This week has been heavy with theme news, as the discussion around improving block themes’ visibility in the directory became heated before the Themes Team landed on a course of action. Meta contributors added a new “Block Themes” menu item to the filter menu on the directory homepage, a solution that some classic theme developers…
WordPress.org hasn’t seen a redesign since 2016, when it went from sketches to prototype to live in a matter of a couple weeks. In six years, the software has undergone a metamorphosis by adopting a new block paradigm that should be reflected in its website. Contributors are now looking at giving the homepage and download page a…
In the near future, WordPress may be able to provide better caching recommendations for site owners. Performance team contributors are proposing two new Site Health checks for Persistent Object Cache and Full Page Cache. The modules have been tested inside the Performance Lab plugin and version 1.2.0 has them both in a state the team says…
Axton is a beautiful new addition to the WordPress Themes Directory from the team at Catch Themes. Those who have been waiting for more full-site editing-enabled themes that go beyond a simple blogging layout should have a look at Axton, as it is suitable for a portfolio, photography showcase, or even a business website. The…
Seven weeks ago, WordPress Theme Team contributors proposed several ideas for improving block themes’ visibility on WordPress.org. These included the possibility of changing the popular themes algorithm to more prominently feature block themes, and/or adding a new “Block” menu item next to Popular and Latest on the themes directory home page. The directory is going…
In the latest episode of the WP Briefing, titled “Five for the Future’s True Intentions,” WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy responded to recent public criticism the program has attracted. She referenced a conversation she began in May where she sought to make a clear distinction between ecosystem contributions and core project contributions. More recently,…
Last month WPZOOM released a free plugin called Block Patterns for Food Bloggers that I finally got the chance to test. Food blogs commonly have a strong focus on category and tag-driven grid layouts with big featured images and multiple sections showcasing different types of recipes. Prior to the block editor, customizing these types of…
Gutenberg 13.6 was released this week with an expansion of full-site editing features and 26 bug fixes. One of the highlights includes the addition of the pattern modal for users when they create new content within a custom post type. WordPress 6.0 introduced the ability to display patterns in a modal when a user creates…
The Gutenberg Times will be hosting representatives from the Pew Research Center in its Live Q&A session on July 22, 2022, with co-hosts Birgit Pauli-Haack and Anne McCarthy. After an eight-month hiatus, the show will return with guests who are doing some exciting things with Gutenberg out in the wild. The Pew Research Center is…
WordPress theme author Anders Norén has remade his popular Davis theme to support full-site editing. The new theme, Davis Blocks, is sporting the same clean design as its predecessor, and can be used as a starter theme or a lightweight blog theme. Norén said he built Davis Blocks to be as small as possible, while…
Envato, the Australia-based digital assets company, announced it is shutting down Envato Studio, its community freelance platform, and Twenty20, a stock photo website. The company continues to tighten its belt and focus on newer products after it laid off 100 of its 700 employees, citing global conflicts and inflation. “We were spread too thin across…
WordPress’ Performance team is kickstarting a proposal for developing a plugin checker tool similar to the theme check plugin, which ensures themes are meeting the latest standards and best practices. In 2021, WordPress’ Meta team built a code scanner that detects potential security risks, such as unescaped SQL queries in plugin code, with the goal of reducing…
The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), a non-profit that provides infrastructure support for free and open source software projects, is urging developers to stop using GitHub and move their projects to other platforms. The organization has historically had a number of public grievances with GitHub, which it outlines on its Give Up On GitHub site. GitHub’s public launch of Copilot…
One year ago, WordPress 5.8 introduced support for WebP, allowing users to upload and use WebP images in their content. In March 2022, the Performance Team moved to expand core support for the image format by proposing WordPress enable WebP by default. This would include generating WebP images for new JPEG uploads and using WebP images…
Two weeks ago, WordPress theme author Rich Tabor tweeted, “Even with my theme developer hat on, I’m finding it easier and easier to create block themes ~ within ~ WordPress. I’m positive one day (soon) this will be the norm.” It looks like that day has arrived sooner than expected, as Automattic has had a…