• WordPress Theme Authors Are Moving to Host Fonts Locally

    WordPress Theme Authors Are Moving to Host Fonts Locally

    The WordPress Themes team is poised to change its guidelines on remote hosting Google Fonts and is once again strongly urging theme authors to host their fonts locally. Yoast-sponsored contributor Ari Stathopoulos published an update today to answer some questions the team has been receiving about fonts in themes: Historically, WordPress themes hosted in the w.org…

  • WordPress Contributors Consider Renaming Full-Site Editing

    WordPress Contributors Consider Renaming Full-Site Editing

    WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy is proposing contributors rename the terms “full-site editing” and “full-site editor” to something more user friendly. The terms came into use as WordPress moved into the Customization phase and are still used to differentiate the work being done on site editing as opposed to content editing in the block…

  • Automattic Is Removing WordPress.com Features from the Official WordPress Mobile Apps

    Automattic Is Removing WordPress.com Features from the Official WordPress Mobile Apps

    The WordPress mobile team announced today that it will be pulling all the Jetpack and WordPress.com features from the official WordPress mobile apps. They will be moved into the Jetpack app through a gradual process that is anticipated to conclude by the end of this year. “Over the years, the WordPress app has evolved to…

  • Akismet 5.0 Adds New Spam Detection Feature That Analyzes How Comments Are Posted

    Akismet 5.0 Adds New Spam Detection Feature That Analyzes How Comments Are Posted

    For years, the vast majority of Akismet releases have been centered around bug fixes and improving compatibility with various plugins. Version 5.0 was released today, following 4.2.5 earlier this month, with a new feature that should improve Askismet’s ability to detect spam comments. Akismet engineer Christopher Finke explained how the plugin will now analyze how…

  • Review Signal Publishes 2022 WordPress and WooCommerce Hosting Performance Benchmarks

    Review Signal Publishes 2022 WordPress and WooCommerce Hosting Performance Benchmarks

    Kevin Ohashi from Review Signal has published the 2022 WordPress and WooCommerce hosting performance benchmarks. These benchmarks are some of the most trusted review sources in the hosting industry due to Ohashi’s transparent methodology. No hosting company sponsors the work. Instead, Ohashi charges a standard, publicly documented fee for participation that covers the cost of…

  • SiteCare Acquires Maintainn from WebDevStudios

    SiteCare Acquires Maintainn from WebDevStudios

    More consolidation is happening in the WordPress maintenance services space, as SiteCare announced it has acquired Maintainn, a long-time competitor, from WebDevStudios. “As we’ve grown and our clientele has grown [with] definitely more of a focus on the enterprise and big business, we’ve simply kind of grown away where that side of the house wasn’t…

  • WordPress Accessibility Day 2022 Opens Call for Speakers and Sponsors

    WordPress Accessibility Day 2022 Opens Call for Speakers and Sponsors

    WordPress Accessibility Day, a free, 24-hour virtual event, is set for November 2-3, 2022. The event was first founded in 2020 and will continue this year led by Joe Dolson and Amber Hinds. It was previously run by the WordPress core Accessibility Team through the WordPress Foundation but organizers are running it independently this year…

  • Gutenberg 13.7 Expands Custom Template Capabilities, Adds Estimated Reading Time to Info Panel

    Gutenberg 13.7 Expands Custom Template Capabilities, Adds Estimated Reading Time to Info Panel

    Gutenberg 13.7 was released this week with major updates to full-site editing (FSE) capabilities that expand custom template creation. Users can now create templates for custom taxonomies, specific terms, and single categories and tags. The update also includes the ability to create templates for specific pages. Clicking on “Add New” template and selecting Category will…

  • WordPress.com Ends Recent Pricing Experiment, Reverts to Previous Model

    WordPress.com Ends Recent Pricing Experiment, Reverts to Previous Model

    WordPress.com has ended the pricing experiment it began at the beginning of April. The company announced today that it is rolling back its pricing structure to the previous model, which offered five plans, including the free tier. A few months ago, WordPress.com pared back its pricing table from five to just two plans (Free and…

  • WordPress Themes Directory Launches Pattern Previews in Beta

    WordPress Themes Directory Launches Pattern Previews in Beta

    Meta contributors have turned on a new feature in WordPress.org theme listings that allows visitors to preview themes’ bundled patterns. A grid displaying the patterns is now shown underneath a theme’s description and tags. These are automatically fetched from any theme that registers patterns and works for both block and classic themes. Clicking on a…

  • Bright Mode: A New Block Theme with Vibrant Colors, Patterns, and Custom Block Styles

    Bright Mode: A New Block Theme with Vibrant Colors, Patterns, and Custom Block Styles

    Brian Gardner, founder of StudioPress and co-creator of the Genesis Framework, has a new block theme in the directory called Bright Mode. The theme features a vibrant color palette with tasteful gradients, 14 beautifully designed block patterns, and so many fun variations tucked into custom block styles. It’s difficult to nail down a niche for…

  • Poe: A Bold New Portfolio Theme with 30+ Block Patterns and 10 Style Variations

    Poe: A Bold New Portfolio Theme with 30+ Block Patterns and 10 Style Variations

    The WordPress Themes Directory is sitting at 99 block themes today and will soon cross a major milestone. This momentum has been driven in part by independent designers like Brian Gardner, Anders Norén, and Rich Tabor, to name a few, who have fully embraced the new era of block themes and are leading the way…

  • WordPress Performance Team Is Working on a Module for SVG Uploads

    WordPress Performance Team Is Working on a Module for SVG Uploads

    If you have ever tried to upload an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file for a logo or favicon in WordPress, you may have been astonished to find that it doesn’t work. There is no core support so users rely on plugins like SVG Support (900K+ installs) or Safe SVG (600k+ installs) to upload SVG files to the…

  • WordCamp Asia 2023 Opens Call for Speakers

    WordCamp Asia 2023 Opens Call for Speakers

    After years of planning and one canceled event, WordCamp Asia 2023 is just seven months away. The event is gaining momentum as organizers were selected earlier this year and the call for sponsors opened last month. Asia’s inaugural flagship WordCamp will be hosted February 17-19, at IconSiam in Bangkok Thailand with 1,500 attendees expected. It…