to create visual, guided, walkthroughs. When SIDEKICK Co-founder, Ben Fox, showed off the initial demo last year, I described it as the Camtasia of WordPress. SIDEKICK has…
Kim Parsell once told me that attending WordCamp San Francisco 2014 was one of the best experiences of her life. It was her first WordCamp San Francisco and although she was unemployed at the time, she was able to attend thanks to financial assistance received from the WordPress Foundation. Knowing how much it meant to…
Over the years, GoDaddy has become a company people love to hate. Whether it’s poor server performance or the actions of former CEO, Bob Parsons, the company has garnered a negative reputation. Within the last two years however, GoDaddy has implemented several changes to turn the company around. In this episode, Marcus Couch and I…
Released in late 2013, WordPress 3.8 was packed with new features including, a new theme browser experience, widgets area chooser, and a redesign of the backend. It’s also the first release to include a feature using a new formal development process called features-as-plugins first. The backend redesign started off as a plugin called MP6 with development…
VersionPress, the plugin that allows you to revert changes to a site without having to restore a backup, is being released to early backers. Near the middle of 2014, VersionPress creators Borek Bernard and Jan Voráček created a crowdfunding campaign asking for $30K. The campaign started off on a rocky note, as several readers questioned…
The CPO and partner of Human Made, Noel Tock, published his WordPress predictions for 2015. His predictions include, custom dashboards, front-end editing, internationalization, and more. This could be the year of admin themes, but I think it largely depends on whether the WP API is merged into core. Tock predicts we’ll see a substantial increase…
WordPress 4.1 ships with three default themes, Twenty Thirteen, Twenty Fourteen, and Twenty Fifteen. Although the theme customizer enables you to edit a default theme’s colors, header image, and other attributes, it doesn’t give you the ability to change the body and title fonts. If you’d like to easily change fonts in a default theme…
When Dumitru Brinzan launched AcademiaThemes in early 2014, he did so with the goal of providing high quality themes for the education sector. With one year under his belt, I reached out to Brinzan to find out how the business is doing. The first year was rough, thanks in large part to algorithm changes implemented…
Throughout the course of a year, several new ideas, products, and businesses are launched in the WordPress ecosystem. However, not all of them are destined for success. Here are five WordPress initiatives launched in 2014 that didn’t make the cut. WPKindness Launched in early 2014 and created by Ryan Bell, WPKindness shared acts of kindness…
WordSesh 3 attracted more than 3,000 unique viewers from 89 countries. This equates to nearly three times the amount of people who attended WordCamp Europe 2014. With so many people interacting with the WordSesh site and 24 hours of live video sessions, it’s imperative that a webhost be able to deliver great performance. For the…
If you’ve ever clicked on a screenshot in the WordPress plugin directory and received a download prompt, you’re not the only one. In fact, it’s a widespread issue that affects a number of plugins. Screenshots are important as they help with troubleshooting, previewing features, and give users a sense of what to expect when it’s…
This special episode of WordPress Weekly doesn’t have any news or plugin picks of the week. Instead, it’s dedicated to the late Kim Parsell. I describe the experience of January 2nd where Brian Layman and I drive to Kim Parsell’s house to check on her. After telling the story, I share a couple of funny…
For the Advanced WordPress group on Facebook, 2014 was a great year. The group added key admins Joost de Valk and Danny van Kooten to cover the European time zone. It took two and a half years to reach 7,500 members, but after highlighting the group on the Tavern, membership skyrocketed from 7,500 members to…
In the eight years I’ve covered the WordPress scene, only once have I written about someone passing away. It’s with a heavy heart and great sadness to inform you that Kim Parsell passed away last week at her home in Southern, Ohio. The cause of death is unknown and a small service is tentatively scheduled…