One of the most persistent underlying causes of stress in the digital age is the feeling of drowning in communication. Nearly every Monday on Twitter begins with a litany of complaints from friends about the sheer volume of email that is waiting to be answered. Notifications for all the apps that were supposed to make…
Automattic is celebrating its 10th year in business this week. WordPress.com opened its doors in the summer of 2005 and is now closing in on a globally distributed team of 400 employees. Against all odds, CEO Matt Mullenweg, a college dropout with no initial startup funding, built a company that is now valued at $1.2…
If you’re collaborating with colleagues on a design or trying to show a client a few changes you’ve been adding to their website, the easiest way to get on the same page is with some form of screen sharing software. However, many of these tools are a pain to hook up and sometimes they require…
Many influential WordPress projects, such as Aesop Story Engine, PodsCamp, and WordPress Post Forking, found their beginnings and/or second winds on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, or another crowdfunding platform. A successful campaign funded by passionate supporters can make an idea into reality or bring fresh momentum for another round of development. Kayosey is the latest community project…
WordPress fans were excited to hear that the software was briefly mentioned on the popular Netflix original series Orange is the New Black. In case you missed it, here’s a quick summary of the reference, captured by Megan Gray: pahahaha, I captured #WordPress on #oitnb. too real, if I had a nickel for every time…
Argent is a bold new portfolio theme that was launched on WordPress.com last week. The theme is centered around showcasing the work of visual artists such as designers, photographers, craft makers, painters, etc., with portfolio items featured prominently on the homepage template. Argent was designed by Mel Choyce, co-author of the popular Flounder and Aventurine…
Anti-customizer vitriol reached its zenith last week when the Menu Customizer plugin was officially approved for merge into WordPress 4.3. Opponents of the feature voiced concerns about the readiness of the UI for all screen sizes, particularly for the desktop where many find the experience of managing menus to be crammed into an unnecessarily narrow…
For many BuddyPress-powered social networks, profile field groups do not work as a one-size-fits-all container. This is especially true for sites with a more complex and varied user base. By default, BuddyPress displays all profile field groups to all users, whether they are applicable or not. The new BuddyPress Conditional Field Groups plugin is one…
As WordPress developers everywhere are adopting Vagrant for local development, new configurations seem to pop up every week to address the needs of different teams and workflows. Theme Juice is the newest open source project to join the ever-growing list of WordPress-related Vagrant resources. The project is based on VVV, one of the most popular…
WordPress.tv is expanding its video catalog beyond WordCamp session recordings. As most of the video content on the site centers around topics for developers and established users, the WPTV team is now actively soliciting submissions for more beginner video tutorials. Are you a proud member of the WordPress community, who creates (or would like to…
Peter Suhm of WP Pusher recently launched a free email-based Git crash course for WordPress developers who want to gain a basic understanding of managing projects with Git. The five-day drip content course is suitable for both plugin and theme developers and begins with instructions on how to structure your projects for an efficient Git…
The very first WordCamp Croatia will be held in Rijeka the weekend of September 4-6. The WordPress community and the tech industry in general are growing in the Balkans. A large contingency of Croatian WordPress enthusiasts were present at neighboring Serbia’s first WordCamp in Belgrade earlier this year. The Croatian WP community has now grown…
WordPress for Android version 4.1 is sporting some major design changes. Navigation in the app has been redesigned to remove the the hamburger button in favor of four simplified tabs spanning the top of the screen. The ubiquitous hamburger icon, used on apps and websites for years, is slowly falling out of fashion on the…
BackPress supporters hosted a preliminary discussion yesterday to flesh out plans for bringing the long-abandoned project back to life. Organizers Roy Sivan and John James Jacoby were surprised by how many developers were interested in the prospect of reviving BackPress. Unfortunately, the live Google Hangout wasn’t broadcasted publicly and was limited 10 people, which gave…
The WordPress Theme Review Team is now curating a library of code examples on GitHub for theme developers. The first section is devoted to customizer code with examples for panels, sections, basic controls, and advanced controls. “We will continue to add to the library, including more examples of custom controls, and more advanced examples, such…