Sarah Gooding

  • New Carbon Offset Plugin Aims to Make WordPress Sites More Eco-Friendly

    New Carbon Offset Plugin Aims to Make WordPress Sites More Eco-Friendly

    As developers and internet users become increasingly aware of the CO2 footprint of their data usage, renewed interest in carbon offsetting programs has cropped up in recent years. These programs allow individuals and organizations to “offset” their carbon dioxide emissions by funding environmental endeavors, which range from planting trees to clean energy projects, with lots…

  • Local Brings Back Support for Apache and Site Cloning

    Local Brings Back Support for Apache and Site Cloning

    Flywheel’s Local development app has received several major updates during the past month. The most recent release brings back support for Apache as a web server choice (version 5.5.1), in response to user feedback. This was the most highly requested feature on the app’s community voting board. Although nginx is the leader in web server…

  • Molly Burke on the Power of Universal Design

    Molly Burke on the Power of Universal Design

    In a 2017 speech titled “Stop trying to fix disability,” YouTube and motivational speaker Molly Burke says, “I live in a world that wasn’t built for me, but what if it was?” Burke was born with a rare, genetic eye disease that caused her to go blind. In this short but moving 8 minute video,…

  • WordCamp Kent Online Features Business and Marketing Tracks, May 30-31

    WordCamp Kent Online Features Business and Marketing Tracks, May 30-31

    One of the exciting things about WordCamps going virtual is the community gaining access to more events and presentations than ever before, from anywhere in the world. Even in this new online-only format, local camps still retain their unique character as they feature speakers from their respective communities. WordCamp Kent (Ohio) is one of these…

  • New Iceberg Plugin Brings a Distraction-Free Writing Experience to WordPress

    New Iceberg Plugin Brings a Distraction-Free Writing Experience to WordPress

    Ever on the hunt for a more beautiful, simplified writing experience inside WordPress, I jumped at the chance to beta test the new Iceberg plugin. Rich Tabor and Jeffrey Caradang, the same team behind CoBlocks, have created a new markdown editor built on top of Gutenberg that provides the best writing experience for WordPress since…

  • BuddyPress 6.0.0 Released with New Group and Members Blocks

    BuddyPress 6.0.0 Released with New Group and Members Blocks

    BuddyPress has entered the world of blocks with the release of version 6.0, the latest major update that has been in development since November 2019. The release, code-named “iovine’s” for a favorite pizza restaurant in Paris, introduces blocks for Groups and Members. It also marks the completion of the BP Rest API, adding the final…

  • iA Writer Adds Expanded Support for IndieWeb Tools and WordPress Publishing

    iA Writer Adds Expanded Support for IndieWeb Tools and WordPress Publishing

    iA Writer has been delighting users with its minimal writing experience for nearly a decade, racking up more than 3 million downloads. The most recent version 5.5 release for Mac and iOS moves the bar higher for competing writing apps with new support for previewing PDFs and improved support for publishing to self-hosted WordPress sites.…

  • Google Patches Critical Vulnerability in Site Kit Plugin

    Google Patches Critical Vulnerability in Site Kit Plugin

    In late April Wordfence discovered a critical vulnerability in Google’s Site Kit plugin for WordPress that would make it possible for any user on the site to gain full access to the Google Search Console without verifying ownership. Google patched the vulnerability and released the fix in version 1.8.0 on May 7, 2020. Wordfence published…

  • GitHub Adds Account Successors Feature

    GitHub Adds Account Successors Feature

    Yesterday, GitHub added a new setting to user-owned repositories called “Account Successors.” It allows users to designate repository access to another user to maintain ownership continuity in the event of any kind of personal disruption. “Open source maintainers, you can now invite a trusted user to manage your open source projects in the event that…

  • WordPress Accessibility Team to Host 24-Hour Online Event October 2, 2020

    WordPress Accessibility Team to Host 24-Hour Online Event October 2, 2020

    The WordPress Accessibility Team is organizing a new online event called WP Accessibility Day that will take place on October 2, 2020. The event will feature 24 hours of educational sessions that focus on the intersection between WordPress and web accessibility. Inspired by the Polyglots’ Global Translation Day, which greatly expanded the team’s base of…

  • WordCamp Spain 2020 Q&A: Matt Mullenweg Discusses Virtual Events, Decoupled WordPress, and the Future of Page Builders

    WordCamp Spain 2020 Q&A: Matt Mullenweg Discusses Virtual Events, Decoupled WordPress, and the Future of Page Builders

    Matt Mullenweg joined Matías Ventura at WordCamp Spain yesterday for a lively Q&A session. The virtual event drew 5,000 registered users, and attendees came prepared with some thought-provoking questions about the future of WordPress. Here are a few highlights on some recent topics of interest. WordCamps around the globe have been going virtual, embracing the…

  • GitHub Introduces Codespaces IDE, Discussions, and Code Scanning

    GitHub Introduces Codespaces IDE, Discussions, and Code Scanning

    GitHub Satellite, the company’s annual product and community event, went virtual this year for the first time but marched forward with the usual major product announcements. GitHub is ramping up its offerings with four new products: an IDE, a discussion platform, code scanning, and private instances. Codespaces is the platform’s new built-in IDE that lets…

  • Apply to Speak at the JavaScript for WordPress Conference

    Apply to Speak at the JavaScript for WordPress Conference

    The third annual JavaScript for WordPress Conference is gearing up for three days of online talks and workshops on July 8-10, 2020. The event is free to attend and organizer Zac Gordon is working to put together a diverse speaker lineup. Day 1 will be devoted to workshops that help beginners get up and running…