Two months ago the WordPress Plugin Directory guidelines became a heated topic of debate after the plugin team began cracking down on incentivized reviews. The most recent publicized incident involved the Sprout Invoices plugin, which was temporarily removed from the directory and all of its 5-star reviews erased after it was discovered that the author…
Automattic is doubling down on its commitment to using JavaScript in its products. In November 2015, the company debuted Calypso, its first React.js-based product powered by the WordPress.com REST API. Shortly after Calypso’s unveiling, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg declared that “JavaScript and API-driven interfaces are the future of not just WordPress but the web.” Today…
Justin Tadlock’s new ButterBean post meta box framework was officially released this week. The framework allows developers to easily build a metabox with a tabbed UI to accommodate multiple fields. After roughly three months of beta testing, ButterBean is ready for use in projects. It can be dropped into a plugin or used as a…
Nearly two months after Google removed Dennis Cooper’s 14-year-old Blogger site and Gmail account without explanation, the novelist and performance artist has been officially ejected from the platform. According to Cooper, a post he wrote 10 years ago, which he had placed behind an adult content warning due to pornographic material, was flagged by a…
Baton is a modern business theme that offers a unique approach to building the homepage. The theme features a clean top menu with elegant drop downs, a submenu, customizable heros, and multiple layouts for feature sections. While many business themes offer similar design features, Baton’s differentiating factor is that users can live edit any of…
WordPress for Android version 5.7 was released today with a new “Plan” screen under the site menu for WordPress.com users. This section details the differences between WordPress.com’s commercial plans and includes a link for users to manage and upgrade their plans. Previous releases have added user management and the ability to invite new users. Version…
When a WordPress plugin has an update available, it comes with a “View Details” link where users can read the changelog before updating. Clicking the details link launches the changelog section of the readme.txt file in a modal window. Themes, on the other hand, do not have a link to view details, because WordPress.org doesn’t…
WordPress enthusiasts from around the world tuned into the fourth edition of WordSesh this past weekend. WordSesh is a free virtual WordPress conference that lasts for 24 hours. Since none of the viewers or speakers have to travel from their homes, the sessions generally have a more casual, intimate vibe than what you might experience…
WordPress 4.7 development officially kicked off at today’s meeting in the #core Slack channel. This release is being led by lead developer Helen Hou-Sandí who has selected Aaron Jorbin and Jeff Paul as release deputies. The first item on the agenda was an update on the upcoming 4.6.1 maintenance release. Jeremy Felt reported that the…
Google announced today that it will begin penalizing pages with intrusive interstitials, commonly known as popup ads, beginning in 2017: Pages that show intrusive interstitials provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible. This can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller. To improve the mobile…
Last week Disqus announced that the company has partnered with Akismet to combat comment spam. The blog comment hosting service processes 1.8 million comments per day and approximately 15,000 (0.8%) are spam. “It only takes one spam comment to create an eyesore in a lively discussion so, in a sense, stopping all these varying spam…
Envato is celebrating 10 years in business today. Founders Collis and Cyan Ta’eed started the company out of their garage in Sydney in 2006 with the launch of ActiveDen (originally called FlashDen). Envato expanded to provide an umbrella for a variety of different endeavors in the following years, including PSD Tuts and Freelance Switch launched…
WordPress 4.6 was released this week with support for 50 translations at 100%, a record number for the Polyglots. The volunteer team has grown 114% over the past year and a half. “On April 15th, translation contributors totaled 4,690 for all time, with a rate of 3 new per day,” Polyglots team member Petya Raykovska…
Planning for WordCamp US is charging forward with the call for speakers and volunteers closing in less than two weeks on August 31. Last year the event had approximately 100 volunteers but organizers are working to expand the team to accommodate more attendees in 2016. “We’ll likely accept somewhere between 150-180 volunteers, which we think…
The .blog top-level domain extension is entering the sunrise phase today, during which trademark holders have first access to apply for their .blog domains via a certified trademark agent. Knock Knock, WHOIS There, Automattic’s subsidiary that is managing .blog domains, won the rights to oversee the sale and registration of the extension in 2015 for…