ley:</strong> I think Jono. Yeah, we&#8217;ll go with that. And apologies if it&#8217;s not.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:45:49] <strong>Weston Ruter:</strong> Yes. And so all of his posts are brilliant, so yeah. And then, yeah, following just the newsletters, because I don&#8217;t have time to keep up on social media anymore, but I really am thankful for those newsletters because it really saves me a lot of time. It gets me what I need to know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:46:05] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I will, link to the ones, the three that you&#8217;ve just mentioned.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, that&#8217;s amazing. Thank you. Honestly, it seems a bit trite, but I&#8217;ve been following what the Performance Team have done for the last four years now, from the capacity that I have to understand it, which is pretty low in all honesty. You know, most of what you&#8217;re saying, I can get a purchase on the overarching idea, but as soon as you were to draw back, if you were to show me what you were doing, the code and so on, I would immediately lose my purchase.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;d just like to express how profoundly happy I am that people like you are taking the time to do it. I don&#8217;t know how much thanks you get for stuff like this, but for my part, thank you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:46:42] <strong>Weston Ruter:</strong> Well, thank you, but no thanks are required because I enjoy doing it, so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:46:45] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, great. Well thank you. anyway.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:46:46] <strong>Weston Ruter:</strong> I&#8217;ll do it anyway.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:46:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, well Weston Ruter thank you so much for chatting to me today. It&#8217;s been a pleasure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:46:51] <strong>Weston Ruter:</strong> Thank you very much.</p>\n</div></details>\n\n\n\n<p>On the podcast today we have <a href=\"https://weston.ruter.net/\">Weston Ruter</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Weston Ruter is a long-time WordPress user and contributor. He has been a core committer for 10 years and he co-led the WordPress 4.9 release. He worked in the WordPress agency space and has also been sponsored to work on the Core Performance Team. He lives in Portland, which, as you will hear, was quite handy for this interview.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We start the conversation by getting into the big picture: why website speed matters more now than ever, and how WordPress performs out of the box. Weston shares details about measuring true performance, revealing, for example, that achieving a perfect Lighthouse score isn’t the end game, and that real user experience metrics like Core Web Vitals and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) should shape how developers and site owners think about optimisation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout the episode, you’ll learn about the advances made by the WordPress Performance Team, from lazy loading and new image formats, to speculative loading that shaves precious milliseconds off page transitions. Weston explains how many performance improvements are designed to work automatically, democratising speed so even casual WordPress users benefit without needing to be technical experts. The conversation also touches on the balance between adding features and avoiding plugin bloat, the hidden impact of browser and device differences, and how large companies like Google are working hand-in-hand with WordPress to raise the bar on speed and usability.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Weston offers practical tips, deep technical wisdom, and a glimpse of where WordPress performance is heading next, and it’s sure to inspire you to think differently about how your sites load, how your users engage, and how you can squeeze out every last drop of speed from the platform you love.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you’re a developer, designer, site owner, or just someone curious about what keeps the web running smoothly, this episode is for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Useful links</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2025/session/the-site-speed-frontier-with-performance-lab-and-beyond/\">The Site Speed Frontier with Performance Lab and Beyond</a> &#8211; Weston&#8217;s presentation at WordCamp US 2025</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A post about the presentation (above) on <a href=\"https://weston.ruter.net/2025/08/27/the-site-speed-frontier-with-performance-lab-and-beyond/\">Weston&#8217;s own website</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Mobile_Pages\">Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/performance/\">WordPress Core Performance Team</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/\">Lighthouse</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Podcast &#8211; <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/forums/topic/171-felix-arntz-on-how-speculative-loading-is-speeding-up-your-wordpress-website\">Felix Arntz on How Speculative Loading Is Speeding Up Your WordPress Website</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/performance-lab/\">Performance Lab plugin</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://developer.chrome.com/docs/crux\">CrUX</a> &#8211; Chrome User Experience Report</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://web.dev/articles/lcp\">Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/plugin-check/\">Plugin Check (PCP)</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://web.dev/articles/fetch-priority\">Optimize resource loading with the Fetch Priority API</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Podcast &#8211; <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/podcast/178-adam-silverstein-explores-transformative-browser-features-impacting-wordpress-sites\">Adam Silverstein Explores Transformative Browser Features Impacting WordPress Sites</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://web.dev/articles/bfcache\">Back/forward cache</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Weston&#8217;s <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/nocache-bfcache/\">Instant Back/Forward plugin</a> (mentioned in the podcast with an older name)</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/interactivity-api/\">Interactivity API Reference</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/04/script-modules-in-6-5/\">Script Modules API</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://web.dev/articles/inp\">Interaction to Next Paint (INP)</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://developer.chrome.com/blog/introducing-scheduler-yield-origin-trial/\">Introducing the scheduler.yield origin trial</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://web.dev/articles/cls\">Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://sitekit.withgoogle.com/\">Site Kit plugin</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/auto-sizes/\">Enhanced Responsive Images plugin</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://withinwp.com/\">Within WordPress</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.jonoalderson.com/\">Jono Alderson&#8217;s website</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.therepository.email/\">The Repository</a></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 15 Oct 2025 14:00:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Nathan Wrigley\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:32:\"Matt: D’Angelo &amp;amp; Diane\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150230\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:36:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/dangelo-diane/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1141:\"<p>Just last night I was re-watching <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Hall\">Annie Hall</a> to remember and <a href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/diane-keatons-shadows-and-light\">honor Diane Keaton</a>, and now <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/arts/music/dangelo-dead.html\">the  news that D&#8217;Angelo had passed</a>. I&#8217;m writing this listening to <a href=\"https://open.spotify.com/album/2lO9yuuIDgBpSJzxTh3ai8\">Voodoo</a>, one of the great albums of all time. That CD in my beater car in Houston was on constant rotation, the richness of the tracks— it&#8217;s an album you have to listen to in its entirety, it takes you on a journey, the way the tracks blend in to each other. Not ideal for the atomized world of songs being stand-alone.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>D&#8217;Angelo was obviously a star, but one amazing thing about his bands is he brought so many people with him, so many amazing jazz musicians, including Roy Hargrove, Robert Glasper (<a href=\"https://khspva.houstonisd.org/\">HSPVA</a>!), Chris Dave (HSPVA!), Kenny Garrett, Pino Palladino, Questlove&#8230; May his memory be a blessing.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 15 Oct 2025 03:49:42 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:88:\"Open Channels FM: Why Focus Matters When Building a Successful WordPress Plugin Business\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=110790\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:95:\"https://openchannels.fm/why-focus-matters-when-building-a-successful-wordpress-plugin-business/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:160:\"Learn the importance of focus in scaling a WordPress plugin, advocating for prioritizing core products over numerous side projects to achieve long-term success.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 14 Oct 2025 11:38:15 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"BobWP\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:89:\"Open Channels FM: How Great Storytelling Builds Brand Loyalty and Differentiates Products\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=111053\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:96:\"https://openchannels.fm/how-great-storytelling-builds-brand-loyalty-and-differentiates-products/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:166:\"In this episode, Rae and Adam dig into why storytelling is key for brands to shine in WordPress, sharing tips on connection, differentiation, and authentic messaging.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 14 Oct 2025 08:00:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"BobWP\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:14;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:28:\"Matt: Nanochat &amp;amp; MCP\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150223\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/nanochat-mcp/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1156:\"<p>Probably the most interesting thing on the internet today is <a href=\"https://x.com/karpathy/status/1977755427569111362\">Andrej Karpathy&#8217;s nanochat</a>, &#8220;a minimal, from scratch, full-stack training/inference pipeline of a simple ChatGPT clone in a single, dependency-minimal codebase.&#8221; 8,000 lines of beautiful code, <a href=\"https://simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/13/nanochat/\">as Simon Willison notes</a>. If you want to understand how LLMs work, <a href=\"https://github.com/karpathy/nanochat\">study this</a>. Andrej is a code poet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In hacking news, Wired has <a href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/satellites-are-leaking-the-worlds-secrets-calls-texts-military-and-corporate-data/\">an amazing article on intercepting geostationary satellite signals</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Friday, we turned on something cool: <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/10/07/mcp/\">every WordPress.com site now supports MCP</a>. Right now this is read-only access to your site, because the S in MCP stands for Security, but <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.com/docs/mcp/prompt-examples/\">you can already start to do some cool stuff with it</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 14 Oct 2025 06:07:14 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Matt: Last Ball\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150219\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:32:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/last-ball/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:319:\"<p>If you appreciate golf at all, <a href=\"https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/26902640/down-last-ball-how-tiger-avoided-disaster-won-2000-us-open-15\">the story of how Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach without knowing he was down to his last golf ball because of arcane rules is pretty interesting</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 13 Oct 2025 06:36:52 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:78:\"Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog #122 – Gutenberg 21.8 and WordPress 6.9\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?post_type=podcast&p=42245\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:92:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-122-gutenberg-21-8-and-wordpress-6-9/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:67394:\"<p>In episode 122 of the GT Changelog podcast, host Birgit Pauli-Haack is joined by Beth Soderberg, CEO of bethink Studio, to discuss the latest updates in Gutenberg 21.8 and WordPress 6.9. The conversation kicks off with reminiscing about past WordCamp experiences and transitions into a deep dive on block themes, evolving design tools, and the challenges of adopting new workflows. Beth shares practical insights from her agency work, highlighting the benefits of section and block styles, synced patterns, and strategies for cleaning up legacy code as Gutenberg advances.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The episode covers new features like section styles, the highly anticipated accordion block, and improvements to template management, aimed at making theme and site building more flexible for users and developers. They also talk about experimental features such as PHP-only blocks, block bindings, and upcoming blocks like breadcrumbs and table of contents, which promise to streamline site navigation and content organization.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Birgit and Beth underscore the importance of continuous testing and learning, encouraging listeners—especially those hesitant to adopt block themes—to experiment, seek support, and embrace gradual change. The episode wraps with practical advice, recent security updates, and a look at promising innovations coming to the WordPress ecosystem.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-122-gutenberg-21-8-and-wordpress-6-9/#shownotes\">Show Notes</a> / <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-122-gutenberg-21-8-and-wordpress-6-9/#transcript\">Transcript</a></p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Editor: <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-reed/\">Sandy Reed</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Logo: <a href=\"https://markuraine.com/\">Mark Uraine</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Production: <a href=\"https://icodeforapurpose.com\">Birgit Pauli-Haack</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-larger-font-size\" id=\"shownotes\"><strong>Show Notes</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Special Guest: Beth Soderberg</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://bethink.studio/\">Bethink Studio</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/bethsoderberg/\">WordPress.org Profile + Slack </a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Talks by Beth Soderberg</strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/2025/07/25/my-process-for-building-a-custom-wordpress-theme-in-2025/\">My Process for Building a Custom WordPress Theme in 2025</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/2020/04/16/bill-ericksonellen-bauer-beth-soderberg-case-studies-how-to-prepare-your-theme-for-gutenberg/\">Bill Erickson,Ellen Bauer, Beth Soderberg: Case Studies &#8211; How to Prepare your Theme for Gutenberg</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/?s=beth%20soderberg&amp;sort=newest\">And more</a></li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Calls for Testing WordPress 6.9 </h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2025/10/03/help-test-changes-to-template-management/\">Template management</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2025/10/04/call-for-testing-ability-to-hide-blocks/\">Ability to Hide Blocks</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2025/10/06/call-for-testing-accordion-block/\">Accordion Block</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Community Contributions</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/blocks-galore-test-template-management-woo-product-collections-and-more-weekend-edition-343/#blocks-galore-with-telex\">Block Galore</a> by designers and developers using Automattic’s Telex </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/block-commenting-fun-with-telex-from-classic-to-block-theme-weekend-edition-341/#building-blocks-with-telex\">Moar Blocks</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What&#8217;s Released</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/09/wordpress-6-8-3-release/\">WordPress 6.8.3</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/10/08/whats-new-in-gutenberg-21-8-08-october/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 21.8? (8 October)</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">New Blocks still in the works</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><img alt=\"🟣\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f7e3.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /> <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71588\">Time to Read</a> (m) </li>\n\n\n\n<li><img alt=\"🟣\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f7e3.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /> <a href=\"https://href.li/?https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/64119\">Accordion Block</a> (m) </li>\n\n\n\n<li><img alt=\"🟣\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f7e3.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /> <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71793\">Breadcrumbs Block</a> (m)</li>\n\n\n\n<li><img alt=\"🟣\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f7e3.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /> <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70720\">Terms Query block</a> (m) </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71618\">Dialog Block </a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71227\">Icon Block</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71904\">Stretchy Text</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/69789\">Tabs Block</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/42229\">Table of Contents block</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p><img alt=\"🟣\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f7e3.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /> = already merged into trunk, as experiments. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">Stay in Touch</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Did you like this episode? <a href=\"https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog\"><strong>Please write us a review </strong></a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ping us on X (formerly known as Twitter) or send DMs with questions. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/gutenbergtimes\">@gutenbergtimes </a>and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bph\">@bph</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>If you have questions or suggestions, or news you want us to include, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. </em></li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/\">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></li>\n</ul>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\" id=\"transcript\"><strong>Transcript</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Hello and welcome to our 122nd episode of the Gutenberg Changelog. In today&#8217;s episode, we will talk about Gutenberg 21.8 and WordPress 6.9, what we already know about it. And I&#8217;m your host, Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at Gutenberg Times, co contributor on the Word Open Source project, and I work as a developer advocate for Automattic. I&#8217;m thrilled that I finally have Beth Soderberg join me on the show. Beth is the CEO of Bethink Studio, a special web design and development agency in Alexandria, Virginia, in the U.S. Beth, welcome to the show. How are you doing?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> Thank you. Welcome. Welcome to my morning. I&#8217;m doing great. Good to see you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. So I tried to recollect how we actually met or we met over the last few years, and I think it was the first time we met at the WordCamp New York in 2019.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I think that&#8217;s right. Ish. I definitely have eaten tacos late at night at WordCamp New York. Okay, so that tracks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> And I definitely met you sometime before the pandemic, so I&#8217;m not sure exactly, but that sounds about right. And then I know we had lunch at WordCamp us when it was in San Diego.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Oh, okay. Nice. Oh, right. We had this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>There was.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>There was a group of women kind of coming together.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah, yeah, I saw a table of women. And if I see a table of women at a conference like that, I&#8217;m going to sit down at it. And you did exactly the same thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Nice. So.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>But that&#8217;s the first time I saw you after the pandemic, for sure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah. And in between, I think we did together the WP Blog Talk virtual conference that was organized by Automattic, but there were a lot of community members in there talking about the Gutenberg and the stage of it and all that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>That was when I realized that I don&#8217;t like presenting at virtual conferences in front of audiences that you can&#8217;t see.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, it&#8217;s interesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> I&#8217;m good with Zoom, because you can get some feedback. But the speaking into the void was. I don&#8217;t know. It could have also been that I wasn&#8217;t speaking to anyone in real life at the time, so it felt extra weird.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah, no. I get it. The pre-recording and then just be there for the live part of it. But we had a great live discussion there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah, I. It was fun. And we actually did the presentation live. I think that could be why later things were recorded, because it was a really weird experience. It was very strange because you knew you were live. You had no idea if even your audio was working, but you just kind of had to keep talking. And, yeah, it&#8217;s the least feedback I&#8217;ve ever had from anything I&#8217;ve ever spoken at. And I think that not even being sure that the technology was working part. Like, even that level of feedback wasn&#8217;t there. It was fun. And hopefully next time I do something like that, it will be recorded in advance.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. But it was a. It was a good place talk because it was kind of together with Ellen Bauer, and you had 15 minutes, Ellen had 15 minutes. And I think Bill Erickson was there as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>There were three of us.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And every one of you kind of took a different take on the block themes. Yeah. And that was really interesting to kind of. Well, we started out in 2020 with that. Yeah. Now it&#8217;s five years later, and we finally connected again at WordCamp. Us, because I made it there again.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I know. I was excited to see you. And I think. Yeah, I mean, doing that talk was interesting. I think there&#8217;s still some divergence around how people are building and how people are utilizing the tools. That set of like 15-minute talks was a really good microcosm of that because each one of us had been actively building with all of the new tools and had a slightly bigger, different approach. I still think there&#8217;s some divergence there, but we&#8217;re starting to see some patterns of, like, actual best practices with the new tools, which I think is really exciting. And also it&#8217;s fun to sort of invent on the fly. Like, okay, how should this work as the people who really are using it with clients right away, what is the standard we want to set? What does and doesn&#8217;t work? And I think that was still in a time period where we were learning so much about what you could do, what the restrictions were. I know in a lot of what we&#8217;re going through today, there&#8217;s like little tiny changes that end up being so impactful. Right. Like, my favorite thing I hated from that time period was it could have been a little earlier, I don&#8217;t remember. But originally you couldn&#8217;t set text colors on lists.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Oh, yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Stuff like that. Where it&#8217;s so small, but when it&#8217;s missing, it&#8217;s a big problem.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So, yeah, I think that a lot of work has been put into having consistent design tools for each block that you can control through the theme JSON file and then make it really a unique experience or unique design for your clients. Yeah, that&#8217;s definitely something there where you don&#8217;t, oh, I can&#8217;t do the fonts. Yeah, well, I guess I need to do a variation of it. So there was a lot of coding done to kind of get around those restrictions. How do you feel about kind of ripping out all this additional around coding now that certain things are in core and that are available? Does that kind of trip you up a bit?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I feel great about it and there&#8217;s not that much I need to rip out. Some of that is because of how I&#8217;ve built things over time. Some of that is because things like the tab block, which I am so excited about, I know it&#8217;s not ready and all that, but I have a few sites where I have random solutions for that, but I&#8217;ve got them compartmentalized. So pulling them out and putting in something new that makes more sense is going to be easy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Because I know, you know, like, especially something like the tabs, they don&#8217;t appear that often. And the other thing with stuff like that, you can just search the database for the machine name of block to find where you&#8217;re using it. I do that a lot and sometimes I don&#8217;t know. I ripped Jetpack out of a site recently because it was only being used for slideshows in like six blog posts. There was no need for it. And it might have been more than six, but still this is a major publishing website that has thousands of posts. They didn&#8217;t need Jetpack sitting there doing this like a very minor task. And so that&#8217;s one of my tactics for sure. When I&#8217;m going to rip something out. People forget that you can search easily. Not even in the database. You can use the WordPress search. Search.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Right. For the posts. Yes. Yeah, that&#8217;s what I do. Yeah. Kind of. You can kind of put the blog name in there and then see which post uses what block, especially the third party blocks. When you find out, okay, I have now three query blocks and core blocks and why am I doing this to me?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> And I&#8217;ve always been pretty conservative about what I&#8217;ll add.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>So I think that&#8217;s part of why it&#8217;s not super daunting to me. Because if I can make it work with the tools that exist, I will.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I&#8217;m not going to over engineer it just because I could. And that makes it easier to clean up long term.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So I think the last big feature that was introduced to theme development was the section styles. Style variation in one and then the section styles, the smaller things and block styles, now that you can edit them in the global styles. How much do you use about that? Is that something that comes up quite a bit in your work?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I use them a lot. Especially when you&#8217;re dealing with semantics, I want to give people the ability to have something look the way they want it to look, but also be semantically correct. So especially with things like headings. Right. Having tooling that&#8217;s easy for an end user to understand to say this should be an H2, but I would like it to look like an H4 without making it an H4 is a game changer. It improves SEO, it improves accessibility, it keeps everything cleaner. And so that kind of tooling, I think when used strategically can really help. When used randomly, you&#8217;re just going to confuse people. But you know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Well, aren&#8217;t we in the business of confusing people?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah, sometimes. Right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>All right. Yeah, no, it&#8217;s interesting too. So are you using also side styles variations or just the section styles or block styles?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Heavily using block styles. Okay, not so much the whole site variations yet. Yeah, there hasn&#8217;t. It&#8217;s again, it&#8217;s like you want to use the right tool for the right use case and yeah, normally you don&#8217;t.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Want to change how the site looks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah. There&#8217;s only. You kind of need like a site within a site to make that required. And the only thing like that I&#8217;ve been building lately is a voter guide that&#8217;s like within a site but the voter guide has all the same styling as the rest of the site. Because it&#8217;s supposed to match.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I&#8217;ve always felt that the style variations are more for theme product developers that want to give more options to modify the theme. For agencies, I didn&#8217;t see that there are a whole lot of use cases for. For them. I might be wrong, but. Yeah, but you&#8217;re kind of confirming a little bit my bias here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah, I. I don&#8217;t know. I look at anything that&#8217;s coming in that&#8217;s new. I look at it in terms of strategic utility and there&#8217;s a bunch of stuff that is super cool but it&#8217;s just not necessary for my clients. Right. Like it&#8217;s not the use case for that but for somebody else that could really help. And I&#8217;ve had a few where you end up building this random micro site within the site because some weird reason why they need it. And like that&#8217;s really what you would use that for. It doesn&#8217;t happen all that often.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So yeah. Do you apply section styles to your patterns? Yeah, so that. And you give them design choices and they don&#8217;t have to spend time with kind of reorganize their design just because they want to have a pair of a pink background or a yellow background or something like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah. I also, I restrict color palettes, of course, because we don&#8217;t want anything looking like, you know, we&#8217;re in the. We&#8217;re in some sort of sci fi. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: Geocities. </em>I&#8217;m dating myself now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>It&#8217;s okay. I told the checker at the grocery store the other day about how I worked at Blockbuster in high school and how that dated me, but it was a good job because you could I had to walk around to put the movies back. So I also use a lot of synced and partially synced blocks to achieve design consistency. So paired together. Because that I have found is really good for editorial teams where you can give them a style guide. And usually I make a page on the inside of the site that&#8217;s just privately published so that they can see like, okay, we have these patterns to work from. And, you know, this is the human part. You have a discussion about how, yes, you can do all these things, but you should use these things that we&#8217;ve all agreed upon that follow the style guide.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Well, it also makes for production much, much faster when you don&#8217;t have to make those design decisions. They&#8217;re already there and then.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Exactly. And you don&#8217;t have to train people. I mean, the number one thing I see real clients, real site administrators doing weirdly with formatting is inconsistent vertical spacing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Okay. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>The tooling is there to make it consistent, but people don&#8217;t. Even if you train them, they&#8217;re like, wait a minute, do I pick it at the fourth hash? Or like, which setting is it again? And does that look. And like as much as I can look at spacing on anything and know if it&#8217;s wrong, many people cannot.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh, no, no. Yeah. That&#8217;s a skill.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>It&#8217;s a skill.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>And many people really. And I found that like syncing those patterns that way and getting. Locking down some of that basic stuff that like, you don&#8217;t want your end user to be thinking about how much space they need below something.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Like that&#8217;s not what they should be ever actively thinking about. So that&#8217;s how I have approached that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Yeah. So far. Yeah. Makes sense. Have you taken a survey of how often your clients actually use the spacer block? Because I found that WordPress.com that&#8217;s one of the top five blocks used, I.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Have not, but now I&#8217;m curious and I. Some of them, I mean you definitely have some, some where it&#8217;s used more than it should be. But I think that we&#8217;ve avoided some of that and some of it is what we&#8217;ve been able to do recently. Right. A few years ago you had to use it if you were going to get any consistency at all across things. But I think sometimes the patterns and the pattern syncing, that type of thing has dramatically reduced the need to use the spacer block, which is great because the speaker, the spacer block is so annoying on mobile.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, that&#8217;s one thing. It&#8217;s also, you cannot rip it out when, when you redesign the site or something like that, it&#8217;s going to be the. In your content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah, yeah. So I mean, I haven&#8217;t seen similar dislike as it sounds of the spacer block, but when you shrink a screen down suddenly you get wildly different vertical spacing on mobile. And for the average person there is not a straightforward way to make it not do that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>You have to know how to write a workaround for yourself to make it work and that&#8217;s not great.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So. Yeah, well, yeah, it&#8217;s good to know. So before we head into our usual sections, is there anything else that you would like to tell people who have not yet done the jump into block themes, why they should do it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I think, I think that it is, it&#8217;s a scary jump, and I have always been an early adopter of the new tooling, and so I look at something like that and it freaks me out a little bit. And then I&#8217;m like, well, why not? And I just push myself through and I know that I have the liberty of doing that because I&#8217;ve been working independently for almost 10 years. So I am in a lot of ways in control of what is and is not allowed in my environment. I&#8217;ve talked to a few folks who have. They understand how it&#8217;s working and they, they personally buy in, but their employer does not.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Okay. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>And so for those folks, I think building up your skill set with your personal site or a personal project so that you can advocate for different things internally. It&#8217;s very hard to advocate for something that you haven&#8217;t done and that you don&#8217;t have hands-on experience with. But you know, the ability to spin up a little like MVP demo of, hey, this is how this would solve a problem that we have systemically is really how you sort of gain permission in those sorts of environments. There&#8217;s some really good resources out there on learning how to do this. I think that they are much harder to find than they used to be. When I was first learning how to code, it was much easier to find like beginner entry level stuff, to like level yourself up. And now I think fewer people are creating it and I think it&#8217;s harder to find just because of how it&#8217;s labeled. Everything starts to look the same because it&#8217;s all named the same. But I think giving yourself the challenge to &#8211; even if you don&#8217;t understand everything, listening to a podcast like this, listening to a talk that you&#8217;re finding online, having it playing in the background like it does, seep in to how you think about it. And what will happen is that later you&#8217;ll encounter the same subject again and you&#8217;ll be like, oh, wait, that&#8217;s what they were talking about. And that&#8217;s how you start to connect the dots when you&#8217;re learning anything new. And I think the idea that you&#8217;re going to get somebody who has been building themes the classic way, building themes that are heavily reliant on advanced custom fields, something like that, to just magically one day pick up a whole new set of tools with a whole different way of thinking and be completely comfortable from the get is like ludicrous. That&#8217;s not going to happen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>But, you know, giving yourself the ability to slowly absorb it, because it is a different way of thinking, it&#8217;s a completely different way of thinking about how to structure the theme. And for me, that has been the hardest part to learn. Once I figured it out, it was great. But of course, it&#8217;s always the hardest thing to figure out a new way of thinking. When you say it like that, it&#8217;s so obvious. But I think people really get down on themselves about it. And I think really just paying attention, reaching out to folks, you know, when you have questions, not being shy about it. What I&#8217;ve figured out over the course of the last, I guess we&#8217;re almost at eight years of Gutenberg. Yeah, Gutenberg is a month older than my eldest child. So it&#8217;s very easy for me to keep track of how old it is. But we are in a time period where what I have noticed as an early adopter, when I talk to the other early adopters, everybody is making it up. Everybody is inventing their process, everybody is inventing the “ right way.” We&#8217;re starting to congeal on some common things. But it has been a time of innovation. And so being a little bit afraid to stick your toe in. That is so reasonable. And at the same time, when you think about it that way, it becomes less scary to fail in air quotes. Right. Because ultimately, how many light bulbs did Edison make before one worked? Like, it&#8217;s just, you know, you have to experiment in order to figure out how something works. And I think it is challenging to be mid-career and have to go back to that beginning.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>You know, Yeah, I feel a certain.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Confidence that all of a sudden is going away.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah, yeah. So. So I. I just think people need to be a little less hard on themselves, push themselves a little, be okay with failing and talk to people, talk to people. Just keep going, Just keep swimming, as the fish say in Finding Nemo.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. All right, so you&#8217;ve listened here to a very experienced theme developer and yeah, it&#8217;s never going to be easy. You need to start now. What is it, the Chinese proverb to the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. So it&#8217;s kind of exactly for that. Yeah. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Announcements</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So, okay, so we have a few announcements. Now we&#8217;re going a little bit into the Gutenberg change log message here. We have a few announcements and they&#8217;re all calls for testing because we get new stuff and. And the testing team is really on top of things. Last week a call for testing was made for the new template management features that are coming to Core, which. have you checked it out, Beth, on what&#8217;s going to come with that? We talked about it here two weeks ago with Anne Katzeff and it&#8217;s the tool where you can now have multiple templates with the same slug and of the theme hierarchy and then activate and deactivate the ones that you want to use or not use. So it kind of puts a new layer in there and gets the user a little bit more in control on how the template management actually works and figure that out in there. Because template management is something WordPress users have never done before because it was always a developer designer kind of scope and there was no user interface for it. And now it&#8217;s here and the confusion is there, but it&#8217;s also something that can be learned and can be helped with.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> I think it&#8217;s also going to be great for launching changes to live sites where. And you know how to launch code for Gutenberg is a whole other conversation. But the best practice is to keep your live site database as your database of record. Right. And some of what I see with the new template management changes are enabling you to more easily respect that without having weird, momentary blips of your content looking bizarre while you&#8217;re changing something over on a live site. So I think it&#8217;s going to be, again, another adjustment in how we think about how we work. But ultimately we&#8217;ll offer more granular tooling that will allow for the elimination of some of these use cases that haven&#8217;t always ended up being really strange, where you&#8217;re like, yeah, should we put up a maintenance message while we&#8217;re doing this? Because everything is going to look bizarre for the next 20 minutes. That kind of stuff. I think it&#8217;s going to be good.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>It&#8217;s really good. Yeah. Yeah. And the first version is going to be not perfect and probably have some bugs, but that&#8217;s why the call for testing is there. So I leave the link in the show notes for you so you can start testing and share your experience with it and also share what still confuses you or what didn&#8217;t work or where you thought it would work, but it didn&#8217;t. It&#8217;s definitely something &#8211; conversation needs to happen. And if you are not sure what to do, come into the W in the WordPress Slack into the Outreach channel and there are a lot of people there that will help you figure that out. So if you don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s a bug or you don&#8217;t, you&#8217;re not doing it right. I know that&#8217;s often kind of that with new things. Did I get this right or is it not working? Most people, and I&#8217;m one of them, I default to okay, I&#8217;m not doing this right. What&#8217;s happening? And there are two more console testing. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>One is on the ability to hide blocks, which is kind of the first iteration of a blocks visibility kind of plugin idea that you can hide and show blocks conditionally. Right now it&#8217;s only on and off or hide and show. So you could have a block in the editor, but you hide it on the front end. But because you&#8217;re still working on it or you don&#8217;t want to, you want to put it in there so your editor knows about it, but it&#8217;s not going to be pushed to the show version until a certain date or until a certain sale happens or something like that. The instructions for the call for testing are really good and they also show you with little videos how it&#8217;s supposed to work to kind of offset my am I doing this right or not? Idea. And the other one that I wanted to point out in this podcast is the accordion block calls for testing. That seems to be really settled. Came in 20.5, I think, and had some iterations, especially for those of you who started styling it. You need to double check your references because the name changes in between for the panel and for the items and all that. So call for testing for accordion block and what you can do with it. Have you experimented with the accordion block?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Mm, I&#8217;m really excited about it. This is one of the ones that I&#8217;ve been dreaming of for years. It&#8217;s one of the ones where I had an external plugin where like, the only reason I was using the external plugin was because I needed accordions. The detail block is sort of an approximation, but it&#8217;s not the same semantically speaking. So I&#8217;m excited about this one. This one and Tabs are my two that have been a thorn in my side for years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, I&#8217;m also. Well, we can talk about the other blocks that are supposedly come or at least been worked on for Core, even if they don&#8217;t make it into 6.9 at a later date. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Community Contributions</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s this new AI feature out there, it&#8217;s called Telex, which is automatic block building AI. And there are a few designers and developers that have actually done some great experimentations with that. One is Tammy Lister. She has started a challenge, kind of the blocktober, meaning every day in October she will build a new block with Telex. And I&#8217;ll of course share the site in the show notes. She started out with a kind of reaching back into history of computers and started out with an esky Tetris game. And that&#8217;s when my afternoon, uploaded my afternoon was shot because I got addicted to Tetris again. Yeah. Did you do any experimentations with that?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Nope. That one, I mean, I know about it, I know about Tammy&#8217;s blocktober. I&#8217;m paying attention, but I don&#8217;t have time to just play with it right now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah, I. I feel the same way. It&#8217;s kind of letting other people do that. I. I look at what other people do. Yeah. And there&#8217;s Marco Ivanovich. He&#8217;s a designer at Automattic. He has some animated icon blocks. They were kind of sparkling and all that. And then he also created a post-it note block where you can put post-its on your site with an image and with a background gradient background. So pretty cool to look at. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then there was Jeff Paul from Ten Up. He actually also created a game of Pong Hung block that&#8217;s kind of the tennis kind of back and forth where you need to up. It was just handy as an easy, medium and hard. Yeah, that was another afternoon. I tried to figure it out. Yeah. Juan Margarito, he created a mermaid diagram which is actually a markdown diagram. And then you put the. The diagram code in markdown and then it kind of creates a. A diagram with errors back and forth. Yeah, it&#8217;s kind of a flow diagram if you want to. So that was really interesting to see. Yeah. Anyway, so I just. Yeah, check it out. If you want to play around with it. It&#8217;s telex.automattic.com automatic with double T. The second T. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What’s Released &#8211; WordPress 6.8.3</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay. So now we come to the heart of the show, which is what&#8217;s released. And before we head into Gutenberg 20.8, I wanted to let everybody know WordPress 6. 8.3 is out. It&#8217;s a security issue. No, it&#8217;s a security release fixing two security issues. And if you haven&#8217;t updated yet, please do we wait. Go and update. The two issues were mentioned in the release post. One was data exposure issues and the other one issue and the other one was a cross scripting vulnerability for the nav menus which has been fixed and you are in a secure environment again. But don&#8217;t forget to update. Yeah. Any thoughts?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Always update. I&#8217;m. I&#8217;m of the. I&#8217;m of the camp. I always update on the security releases right away and then major releases. I always wait and see what happens.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>How long do you wait? How long do you wait?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I usually wait until a point release has come out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> That&#8217;s usually the trigger but sometimes it&#8217;s really stable and we&#8217;re like, well there. I guess there&#8217;s no point release and it&#8217;s been three weeks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I do the same thing with updating like my iPhone. Yeah, I don&#8217;t. I&#8217;m. As much as I am interested in technology, I am also somebody who just recently started using mobile deposit for checks. I&#8217;m skeptical.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Well, I think that makes that an early above to decide where to early adopt and where to be cautious.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> That&#8217;s true. Yeah. My risk tolerance is very high for certain things and very low for other things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>And if it changes my work environment that I need to retrain my muscle memory. I&#8217;m opposed to any change, but I recently had to change my Mac updated and they fixed a bug. That&#8217;s the problem with bug fixes. Yeah. If you, if you have for years known about a workaround and the muscle memory is in. You hate that bug fix that fixes that once and for all. So kind of. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Anyway, that&#8217;s a whole other conversation. Moving on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Thank you. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gutenberg 21.8</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So Gutenberg 21.8 is the second last before 6.9 beta. There&#8217;s one more coming, that&#8217;s a 21.9, of course, and that&#8217;s coming on October 17th. So we are recording this on October 8th and next week we have the last Gutenberg release before 6.9 beta comes. Which means bug fixes, yes. New features, no. From that point on forward to get into Core. Gutenberg 21.8 had 118 PRs by 47 contributors and five people were first time contributors. Congratulations, you got your merge done. That&#8217;s fantastic. Because I can see that the first one is always a little tricky getting it past the reviewers. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Enhancements</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>For Gutenberg, we start with the enhancements to the block content. Comments. Block comments is a feature that creates a commenting method for each block in your editor so you and others can add comments to your blocks and have an editorial kind of process going. It&#8217;s a a lot of PRs made it into that. But the first one that I wanted to point out is a discussion field with trackbacks and comment status aggregated for the post page Quick Edit. So you know, in the Quick edit, are there commenting places? Quick Edit is not the quick edit in the WP admin. It&#8217;s a quick edit in the design. But that&#8217;s actually not the commenting. The block commenting thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> Yeah, this is hard to contextualize even looking at the PR, right? Yeah, the PR. I think ultimately it&#8217;s unifying. It&#8217;s again, it&#8217;s one of those things that&#8217;s unifying design across components to make things more consistent no matter where you find them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So when you have the new design view, what was missing that you were able to manage trackbacks and comments. So it&#8217;s not the feature that I just said. It&#8217;s just getting on par with the previous WP admin kind of thing. Especially for pages. The posts haven&#8217;t been included yet in these new designs, but for pages, definitely. And if there&#8217;s a post experiment in Gutenberg where you can have the post view also in the new design view, as the site editor. And that&#8217;s where this actually comes to pass. So that is kind of labeled wrong in that changelog, but that&#8217;s okay. We can handle that. Do you want to do the next one?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Sure. So displaying a message when there is no related block, which is the most logical thing you could do with commentary that has no source attached to it anymore.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Anymore.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Anymore, anymore. Right. So again, it&#8217;s giving context to something so that your actual conversations make sense. And basically what it&#8217;s doing is just adding a little message that says, hey, your original block was deleted so that somebody reading through it understands and also gives you the ability to&#8230;part of why I like this one is because you&#8217;re going to end up with people who in collaborating with each other are going to remove things. And you want to have a record of the conversation for editorial purposes, but understanding what has happened is a key part of creating that record.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So yeah, definitely you want to have a record of the decision making process for certain things. Yeah. The other one that I wanted to point out is that it now shows the dates of the comments in a more human readable part, like 30 minutes ago or two hours ago or three days ago. So you get a little bit more relation to the timestamps of that. I think there was an option to do this, but I&#8217;m not quite sure that you can switch it on and off. But if not. No, it&#8217;s not. It&#8217;s the first. It&#8217;s the first iteration and there are no options.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> I think that&#8217;s coming later.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, yeah, but it&#8217;s. It&#8217;s known that there will be something like that needed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yep. And then the highlighting of the related block. Again, a lot of these changes are improving context indicators and so, you know, this just gives you a clearer sense of what you&#8217;re connecting to and which thing you&#8217;re actually talking about with the comments.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So I&#8217;m just going to look through. If we missed something new, we can now go right into the block library section and there&#8217;s a ton of PRs that actually work on the accordion blocks. That&#8217;s also in the bug fix sections. But I think the most prominent stuff is more like the term description block with the context support. So that if it&#8217;s in a template or in an archive template that the term description block is more. You can use it in patterns like you can do post title and query title for that. Yeah, the term description block is something that&#8217;s a little bit of a… I have seen people that are quite adamant that they need the block editor in the category description section for editing the description because I wanted to make it more there. Design it a little bit or make it a little bit more versatile. That&#8217;s quite interesting because you also can now create a page with all the features that you want on that for a particular category and then just have a query loop on that category displayed on it. So you get around that need to have the term description be a block editor or something like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah. I had never thought about that before because theoretically you always could do the latter. Right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>But you had to have a certain level of technical skill and knowledge to do that. The idea of adding block support to that description opens up possibilities for folks who are not as technical to make modifications in that presentation of the. The term pages. I don&#8217;t know. I could go either way there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I could also create massive. I can see this going very wrong.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. I think that&#8217;s why nobody touched it for now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>That&#8217;s a new concept to me. But I don&#8217;t know. My gut says no.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. So. And then we get a new block. It&#8217;s the time to read block. And now it has been in the Guternberg plugin for ages. Similar to the table of content block. But they were to get it into core. There were always kind of missing things or quirkinesses that weren&#8217;t dealt with. And the time to read had massive accessibility objections because it only had one time that it takes to read a block. Not everybody has that reading skill or is on that level like a lot of people are. English as a second language. They don&#8217;t. They don&#8217;t read so fast or dyslexia is pretty. Yeah. It&#8217;s out there. And they don&#8217;t read that fast. And so it kind of makes them feel bad about not reading in that 15 minutes kind of thing. What they&#8217;re doing now is kind of offering a range option. It says it takes one to five minutes or something like that. And which I feel is kind of even for someone who is fast reading but tired is a good indicator. Yeah. That&#8217;s how long it&#8217;s going to actually take. And then they added also a word count to it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah, I like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. When there are word count plugins out there. Word count blocks, plugins out there say that 15 times fast. But I think having a core block that actually offers it option is really cool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. I&#8217;m sorry I didn&#8217;t bold that, but I wanted to talk about it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>No, I agree. I think it&#8217;s. It&#8217;s a kinder way to deal with the problem because you&#8217;re giving people enough information to very quickly self assess without shaming them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. So the next one is part of the Data Views section actually. It&#8217;s the data forms package. And there&#8217;s now support for certain form elements validation in the data forms package. So if you use that as a plugin or your settings pages. You now get help from the packages that drive that. I think that&#8217;s a. Yeah, it&#8217;s an enhancement for extensibility, for sure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> In the block editor section, block multi selection, disabling transforms and inspector controls.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. That&#8217;s an interesting one. So when you select multiple blocks, you still get the. Sometimes the options that you can transform them. And for paragraphs, a series of paragraphs. I like it. Because then you have. You can transform them to list views. But if you have a mixture of selected blocks, you don&#8217;t need transforms or inspectors back the controls. You just probably want to move it or move the selection. Yeah. So I think it&#8217;s a good way to not confuse people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Right. And that&#8217;s a good example of a tiny change from an end user perspective that probably won&#8217;t be noticed, but will reduce friction for people. All right. In global styling, adding a reset button to our background controls panel. Hooray.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Hooray. You don&#8217;t have to unselect stuff. Yeah. Just click on things and you make it all go away. It&#8217;s pretty cool. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> And then making the additional CSS UI less prominent, which is great because the less random CSS everywhere, the better.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yes. And. Well, it&#8217;s. I totally agree with that. And that&#8217;s also the. The justification why they want to put it some. So they&#8217;re going to hide it. Again, it was hidden on the left hand side of the global styles or styles panel. You always could edit it on the right hand side when the styles panel where sooner or later we probably need to decide if we want to use the left hand side or the right hand side for the styles features. But it now is going to be in the ellipse menu in the header of the styles section. So it says add additional CSS as a menu item on top. So. So you are not going to be. Well, it was there and then it wasn&#8217;t there. So where is it kind of thing situation. It ended up in the ellipse menu on top of the screen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Block bindings. I love block bindings.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. There&#8217;s an experimental feature there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>To support block attributes from the server side. I haven&#8217;t completely read through it. I&#8217;m not quite sure I understand that. So I would need to go back to the developers and say what&#8217;s the use case and why you&#8217;re doing it kind of thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>I think. Did you get something?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> I would have to clarify, but my understanding of it is the big thing with block bindings is like which things are supported and which things aren&#8217;t supported and how that is communicated is improved from doing this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. Doing it service sort of the nugget.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Of truth there. But I think anything like that. I know it&#8217;s experimental but making block bindings easier and more accessible for people to use anything that helps. That is a good thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. I think there are two areas where they come from. One is to make block bindings available for more than 14 blocks which has been the case until now. That&#8217;s one thing. But also to increase extensibility and use have not only blocks use the block bindings but also whole features use the block bindings for external things like the remote block plugin by WordPress VIP USO. Yeah. They also use block bindings to identify the data that comes in and put it into the block editor. But I think it&#8217;s hard to bring the server side and the client side together with the same information. And this one will have the server side be the moment of truth. No, the source of truth for block bindings. Yeah, it&#8217;s definitely a late edition. I&#8217;m not sure it&#8217;s going to make it to 6.9. I&#8217;m skeptical though. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah. Right. Right. Mode Try adding content roles to navigation blocks is the name of the PR which I think is delightfully named and I. Even the way that this is written is pretty great. I wanted to see how far we can go with just adding content roles to nav link in some menu blocks given the improvements to content only logic we&#8217;ve had. And then it references another pr. The next sentence is I think it&#8217;s working better now. Whoever this contributor is, I love your writing. Tell the machines.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh, that&#8217;s.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Fun times. But I think it&#8217;ll.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Isabelle Bryson. Yeah, she&#8217;s been on the podcast before and she&#8217;s actually worked also on the grid layouts and yeah, she works for Automattic on the team. And the other I think the tri part is okay. We experiment with things. So that&#8217;s when it says try and then there&#8217;s also add is kind of definitely need to fix this or add this feature or fix means fix this bug. Yeah. So they have these prefixes on their PRs and the try thing is. Yeah, let&#8217;s try it out and see what happens. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah. But this one, it looks cool. People should check it out. Components. The text area component. Adding a default resize vertical rule just to make things more make sense visually so that you can move stuff around the way you need to.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. And you can control the vertical size of things. That&#8217;s always a good thing. And then the other component PR is actually adding storybook examples for the fields package. So there&#8217;s more documentation there for the plugin developers who want to use it. Also of course, for the core developers who are going to use the Fields.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Package for their work patterns, we have a change to the block inspector adding a content tab for section blocks that displays content only descendant blocks. So similar to the existing styles tab, but for content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. And it&#8217;s up until now it lists the blocks that can be edited in a section pattern or in a content only block. But that&#8217;s all part of the write mode, and we will see how which part of it actually will come into 6.9. But I think it&#8217;s very helpful for content creators who use a pattern to just see the pieces that you can edit and not be confused with any styling of that, even if it&#8217;s only the section styles. And from the PR before and after, you can see that the little drop water drop that&#8217;s in the block toolbar actually gives you a way to browse through the styles for this particular section. So it&#8217;s not taking anything away, it&#8217;s just kind of making it clear where the things the information is going to be for you. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I think for anyone who might be confused about what we&#8217;re talking about, look at the pr. The screenshots will help you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah. It&#8217;s a little bit. Sometimes it&#8217;s a little bit hard on the podcast to make things come to life on a. In a visual component.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>The screenshots make it make sense if you&#8217;re confused by what we just said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And the PR we&#8217;re talking about is 71714. The next one is an easy one, but it&#8217;s definitely something to talk about for Black Friday and all the WooCommerce stuff. There is now a WordPress gift icon available for content creators and developers. So you can use that. It comes from a WooCommerce team, but they contributed to Core so anybody can use it. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">New API</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The next thing I want to point out was the block API has now the block visibility, control support and the ui. That&#8217;s the part where the underlying architecture for the hide and show of blocks I think it is. And that also is the foundation for when you. Later on we will have the conditional Hide and seek. No hide and show. Yeah. When you want to say okay, I want it for logged in users or not. I want it for people who come from Twitter or not. These kinds of conditionals, they&#8217;re not yet in there. For that you still need the block visibility plugin by Nick Diego. So I think we have one more. No. Yeah, there&#8217;s an accordion block also in write mode. We hide the add button in write mode so you can add an additional accordion block in write mode. But I&#8217;m not quite sure that&#8217;s particularly helpful for a content creator. But time will tell.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Yeah, that could go either way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, it&#8217;s a 5050 kind of thing. You do it right for 50 people and the others are going to hate you for that. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bug Fix</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And then one bug fix I wanted to point out there is a bug in the pattern override. Some users might have found it is that editing was allowed on non-enabled override blocks which kind of defeated the purpose, but it&#8217;s now fixed. So there&#8217;s another experiment. I don&#8217;t know how that comes about, but the PR definitely has some interesting conversations. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Experiments</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There is allow registering PHP only blocks. What do you say for that?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I say I think this is gonna be, this is gonna be so much bigger than it sounds.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Because basically what you&#8217;re doing is you&#8217;re enabling developers to create blocks using only PHP. So you&#8217;re opening up the can of worms about who knows PHP and who knows JavaScript and are we gatekeeping by moving everything to JavaScript and blah blah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then you&#8217;re also changing the structure in a way that might make things less portable between projects. So I don&#8217;t know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Well, it&#8217;s definitely an experiment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>That&#8217;s true. I think, you know, and I. One of the things I have noticed, there is a developer on my team that I have been mentoring for years and really started learning WordPress specifically post Gutenberg. And what&#8217;s fascinating about watching her is that she struggles with some of the traditional ways of doing things, but can do them the new way. Right. So for somebody like that this might be terrible, you know, and I. It just becomes a context thing about what you know and how you&#8217;ve been progressing with different skills along the way if you&#8217;ve completely forgotten PHP or you know, various things. So I, I don&#8217;t know, I think this, this one is going to be a much bigger deal than I think.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, I think so too. And there will be restrictions to that and I think the documentation will show that because it actually uses something the server side render component that actually was not considered best practice to use until now and the registration of PHP only blocks will actually use the server render component. So I think there is also something a little bit of a movement in the core contributing ranks about that. And it definitely needs some more. Yeah. Experimenting with it and exploration and. But it&#8217;s in there. One listened and maybe there&#8217;s something that can be pushed to the finish line outside the experiments. All the developers out there who were waiting for something like this go have at it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Oh. Interesting to see what people do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, me too. And I added a. The label needs developer documentation and a project manager on the team also removed it because it&#8217;s experimental. So the developers that created it have some leeway in backwards compatibility. And it&#8217;s experimental. It means it&#8217;s not documented. You cannot build on it. You need to be part of the experiment spirit about it to use it and not rely on it. That it&#8217;s going to be working like that for the foreseeable future. So yeah. It&#8217;s also that caveat on it. Just wanted to point it out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I just saw that that&#8217;s important because you&#8217;re going to have somebody who goes off and builds a whole new thing on it and then in two weeks it&#8217;ll break.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Which. Yeah. Any plugin developer that built plugins for Gutenberg has been doing kind of living through that for multiple years now. Yeah. So. But that&#8217;s 21.8 release with quite a few new features and the final release will be today on October 10th. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What’s in Active Development or Discussed</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And now we are coming to the section where we talk a little bit about what&#8217;s in development and discuss. And there are new blocks in the works and we know this because Matthias has. Matthias Ventura has published that discussion about new blocks that were previously thought about plug into territory. And now quite a few theme developers think that they are held back with their designs if there are not more additional blocks in core because then now they can style it in their themes and make it available on templates and all that. So Justin Tadlock also did an opinion piece on the Gutenberg Times for it about four weeks ago. I can link it again in the show notes. But we are getting new blocks and the ones that have been merged they&#8217;re not entirely out of experiments yet. Time to read. And we talked about it because it just was merged. We also talked about the accordion block that was merged a while ago and still in experiments. But there are two. Oh, we also talked about the terms query block that has been merged but we haven&#8217;t talked about the breadcrumbs block. And I&#8217;m really excited about that because it felt such a need in the template area that people are getting so confused where am I? And I have a better map and I have breadcrumbs and all that. Yeah, it&#8217;s such a useful tool and I&#8217;m looking forward to get that tested. And yeah, watch out on the test team. They&#8217;re putting some more calls for testing together to get this all in the hands of people who want to help with making it better.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>I&#8217;m excited about the breadcrumbs block too. That&#8217;s another one where I&#8217;ve had to do sort of weird things to make things work over time and it&#8217;s going to be nice to not have to do the weird things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. I was using Justin Tadock&#8217;s breadcrumbs block that he developed and he had some thoughts in this VR on how broad or restricted this new. This first version is going to be. And I think we all going to like it because depending on the context you can get additional. The breadcrumbs will change. And I really like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> Yeah, I&#8217;ve. I&#8217;ve used his plugin too. I forget which one it was. There&#8217;s a few independent plugins for breadcrumbs and my team has run into some weird edge cases of what they will do depending on your content structure. So I think that&#8217;s part of why the scope of the breadcrumbs block being limited at first makes so much sense, because the complexity of what you&#8217;re actually trying to do from a templating level, depending on where you are in a site and how your site is structured can get incredibly complex. I don&#8217;t remember which plugin it was, but we had a site. It may have been the Voter Guide. The Voter Guide within the site that completely killed everything. Like something about the logic of where we were just. And we had to use a different plugin just for that one site to make it work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> I might have even re. Ended up doing something sort of manual instead. I don&#8217;t remember. But those plugins have been incredibly useful, but are also prone to edge case weirdness. Basically generating navigation on the fly. And if you don&#8217;t know where you are within the structure of the site from a structural standpoint, or if someone has made some odd decisions about where they&#8217;re putting things or how their hierarchy works, you&#8217;re going to end up with a really confusing breadcrumb.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, yeah. And sometimes you don&#8217;t have the controls to actually make changes. It&#8217;s just all this black box kind of mystery mute kind of thing again. Yeah, yeah. And I. While we&#8217;re running a little bit out of time or short on time, I just wanted to mention there&#8217;s also a dialogue block in the works. There&#8217;s an icon block in the works. My favorite one is the stretchy text. It sounds so weird, but it actually makes sense. It&#8217;s text that stretches over a certain container and it&#8217;s flexible depending on how the container works. So you could do this for hero sections, all that. And then here&#8217;s your bestest favorite. The tabs block is in the works. And then also my favorite is a table of contents block. Because I have these long posts all the time and I want to do the table of contents block. But it had some weird issues. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s not in Core yet. And they&#8217;re trying to figure that out how that all can be done. It&#8217;s now attempted to be a dynamic one and allow usage outside of the post or page that is actually referring to. But for instance, in a template, you could put it in a single post template in the sidebar and you will always have a table of content for your posts. So I think that&#8217;s a really good use case for pages, when you have landing pages or tutorial pages or documentation pages that you don&#8217;t have to fiddle with it while you&#8217;re creating the content. And it&#8217;s just there in the template.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>This is one where my weird workaround for it. There&#8217;s one of the SEO plugins has a table of contents block built into it. I forget which one offhand, but I&#8217;ve used that before to get this type of functionality.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>Because it. Sometimes you really just need it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that&#8217;s it. That is the Gutenberg changelog 122. Thank you so much for being with me on this, Beth. And it was great to chat with you and talk about block themes and all these good things. Block style stuff. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg:</em> Thanks for having me. It was fun.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Dear listeners, as always, the show notes will be published on the <a href=\"http://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast\">gutenbergtimes.com/podcast</a>. This is 122. I already said that. But if you have questions or suggestions or news you want us to include, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a> that&#8217;s <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a> and I forgot a question for you, Beth. And that is if people want to get in touch with you, what is a good place to do that?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beth Soderberg: </em>You can find me in the WordPress slack under my name, Beth Soderberg. And then you can find me at work at our website, which is Bethink.studio or bethinkstudio.com. but you know, it&#8217;s really fun when you can get the non.coms to work with your name.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So. Yes, all right. So I&#8217;ll list of course, all those contact information, more in the show notes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And thank you all for listening. Thank you for being here and see you when I&#8217;ll see you back. Well, in two weeks. Goodbye, and have a good time. </p>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sun, 12 Oct 2025 10:58:13 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Birgit Pauli-Haack\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"Matt: In Canada\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150205\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:32:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/in-canada/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:731:\"<p>I&#8217;ve been trying to find time in my calendar to attend more WordCamps as I love meeting <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2025/09/wordpresser/\">WordPressers</a> all over the world. The stars aligned, and I&#8217;ll be swinging by <a href=\"https://canada.wordcamp.org/2025/\">WordCamp Canada</a> next week. They&#8217;ve put together an amazing program, including open web pioneer and inventor Dave Winer, so I&#8217;m looking forward to checking out the sessions. I wish I could go to every WordCamp, like I used to! I&#8217;ve been recording videos and messages for those I can&#8217;t physically attend. Ottawa is also great as the only other commercial board I&#8217;m on is <a href=\"https://fieldeffect.com/\">Field Effect</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 11 Oct 2025 15:35:19 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:20:\"Matt: Twitter Hacked\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150193\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:37:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/twitter-hacked/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:662:\"<p>Sorry everybody, my @photomatt on Twitter has been hacked, I&#8217;m trying to regain account access, but it is not currently in my control. <strong>Update: </strong>Thank you to the fine teams at X/Twitter and <a href=\"https://x.com/nikitabier\">Nikita Bier</a>, my account has been recovered. Just for future reference, I will never promote cryptocurrencies or similar investments. If you see anything from me or WordPress claiming that, be highly skeptical. Invest in open source, public stocks, and great companies like Automattic. <img alt=\"🙂\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f642.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:34:48 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:129:\"Gutenberg Times: Mega Menus in core, WordPress 6.9 calls for testing, going from Elementor to Site Editor — Weekend Edition 344\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=42168\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:134:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/mega-menus-in-core-wordpress-6-9-calls-for-testing-going-from-elementor-to-site-editor-weekend-edition-344/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23201:\"<p>Howdy,</p>\n\n\n\n<p>After meeting so many people at WordCamp Gdynia, on the plane and then on the train, I caught a nasty cold and struggled all week. I call this stage mushbrain, and everything becomes much harder, especially reading comprehension suffers. I am over it now, though. It also wasn&#8217;t the first time that I sounded horsey on a podcast episode. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s the time of year now here in Munich when the days get shorter and the weather is cold, drissly and overcast. A time when snow would brighten the sights, with its whiteness covering partly the darkgray, dark brown background. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy again  this weekend edition  and stay healthy. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yours, <img alt=\"💕\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f495.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /><br /><em>Birgit</em></p>\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-group\" style=\"padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<nav class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents\"><ol><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/mega-menus-in-core-wordpress-6-9-calls-for-testing-going-from-elementor-to-site-editor-weekend-edition-344/#0-word-press-release-information\">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</a><ol><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/mega-menus-in-core-wordpress-6-9-calls-for-testing-going-from-elementor-to-site-editor-weekend-edition-344/#help-testing-new-features-for-wordpress-6-9\">Help testing new features for WordPress 6.9</a></li></ol></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/mega-menus-in-core-wordpress-6-9-calls-for-testing-going-from-elementor-to-site-editor-weekend-edition-344/#0-p\">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</a></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/mega-menus-in-core-wordpress-6-9-calls-for-testing-going-from-elementor-to-site-editor-weekend-edition-344/#2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled\">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</a></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/mega-menus-in-core-wordpress-6-9-calls-for-testing-going-from-elementor-to-site-editor-weekend-edition-344/#3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press\">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor</a><ol><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/mega-menus-in-core-wordpress-6-9-calls-for-testing-going-from-elementor-to-site-editor-weekend-edition-344/#what-s-new-in-and-around-playground\">What&#8217;s new in and around Playground</a></li></ol></li></ol></nav>\n</div></div>\n</section>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\"></div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-word-press-release-information\">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Gutenberg 21.8 is now available and release lead <strong>Carlos Bravo</strong> hightlighed in his release post <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/10/08/whats-new-in-gutenberg-21-8-08-october/\"><strong>What’s new in Gutenberg 21.8? (8 October)</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/10/08/whats-new-in-gutenberg-21-8-08-october/#block-visibility-support-ui\">Block Visibility Control Support and UI</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/10/08/whats-new-in-gutenberg-21-8-08-october/#block-comments-improvements\">Block Comments Improvements</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/10/08/whats-new-in-gutenberg-21-8-08-october/#accordion-time-to-read\">Accordion and Time To Read Blocks</a></li>\n</ol>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>This week <strong>Gutenberg Changelog 122</strong> recording, <strong>Beth Soderberg</strong>, lead developer at <a href=\"https://bethink.studio/\">Bethink.studio</a> and I chatted about the release and other WordPress topics around Block themes and on going change. The episode arrive at your favorite podcast app over the weekend. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><img alt=\"🎙\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f399.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /> The latest episode is <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-122-gutenberg-21-8-and-wordpress-6-9/\">Gutenberg Changelog #122 – Gutenberg 21.8 and WordPress 6.9</a> with Beth Soderberg of <a href=\"https://bethink.studio/\">Bethink Studio</a></p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-no-vertical-margin\"><img alt=\"Gutenberg Changelog 122 with Beth Soderberg\" class=\"wp-image-42236\" height=\"193\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-11-at-12.32.48.png?resize=652%2C193&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>If you are listening via Spotify, please leave a comment. If you listen via other podcast apps, please leave a review. It&#8217;ll help with the distribution.</em></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>It was <strong>JuanMa Garrido</strong>&#8216;s turn to write the monthly roundup post <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/10/whats-new-for-developers-october-2025/\"><strong>What’s new for developers? (October 2025)</strong></a> on the WordPress Developer Blog. The 21.6, 21.7, and 21.8 Gutenberg releases add features for developers. The Command Palette now works throughout the admin, the new Terms Query block makes taxonomy layouts easier, and Block Visibility controls allow for conditional display. Notes (that&#8217;s how we call Block Comments now) improve team collaboration, while content-only editing maintains design integrity during client handoffs.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"help-testing-new-features-for-wordpress-6-9\">Help testing new features for WordPress 6.9</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Release test co-leads <strong>Krupa Nanda</strong> and <strong>Jonathan Bossenger</strong>, published several calls for testing in preparation in WordPress of the 6.9 release. Each of the post has a detailed description of the feature, and instructions on how to test is with specific scenarios. It&#8217;s much easier to follow along with any of the calls for testing, to also learn what&#8217;s new in the next release. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2025/10/03/help-test-changes-to-template-management/\"><strong>Help test changes to template management</strong></a> is probably the most elaborate call for testing, as template management received a completely new feature, and it needs to be working for many different use cases, and has consquences on existing sites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2025/10/04/call-for-testing-ability-to-hide-blocks/\"><strong>Call for Testing: Ability to Hide Blocks</strong></a> for this feature it&#8217;s the bare minimum of a new feature, that will be in future releases see some refinement and extensiblity. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2025/10/06/call-for-testing-accordion-block/\"><strong>Call for Testing: Accordion Block</strong></a> lets you dive into a whole new block, many users asked for an several plugins are already available for. Now it will come to core. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your time spent on testing the new features for WordPress 6.9, has a lot of impact, as the bugs found now, make the release the best it can be for millions of other users. </p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-p\">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lesley Sim</strong> informed us that <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/eventkoi-lite/\"><strong>EventKoi Lite</strong></a> is now available from the WordPress Plugin Repository. I mentioned the premium version before, Event Koi is modern, WordPress events calendar. Create single or multi-day events and display month, week, or list views via blocks (or shortcodes).</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mike McAlister </strong>announced a new product: <strong>OlliePro Extensions</strong> on Bluesky. He mentions: Animations, advanced grid + column controls, keyboard shortcuts, and more. Watch the vidoe <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq2DLc43pTk\"><strong>Introducing Ollie Pro Extensions &#8211; Supercharge Your WordPress Block Editor</strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>All controls are seamlessly integrated with the Core editor sitebar sections. <strong>Mark Howells-Mead</strong> <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C015GUFFC00/p1760046957248569\">commented</a> in the WordPress Slack #outreach channel: &#8221; I’m very impressed with how he’s been able to integrate the little add-ons many of us are integrating to our own projects, but in such a seamless way by extending core controls.&#8221;  McAlister shared an <a href=\"https://gist.github.com/mikemcalister/937664ea19e87d61add7fc9902f10ac9\">example Gist on GitHub</a>.</p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>David McCan</strong> took a deep dive into the world of Block plugins. In this blog post   <a href=\"https://dynamicwp.co/performance-of-third-party-blocks-and-core-compared/\"><strong>Performance of Third Party Blocks and Core Compared</strong></a> he tries to answer the questions many site builders and owners have: &#8220;Can you add the features Gutenberg is missing yet still be performant like core?&#8221;. McCan tested ten third-party Gutenberg block plugins with WordPress core, specifically focusing on performance.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Matt Medeiros</strong>, WPMinute, took the <em>Mega Menu Designer</em>, also made  by Mike McAlister, out for the spin. He shared his thoughts in the Video <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NYskePLDM0#feedback\"><strong>How to Build Mega Menus with WordPress Blocks</strong></a>. He provides a detailed walkthrough calls it &#8220;Perfect for anyone looking to enhance their website&#8217;s navigation experience.&#8221; As reported earlier <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/ollie-menu-designer/\">the plugin is available for free</a> in the WordPress plugin repository. </p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Rae Morey</strong>, publisher or The Repository, reported <strong><a href=\"https://www.therepository.email/ollies-menu-designer-flagged-for-core-with-automattic-developers-set-to-help-shepherd-it?utm_source=mailpoet&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source_platform=mailpoet&amp;utm_campaign=issue-276\">Ollie&#8217;s Menu Designer Flagged for Core, With Automattic Developers Set to Help Shepherd It</a></strong>. Automattic&#8217;s Anne McCarthy says developers are preparing to review Ollie&#8217;s Menu Designer for inclusion in the Gutenberg plugin, marking the start of a collaborative push to bring the plugin&#8217;s features into WordPress. This follows WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s suggestion that the menu functionality should be part of core. Details and links in Moery&#8217;s article. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled\">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This episode of <em>Greyd Conversations</em> show, <strong><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRM4FjR_UbE\">Switching to FSE from a pagebuilder</a>, </strong>covers the story of <em>Buro Staal</em>, a smal dutch agency, which switched from Elementor to Full site editing cold turkey. Greyd&#8217;s host <strong>Sandra Kurze</strong> and agency owner <strong>Rosanne van Staalduinen</strong> shared why and how her agency switched and the lessons learned along the way. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The biggest hurdles were limited functionality of navigation block, not able to create Mega Menus, and the need for controls for mobile sites and responsiveness. So they augmented their tech stack with Kadence Blocks and Ollie Pro theme. </p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-callout undefined not-color-set\" style=\"border-color: #f9f9e5; border-radius: 22px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: left; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: #f9f9e5;\">\n<p><strong> <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2025&#8221;</a> </strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test, and Meta team from Jan. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. The previous years are also available: <strong><strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/\">2020</a> | <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2021/\">2021</a></strong> | <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2022/\">2022</a></strong></strong> | <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2023\">2023</a></strong> | <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2024/\"><strong>2024</strong></a></p>\n</section>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press\">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ryan Welcher</strong> published another recipe from his Blockdevelopment Cook Book on YouTube.  <strong><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ4gUrxTgjM\">How To Make A Simple Fade In Effect Fast</a></strong>. &#8220;In this recipe, we’re adding a little flair by loading custom JavaScript and CSS for the Cover and Image blocks to create a smooth fade-in effect as they scroll into view. To keep things efficient, we’ll only enqueue these files when the blocks are actually on the page.&#8221; </p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-s-new-in-and-around-playground\">What&#8217;s new in and around Playground</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nick Diego</strong> announces that <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/10/08/introducing-blueprints-in-wordpress-studio-1-6-0/\"><strong>WordPress Studio version 1.6.0</strong></a> now supports Blueprints, which are lightweight JSON files that predefine site configurations for quick and consistent setup. Instead of starting with empty sites or using large snapshots, teams can create portable recipes specifying WordPress versions, plugins, and settings. Studio offers three featured blueprints for quick starts, development, and commerce, while users can also upload custom blueprints. The feature integrates into the standard site creation flow and helps streamline workflows for solo developers and teams alike.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.github.io/wordpress-playground/\"><strong>Playground documentation</strong></a> now has Ask AI button, to get help finding and understanding feature sets and APIs.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https://wordpress.github.io/wordpress-playground/\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42203\" height=\"339\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-09-at-18.50.23.png?resize=652%2C339&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ajit Bohra</strong> of Lubus <a href=\"https://x.com/ajitbohra/status/1975920964266258538\">shared on X</a> &#8220;The Visual BluePrint Builder for Playground is shaping up nicely. All the latest updates are in, and it’s feeling solid. Stable version coming soon, but you can already check it out and start building visually.&#8221; A blueprint builder with blocks, how nice.  You can test it via <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2FlubusIN%2Fvisual-blueprint-builder%2Fplayground%2F_playground%2Fblueprint-github.json\">this Playground link</a>. The code is available on <a href=\"https://github.com/lubusIN/visual-blueprint-builder\">GitHub</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jamie Marsland</strong> also tries to make it easier to create blueprints for Playground sites and open up the WordPress in a browser tool for a broader audience. Details in his post <a href=\"https://www.pootlepress.com/2025/10/introducing-pootle-playground-my-experimental-wordpress-blueprint-builder/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Introducing Pootle Playground — My Experimental WordPress Blueprint Builder</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Adam Zielinski</strong> created an <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/php-playground.html\"><strong>online PHP code editor</strong></a> using Playground. It allows developers to test PHP snippets quickly in their browser. The tool supports WordPress functions, enables switching between PHP and WordPress versions, and allows sharing code configurations through links. Built with WordPress Playground, it runs entirely client-side with network access and popular PHP extensions included. He&#8217;s currently experimenting with adding CLI and file browser capabilities to support composer packages and frameworks like Laravel or Symfony.</p>\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-callout undefined not-color-set\" style=\"border-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 26px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: left; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: #f3efe9;\">\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/\">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s master branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now also available via <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/playnightly.json\">WordPress Playground</a>. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? <a href=\"mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com\">Email me </a>with your experience</p>\n\n\n\n<p><img alt=\"GitHub all releases\" src=\"https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total?style=for-the-badge\" /></p>\n</section>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\"><em>Questions? Suggestions? Ideas? </em><br /><em>Don&#8217;t hesitate to send <a href=\"mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com\">them via email</a> or</em><br /><em> send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph</em>.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">For questions to be answered on the <a href=\"http://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast\">Gutenberg Changelog</a>, <br />send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-group\" style=\"padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\">\n<p>Featured Image: Free colorful building blocks image by <a href=\"https://www.rawpixel.com/image/5906195/photo-image-public-domain-free-game\">Rawpixel </a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>Don&#8217;t want to miss the next Weekend Edition? </strong></p>\n\n\n<form action=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/\" autocomplete=\"on\" class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-form ngl-form ngl-portrait\" method=\"post\"><div class=\"ngl-form-container\"><div class=\"ngl-form-field\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><label class=\"ngl-form-label\" for=\"ngl_email\"><br />Type in your Email address to subscribe.</label><div class=\"ngl-form-input\"><input autocomplete=\"email\" class=\"ngl-form-input-text\" id=\"ngl_email\" name=\"ngl_email\" required=\"required\" style=\"border-radius: 21px;\" type=\"email\" /></div></div><button class=\"ngl-form-button\" style=\"background-color: #005075; border-color: #005075; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; color: #ffffff; border-radius: 21px;\" type=\"submit\">Subscribe</button><p class=\"ngl-form-text\">We hate spam, too, and won&#8217;t give your email address to anyone <br />except Mailchimp to send out our Weekend Edition</p></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay\"><div class=\"ngl-message-svg-wrap\"><svg fill=\"none\" height=\"24\" stroke=\"#fff\" stroke-width=\"2\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" width=\"24\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><polyline points=\"20 6 9 17 4 12\"></polyline></svg></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay-text\">Thanks for subscribing.</div></div><input id=\"ngl_list_id\" name=\"ngl_list_id\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"26f81bd8ae\" /><input id=\"ngl_double_optin\" name=\"ngl_double_optin\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"yes\" /></form>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n</section>\n\n\n<p></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 10 Oct 2025 23:35:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Birgit Pauli-Haack\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Matt: Jeremy Kranz and Sentinel\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150173\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/jeremy-kranz/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2487:\"<p>I&#8217;d like to introduce you to <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremykranz/\">Jeremy Kranz</a>. With his career as an investor at <a href=\"https://www.intelcapital.com/\">Intel Capital</a>, then <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIC_(sovereign_wealth_fund)\">GIC</a>, which is the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore rumored to manage over $700B, to now running his own fund <a href=\"https://www.sentinelglobal.xyz/\">Sentinel Global</a>, he has had a front-row seat to investments in industry changing companies such as ByteDance (which became TikTok), Alibaba, Uber, DoorDash, Zoom, DJI (which changed the drone industry and argubly modern warfare), and many more I&#8217;m probably not even aware of.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I first met Jeremy in 2014, I was amazed that a late-stage financial investor could understand Open Source so well, and he immediately grokked what <a href=\"https://automattic.com/\">Automattic</a> was doing in a way that I think has little parallel in the world. (Today, it reminds me of Joseph Jacks at <a href=\"https://oss.capital/\">OSS Capital</a>.) <a href=\"https://www.insightpartners.com/team/deven-parekh/\">Deven Perekh of Insight Partners</a> led Automattic&#8217;s 1.16B valuation Series C round, making us one of only forty &#8220;unicorns&#8221; (private companies valued over a billion dollars) at the time, and one of the reasons they beat out others as the lead of the round was that GIC/Jeremy was a LP of Insight so they could directly co-invest. GIC is so intensely private <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2014/05/new-funding-for-automattic/\">I couldn&#8217;t even mention them in the announcement at the time</a> even though they were the catalyst for the round.  Since then, Jeremy has become a close friend and advisor, and he even took me to <a href=\"https://www.nugs.net/live-download-of-dead-and-company-dos-equis-pavilion-dallas-tx-10-14-2021-mp3-flac-or-online-music-streaming/26749.html\">my first Grateful Dead concert</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eleven years later, this is his first podcast! Jeremy shares incredible <a href=\"https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/alpha.asp\">alpha</a> around China, AI and its adoption in the enterprise, how asset allocation is evolving, and at the end, a beautiful tie together of the Grateful Dead and Open Source.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 10 Oct 2025 19:30:12 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Matt: Kathy Sierra\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150166\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/kathy-sierra/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:774:\"<p>I was reminded today of the profound marketing influence of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Sierra\">Kathy Sierra</a>, who was a pretty prolific blogger and speaker back in the day. I would summarize her thesis as such: <strong>Your best marketing and communication should talk about how you make your users awesome, not how you&#8217;re awesome</strong>. If you&#8217;d like to check out some of her talks, <a href=\"https://href.li/?https://wordpress.tv/2008/10/31/wordcamp-sf-2008-kathy-sierra-kicking-ass-and-creating-passionate-users/\">she spoke at WordCamp in 2008</a>, <a href=\"https://vimeo.com/81625882?fl=pl&amp;fe=ti\">at Business of Software in 2013</a>, and at <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBtcGwHPMKM\">Mind the Product in 2015</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 10 Oct 2025 01:22:50 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:103:\"Open Channels FM: Bootstrapping a Successful WordPress Business Through Customer Feedback and Iteration\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=110936\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:110:\"https://openchannels.fm/bootstrapping-a-successful-wordpress-business-through-customer-feedback-and-iteration/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:218:\"In this episode, Mark chats with Aurelio Volle from WPUmbrella about his journey in creating a WordPress management tool, maintaining customer focus, and the importance of community and transparency in business growth.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 09 Oct 2025 10:47:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"BobWP\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Matt: Battery Scan\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150146\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/battery-scan/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1067:\"<p>One of the cooler companies I&#8217;ve seen in a while is <a href=\"https://www.lumafield.com/\">LumaField</a>, which does industrial CT scanning, as they describe it.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Industrial X-ray CT (Computed Tomography) works on the same basic principle as medical CT, taking hundreds of X-ray images from different angles to capture the internal and external structure of objects in three dimensions.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to providing amazing graphics of these scans, they also gather some valuable data. <a href=\"https://www.lumafield.com/battery-report\">Their Lumafield Battery Quality Report does a deep dive into lithium ion battery manufacturing</a>, showing the wild differences between different brands. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>I love this stuff, whether you call it QA, evals, testing, or whatever, it reminds me of <a href=\"https://www.principles.com/principles/8b086563-5bb4-4741-8713-c62bd1a0d749/\">Ray Dalio&#8217;s Principle to embrace reality and deal with it</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 09 Oct 2025 06:24:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:76:\"WPTavern: #188 – Bud Kraus on Teaching and Using WordPress With Low Vision\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:48:\"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=199897\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:90:\"https://wptavern.com/podcast/188-bud-kraus-on-teaching-and-using-wordpress-with-low-vision\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:39989:\"<details>Transcript<div>\n<p>[00:00:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case teaching and using WordPress with low vision.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice. Or by going to wptavern.com/feed/podcast, and you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wptavern.com/contact/jukebox and use the form there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So on the podcast today we have Bud Kraus. Bud was diagnosed with mascular degeneration, a condition often associated with old age, when he was 37. Affecting both eyes, this gradually eroded his central vision, making it difficult for him to see straight ahead, recognize faces, drive or read.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite these challenges, Bud&#8217;s peripheral vision remained intact, sparing him the need for a cane or guide dog, and allowing him to continue to navigate daily life. Through perseverance and adaptation, Bud continues to live fully, facing the hurdles of vision loss with resilience and optimism.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud opens up the podcast by talking about his experience living with legal blindness, how his central vision loss has shaped everything from everyday activities to his professional routines. He explains the practical ways he adapts his devices and workflow, including tweaks to operating system settings, using screen zoom functions, and relying on pattern recognition to teach coding, write tutorials, and even host his Seriously, Bud? podcast. His unique perspective sheds light on the often overlooked nuances of accessibility, reminding us that every user interacts with technology differently.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud also chats about the broader impact of accessibility in the WordPress space, from frustrations with hard to navigate interfaces, to the importance of not excluding users who may become your audience or customers. His reflections reveal how living with low vision pushed him beyond mere acceptance, helping him discover new opportunities, hone his teaching skills, and even find humour in daily challenges.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud&#8217;s story serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of designing with empathy, embracing adaptation, and viewing accessibility, not just as a technical requirement, but as a source of creativity and connection. It&#8217;s full of real world tips, personal anecdotes, and a dose of inspiration.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you&#8217;re a designer, developer, educator, or simply passionate about building a more inclusive web, this episode is for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Bud Kraus.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am joined on the podcast by Bud Kraus. Hello, Bud.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:03:35] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Hello, Nathan. Thanks for having me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:03:37] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, you&#8217;re very welcome. This is not the first time we&#8217;ve spoken, but it is the first time we&#8217;ve spoken at an event because we&#8217;re both at WordCamp US in Portland, it&#8217;s 2025. We&#8217;re in a corridor, so I&#8217;ve got to say at the very outset, if it ends up being quite noisy, there&#8217;s not a lot we can do about that. But we&#8217;ve done our best. We&#8217;ve found a nice quiet little alcove, and we&#8217;re going to be chatting today to Bud about his experience online. Before we do that, Bud, do you mind just telling us a little bit about yourself? Give us your potted bio, if you like.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:01] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Yeah, sure. So I create WordPress content for WordPress businesses, articles, blog posts, tutorials, videos, and I am the host of the podcast called Seriously, Bud?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:14] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> And the talk that you&#8217;re doing at WordCamp US, which I guess you haven&#8217;t yet done, because we&#8217;re on the first day of presentations and it&#8217;s fairly early on. You haven&#8217;t done it, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:23] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> No, I actually, no, I haven&#8217;t done it yet, but I&#8217;ve done this a couple times, so this is not my first time doing this talk.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So you know how it&#8217;s going to go. It&#8217;s called using low vision as my tool to help me teach WordPress. Now, that kind of leads us into the subject at hand really. We&#8217;re going to be talking about how it is that your experience of the web may differ from other people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you willing to just tell us a little bit about your experience in the offline world as well as the online world? What is it that you are dealing with on a day-to-day basis?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:50] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Sure. So I have macular degeneration, which is a condition of old age, which I got when I was 37. And it&#8217;s the leading cause of legal blindness in the United States. It&#8217;s a destruction of your central vision.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have the condition in both eyes, which means I really have it. And it makes it very hard for me to see straight ahead, recognise faces, reading. I can&#8217;t drive a car, which is okay. So anything that&#8217;s straight ahead.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, my peripheral vision&#8217;s perfectly intact, so that means I don&#8217;t need to have a seeing eye dog or a cane, or I don&#8217;t bump into things because the peripheral vision&#8217;s fine. But the very fine vision that we all use to see straight ahead, like to thread a needle, that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m missing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:30] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So are you able to describe what you are seeing in that area. And is it like the central portion of your site?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:38] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> It is the exact central portion of my sight. So I tend to see elliptically, which means I move my eyes around to get a better picture. Like, when I&#8217;m looking at you right now, I&#8217;m moving my eyes around so I can see better because of the destruction of the centre part of my vision.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:52] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> And does that rule out certain tasks? So for example, you mentioned reading there. Obviously I do not have what you have, and so it&#8217;s a given to me that when I&#8217;m staring as I am doing at the moment at my laptop, my eyes, the bullseye, if you like, of my eyes go straight to the letter looking at. And for me, it&#8217;s hard to imagine deploying my peripheral vision to do that, but can you, for example, do things like reading or is that out of the?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:06:16] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> You can&#8217;t, peripheral vision is not a, it&#8217;s not even close to being a perfect substitute for central vision. So the answer is no. You cannot read with peripheral vision. You cannot understand. You can see, but you can&#8217;t understand. And it just makes things difficult.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:06:33] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. So how does that affect your real life? So obviously you mentioned things like being unable to drive a car or things like that. Is there anything else that might give us a frame of reference for just how profound it is?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:06:44] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Well, I like to look at it differently. So I have a different approach to this. So when I first was diagnosed with this when I was 37, I thought, oh, this is the worst thing that could ever happen. And that makes sense, but it is not the worst thing that could ever happen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And having lived with this for quite a long time now, I look at this not as a curse, but as a blessing. Because what it&#8217;s done is allow me to have so many different opportunities, experiences, ideas, thoughts, whatever that I would&#8217;ve not otherwise had.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that process of going, it&#8217;s the grief process when you start from, you know, this is the most horrible thing in the world, to acceptance. I&#8217;m actually beyond acceptance. It&#8217;s like, I like this. This is okay with me. And do I wish it on other people? No, I don&#8217;t. But like I said, it&#8217;s not the end of the world. There are conditions and diseases that are far worse than this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I do think of, and in fact in my talk that I&#8217;m giving, at the end I talk about why this is a blessing and not a curse. I mean, like for example, you can get as inebriated as you want at parties because you&#8217;re not going to be driving the car home. So there&#8217;s lots of that, okay. Or you don&#8217;t see your friends get older because you can&#8217;t see the detail on their face. When I go in a grocery store, I don&#8217;t see all the junk food, so that&#8217;s good. Is it inconvenient? Yes. Do I have a hard time finding people at a large event like this? Yes. But I manage.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So in the wider world, you can obviously deploy your peripheral vision. So we&#8217;re sitting in a, I don&#8217;t know, it&#8217;s maybe this room&#8217;s about 10 meters by 10 meters. There&#8217;s a lot of space. Whereas the thing that we&#8217;re talking about, WordPress, building websites and so on, it&#8217;s usually this constrained little, well, let&#8217;s say rectangle. It could be something that we&#8217;re holding our hands, a mobile phone or a computer, laptop, something like that. How does your situation, how does it get impacted by this then? Are you doing this peripheral vision, glancing left and right and trying to figure out what&#8217;s going on? Or do you have other tools, mechanisms, things that you deploy?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:39] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> I do, and that&#8217;s what my talk is about. So, for example, I&#8217;ve taught WordPress and I taught coding for a long time. And people say, well, how do you do that if you can&#8217;t see?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, one thing is I&#8217;m always very prepared. So when I go into a class, I can&#8217;t wing it. I just have to know exactly what I&#8217;m going to be doing. And in code there&#8217;s a lot of patterns and I recognise patterns.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, yes, I do use Zoom. I use audio. I use touch. Now, touch is not really relevant here, but I&#8217;m able to, with the technology as good as it has become for me, I&#8217;m able to Zoom in and out of the screen and I&#8217;m able to read things out loud. And then I have to do a fair amount of memory. But that&#8217;s okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:22] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So do you have adaptations that you make, let&#8217;s say for example, you go out today and you purchase a new computer, do you have adaptations that you make on an operating system level?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:30] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Yeah, I do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:31] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay. I&#8217;m curious to hear about these because I make no modifications when I purchase, so tell me more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:35] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Yeah, good question. So one of the things I do, and I&#8217;ll be demonstrating, is my resolution is a low resolution, meaning 1024 by 768 would be low today. In the olden days, that would be high. But it makes the screen, it makes it easier for me to see the screen. And then I make all kinds of adjustments to make icons bigger, letters bigger, so that it&#8217;s just works for me. And yeah, I don&#8217;t have a problem with it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, it does cause me to do things maybe a little slower because it&#8217;s just harder for me to maybe find something. But I think I mentioned that patterns is a very important thing to me. So if I&#8217;m going to a website and they change the UI totally around, that&#8217;s going to be a pain in the neck for me, because then I have to relearn where everything is.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s sort of like changing the furniture if you were blind, I mean, really blind, which most people aren&#8217;t. So I&#8217;m legally blind but, you know, I&#8217;m not like lights out blind. If you change where things are, then it&#8217;s going to make things very difficult for me, whether it&#8217;s in the real world or in the virtual world. I have to relearn everything.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:10:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> A sort of curious question that&#8217;s just occurred to me. When you buy a new computer, is there a process whereby you have to combat the regular default icon size and default tech size, just for a moment in order to wrangle it into the version of the OS that you need?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:10:50] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> You&#8217;re absolutely right. So if you&#8217;re booting up for the first time, it&#8217;s a hole in the whole process, which is at least the last time I did, which is there&#8217;s no audio, there&#8217;s no nothing, and you&#8217;re seeing like little tiny print to, you know, configure the language and the location and the time and all that stuff that you do when you work with a computer for the first time. That is a real problem, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You would imagine that there&#8217;d be some mechanism to invoke that as the first thing that happens?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:17] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> I think so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:17] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s interesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay, so we&#8217;ve talked about the wider world. We&#8217;ve talked about a computer that you may modify. Let&#8217;s get onto the bit which we are all here for, which is WordPress. Are there any adjustments or tools, or this could extend to the browser, so it may be browser tools, what have you, but for the internet, let&#8217;s say, what are the modifications that you are making to make your life possible there?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:37] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> You know, I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s anything really any different than anybody else makes. I mean, the biggest thing is I will either zoom in or out of a webpage. And it&#8217;s really funny because, if you&#8217;re using a certain screen size with a certain resolution, things can get very hard to work with. I don&#8217;t think enough companies, like I&#8217;m thinking of even LinkedIn, for example, that I was using today. Sorry to call them out, but it&#8217;s just like their chat areas were just really, I just had to do all kinds of crazy things to actually see the text. And then the text was really small.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think because I&#8217;m a stress case, that they don&#8217;t always test down to my level. And I think it&#8217;s, I just accept it. But that&#8217;s the way it is, I guess. But I think that you don&#8217;t want to exclude people from anything really, because they may be your customer. And if I can&#8217;t buy something because it&#8217;s really hard to do, and that is something, I don&#8217;t know if I&#8217;ve ever talked to you about it, but other people, that if I am discouraged from buying something because it&#8217;s just, the UI is just too hard to work with, I&#8217;ll just find an alternative. I will. Or I&#8217;ll ask my wife.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:39] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I guess you&#8217;re in a curious space as well in that we hear a lot in the accessibility space about things like screen readers and those kind of assistive technologies. I guess you are not deploying those because you have enough sight to not have that as a, something to lean upon.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:54] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s exactly right. I have not, and don&#8217;t use JAWS or any of those big fancy screen reader technologies. I just use what&#8217;s built into the macOS and I just highlight the text and I press a button and it reads. I think it&#8217;s called voiceover, or it&#8217;s text to speech, or whatever it is. And it&#8217;s in the accessibility part of the settings.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t use technology beyond what I need it for. It&#8217;s just overkill. What do I, those are complicated systems to master, so I stay away from that because they don&#8217;t need it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:22] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So when you are building websites, is there anything unique about the way that you do that? Is there any sort of, again, a tool that you deploy? Or maybe you are relying on other human beings to sort of cast their eye over it a second time after you&#8217;ve done the work. I don&#8217;t know, just talk us through that whole thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:37] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Well, I don&#8217;t make websites. No, I have, okay. I&#8217;ve done everything, but I don&#8217;t make websites because I don&#8217;t like to make websites. It&#8217;s not because of my vision. But yes, if I am working, in the past like I have, I would ask people to help me with, particularly with colour because I have a very, I think I have a poor colour palette. And I think that&#8217;s either, it&#8217;s because of me. So I have to ask, does this go good with this?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s just something that I, either I&#8217;m not good at, or I&#8217;m not interested, or my vision, or whatever it is. So I do have a problem with colour in that regard. But because of the technology and the tools that are built in, it&#8217;s not as difficult as one might think.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:15] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Interesting. Yeah, okay. We&#8217;ll get into that. But you do make a podcast, and there&#8217;s lots and lots of different spinning wheels that have to done there. You know, you&#8217;ve got to book people onto the show, you&#8217;ve got to have calendars, you&#8217;ve got to have posts and pages and things like that on the website. Is there anything uniquely interesting about, I understand the process of making a website from my perspective, there anything that would be different to my process than would be for yours?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:36] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Yes, I think one thing I could think of is like a lot of times I won&#8217;t, let&#8217;s say in WordPress, you can write into the editor, you could write a page or a post right into the Gutenberg, the block editor. I choose not to do that. What I do is use a notepad, or not notepad, what is it for a Mac? I forgot.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> TextEdit.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:54] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Yes, TextEdit. Thanks. I&#8217;ll use that and I&#8217;ll have the font blown up bigger than normal, and I&#8217;ll just edit in there, and then I&#8217;ll just take that and then I&#8217;ll copy that and paste that into WordPress. It&#8217;s just easier for me to do it that way. So I just like it that way. You know, everybody has their own little thing. That&#8217;s my little thing. And I think it&#8217;s because of my vision.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:14] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> And in terms of kind of getting the recording software to work and things like that, how do those UIs function for you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:19] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Yeah, pretty good. The problem I have with learning something new and complicated is that, I think it&#8217;s like everybody, quite frankly, I get confused and try to figure out where&#8217;s what. And like I was using, I use Descript, and it just took me quite a while to figure out, how do I do this? How do I do that? But like anything else, once I learn it, it&#8217;s pretty solid and it gets easier.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I do tend to blow things up to make it bigger. And my wife is always telling me, I can&#8217;t use your computer because stuff is too big. Now, I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s too big, but she does. And when I look at other people&#8217;s computers, then I realise, no, it&#8217;s bigger than theirs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, so we&#8217;re in the era of Gutenberg. It sounds like you&#8217;ve been using WordPress for a fairly long time, presumably before Gutenberg. What&#8217;s your opinion on whether or not that was a move in the right direction? In other words, is it favorable? Is it more straightforward for you to create a post? I know that you said in the scenario for a podcast, you&#8217;re writing it elsewhere and copying and pasting it in. But with other things like, I don&#8217;t know, laying out content and writing paragraphs and things, do you think it&#8217;s a good experience? Did we go in the right direction there?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:16:18] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> That&#8217;s a very hard question for me to answer. I&#8217;ll answer it in a couple of different ways. One, as far as accessibility goes, I&#8217;m no expert in this. I am not an accessibility expert. Am I a stakeholder? We all are. But I can&#8217;t answer it in that regard.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But from a more technical standpoint, because I write technical articles for Kinsta, Hostinger, others, that I find it to be difficult. I know I was told it&#8217;s not supposed to be easy, so it certainly doesn&#8217;t match the easy. Yeah, and that has nothing to do with my vision. It&#8217;s just, I feel it&#8217;s just complicated, even though I&#8217;ve learned quite a bit of the technical side of this stuff. I&#8217;m not trying to be cute here, but I&#8217;m trying to be cute, and I just can&#8217;t answer that question that&#8217;s going to provide any value so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:17:06] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I was kind of wondering if there was a thing which, if you could click your fingers and make it appear in the Block Editor or the Gutenberg interface, which you would, and I don&#8217;t know that you&#8217;ve got got an answer to that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:17:15] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> I, let me think. No, I don&#8217;t think so. No. And I use Elementor too. So I think from a logic standpoint, Elementor seems to be easier for me. What I just don&#8217;t like is a lot of confusion. Too much information built into a UI is a real problem for me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nathan, the funny thing is I feel like I have a special filter on the world that other people don&#8217;t have. This is another one of these blessings, that gives me the ability to understand what works and what doesn&#8217;t work without having to ask somebody because it&#8217;s just built in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, the thing about disability or this field in general, which is huge, it&#8217;s very idiosyncratic. So my setup is good for me, but it may not work for somebody else. And it&#8217;s very hard to, as those who keep accessibility in mind, and hopefully it&#8217;s everybody. It&#8217;s a very difficult subject because how do we design our systems, our content so that the greatest number of people can access this information, or whatever, on the largest number of devices. I mean, that&#8217;s what accessibility to me is about.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:24] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It&#8217;s curious that you said, I think you said at the beginning that your condition is one which will deteriorate over time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:31] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Well, macular degeneration, generally, can get worse over time. But fortunately, for reasons that we don&#8217;t need to get into, since 1992 it&#8217;s been very stable, which I&#8217;m really fortunate because trust me, I don&#8217;t want it to get any worse than this. I don&#8217;t need another, that much of a blessing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:50] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I was wondering from that, whether or not the accessibility side of WordPress is something that you lean into. Do you attend those kind of, I don&#8217;t know, WP Accessibility Day, those kind of events?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:59] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> No, it just doesn&#8217;t really interest me. You know, back in like 1999, 2000, I was teaching a course at Pratt Institute in New York called Accessible Web Design. And it was way ahead of its time. And the concepts I was teaching were basically concepts because the browsers and technology just wasn&#8217;t there yet. So you&#8217;d have to say, well, one day, and one day did happen in large measure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then I started realising, I just didn&#8217;t want to like make a career out of teaching this or testing or, you know, I started to meet people in the field and I just said, I don&#8217;t really like this. I mean, just because I&#8217;m, I have a disability doesn&#8217;t mean I have to like the field of accessible design, you know, accessibility.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:40] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s interesting. You are wearing a WordCamp Montclair t-shirt, which kind of tells me that not only are you attending this event, WordCamp US, but you&#8217;re also attending other ones as well. Is that a big part of your life? If it is, how accessible are things like this event? Do you come here fully expecting of yourself that you&#8217;ll have a full experience the same way that everybody else does?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:59] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Well, I have a good experience, but it is not the same way everybody else does. For example, I can&#8217;t see the screens at all. And when they&#8217;re doing stuff, the slides, I&#8217;m just listening, okay. It&#8217;s sort of like, I watch TV a lot that way too. I hear things. Unless I got really close, I&#8217;m not going to be able to see what&#8217;s on the screen. If I took a picture of something that&#8217;s really important, yeah, that&#8217;ll help.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But generally speaking, that doesn&#8217;t work for me. And then it could be kind of a, yes, I&#8217;ve gone to many WordCamps, but they&#8217;re all sort of the same in terms of the issues. And I don&#8217;t even think of them as issues anymore. I just think of it as like, we&#8217;re all different. This is the way I&#8217;m different. And talking about this stuff, quite frankly is like talking about being right-handed. Would you do an interview of me being right-handed?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:20:42] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, fascinating. I guess, from my perspective, because I just don&#8217;t, I can&#8217;t prize that open my own life, it&#8217;s really intriguing to sort of try to have some sort of understanding of how it differs from my experience to your experience. And I guess for you it&#8217;s, this is how I live.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:20:58] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Yeah. But Nathan, you know, vision is a spectrum. It&#8217;s a continuum. It isn&#8217;t just everybody looks at things the same way. No. So I don&#8217;t think, alright, I&#8217;m like sort of on one end of the spectrum, I get it, but everybody looks at things differently. And I don&#8217;t mean that figuratively, I mean that literally. So I don&#8217;t think of it anymore much as a handicap, you know, other than the fact that, yeah, that&#8217;s a pain in the neck sometimes. And sometimes you find yourself doing some foolish things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I think the hardest thing for me at these events is that I won&#8217;t know who I&#8217;m talking to until about five minutes after I&#8217;m talking to them, and I figured out by looking at their shape, stuff like that, that I can, oh, I&#8217;m talking to Nathan Wrigley, or your accent, or something like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:42] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. You&#8217;re obviously quite keen on the sort of education side of things though because you&#8217;re writing tutorials. I&#8217;ll link in the show notes to one that you wrote for Smashing Magazine, which is no mean feat. Getting in there is really rather impressive. So well done for that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But you&#8217;re also obviously turning up two events like this. And it sounds from what you said as if this is content that you&#8217;ve done before. So very keen on that, even though it may be talking about, you were describing there, it&#8217;s like talking about whether you&#8217;re right-handed. You&#8217;ve put together this presentation in which you&#8217;re going to share these different bits and pieces about how you make amendments and adjustments to WordPress and the operating system and so on. So do you enjoy the education side of it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:16] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Oh, absolutely. I&#8217;m a teacher at heart. I mean, you know, that&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve been doing for 25 years. And even in the writings that I do, they&#8217;re basically, it&#8217;s a different way of teaching. Now the talk that I&#8217;m giving though here, the funny thing is, as I&#8217;ve said, I&#8217;m sort of like cool to the idea to be honest about it. There are other talks I&#8217;d rather give than this one, but this is the talk that everybody seems to be interested in. And I get that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And when you come up with a topic called using low vision is a tool to help me teach WordPress, that&#8217;s a winner because you got two things in there that everybody loves. One, we love disability, and two, we love teaching WordPress. So two weird things got put into one title.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It&#8217;s a hit.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:58] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> It got to be a hit, right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:59] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> What would be the presentation that you would do?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:01] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Ah. The one that I&#8217;m threatening to do instead of this one, because I keep saying, I don&#8217;t wanna do this one, let me do another one. There&#8217;s two.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One is, burnt out on web design, what your future career could be, which is my story.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the other one is, show me the money, how to get sponsors to financially help with your podcast, event, whatever. I like that topic, show me the money.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:24] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Paraphrasing, just a minute, what are the nuggets? Because I&#8217;m curious about that one.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:27] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Oh, come on. You could teach me, okay?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:30] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> What are the nuggets in there though?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:32] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Well, in my case with my podcast, I&#8217;ve been sort of lucky in that they came to me and said, we&#8217;d like to sponsor you. Which is a shock because when I started the podcast a year and a half ago, or actually the idea was, it&#8217;s now two years old, I said, I didn&#8217;t care if anybody ever listened, I didn&#8217;t care if anybody ever sponsored. And then of course, over time, I did care.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I never thought of my show ever being sponsored. I said, I&#8217;ll just do it. And then I started realising, hey, this takes a lot of time, should get paid for this. And, you know, I feel just, if I have a second or two say how fortunate I am to be a part of all of this because at my advanced age, to be in this community with such smart, brilliant, whatever, people that are friendly. When I talk to people my age who are generally retired or retiring and, their world gets smaller and mine gets bigger.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:24] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Oh, that&#8217;s interesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:25] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> So I&#8217;m really, really lucky about that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:28] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. I don&#8217;t know what your age is, but I am of a certain age, and I&#8217;m kind of feeling at the moment that there&#8217;s this whole thing which everybody wants to talk about, which is AI. And I&#8217;m kind of feeling as if that train has already, you know, that ship has sailed for me. Can&#8217;t invest all of the time and what have you to learn all of the different bits and pieces. It&#8217;s like there&#8217;s another bus coming. I don&#8217;t know what you think about that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:47] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Well, I&#8217;ll tell you what it is, for me, it&#8217;s been a career extender, because I am now writing at a level for Kinsta, technical articles that I could not otherwise write. And because of my use of, and if you will, mastery of AI, I&#8217;ve been able to code things that I could not do before. So I&#8217;ve always had sort of, for the longest time, because I taught great foundation of HTML, CSS, some JavaScript, whatever. So I know this stuff, okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But to elevate that knowledge, to create stuff now that is much more complicated, sort of like junior development oriented stuff or maybe a little bit beyond that. That is amazing. And it&#8217;s because of AI.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:28] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That&#8217;s fascinating.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:30] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> It&#8217;s extending what I can do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:32] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, you feel like you&#8217;ve got a new lease of life there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:34] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Yeah, a bit. So I don&#8217;t have to keep writing the same things over and over about how to create a post. You know, I&#8217;ve done that. I want to be challenged to learn new things, and AI is helping me do that. And we&#8217;re teaching AI, and AI is teaching us. So it&#8217;s really cool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:49] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Your presentation, is it today or tomorrow?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:51] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Well, it&#8217;s tomorrow.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I was going to say, you&#8217;re looking very calm for somebody that has a presentation later today.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:56] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Well, you know, I&#8217;ve been around the block. I&#8217;m not going to be nervous. Now what I do have to do is I&#8217;ve got to do some more memorisation. And that&#8217;s what I talked about always being prepared. I just can&#8217;t go in there and read the slides. It&#8217;s not going to happen. So I have to really know what the slides are, what the order is, and what the words are on the screen. I don&#8217;t have to read those words, but I have to know the ideas behind all this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:16] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So in some sense, you&#8217;ve memorised it more or less. Oh, that&#8217;s interesting. So you&#8217;ve really applied thought to every, more or less, every sentence that comes out of your mouth.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:24] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Basically.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:25] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> But you don&#8217;t get nervous.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:26] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> We&#8217;re with friends.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:28] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I would get so nervous.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:29] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> At least I like to think so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:30] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. No, I agree. Every time I&#8217;ve been to a presentation, even when the person delivering it has been quite nervous, there&#8217;s always been a very positive sentiment in the room.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:39] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> I&#8217;ll tell you why I don&#8217;t get nervous, I don&#8217;t see their faces.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:41] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Oh.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:42] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> So if you don&#8217;t see their faces. There&#8217;s so many advantages of vision impairment. I know it sounds crazy, but if you don&#8217;t see their faces, then you don&#8217;t see their reactions. Now, of course, that&#8217;s a negative too. But then you don&#8217;t get nervous.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:55] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Absolutely fascinating. Well, I wish you the best of luck with it. It will be out on wordpress.tv at some point. Typically now they come out really soon. These flagship events, they turn them around really quickly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:06] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Well, I don&#8217;t know when this is coming out, but this is going to be live streamed around the world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Is it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:10] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Yeah. So one person can watch.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> The point being, dear listener, that if you&#8217;ve enjoyed this episode and you want to follow on the talk, the presentation that Bud has given at WordCamp US, by the way, maybe the quickest way to do that is to just Google, either WordCamp US 2025. Or Google, using low vision as my tool to help me teach WordPress. That&#8217;s the other short circuit if you like. You&#8217;ll be able to see exactly what it is that Bud delivered.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have no further questions, so unless you&#8217;ve got something to add, I will say thank you very much for chatting to me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:40] <strong>Bud Kraus:</strong> Well, thank you Nathan. And you know I&#8217;m a big fan of what you do and thanks for having me on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:43] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you so much.</p>\n</div></details>\n\n\n\n<p>On the podcast today we have <a href=\"https://seriouslybud.com/\">Bud Kraus</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud was diagnosed with macular degeneration, a condition often associated with old age, when he was 37. Affecting both eyes, this gradually eroded his central vision, making it difficult for him to see straight ahead, recognize faces, drive or read. Despite these challenges, Bud’s peripheral vision remained intact, sparing him the need for a cane or guide dog, and allowing him to continue to navigate daily life. Through perseverance and adaptation, Bud continues to live fully, facing the hurdles of vision loss with resilience and optimism.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud opens up the podcast by talking about his experience living with legal blindness, how his central vision loss has shaped everything from everyday activities to his professional routines. He explains the practical ways he adapts his devices and workflow, including tweaks to operating system settings, using screen zoom functions, and relying on pattern recognition to teach coding, write tutorials, and even host his Seriously, Bud podcast. His unique perspective sheds light on the often-overlooked nuances of accessibility, reminding us that every user interacts with technology differently.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud also chats about the broader impact of accessibility in the WordPress space, from frustrations with hard-to-navigate interfaces to the importance of not excluding users who may become your audience or customers. His reflections reveal how living with low vision pushed him beyond mere acceptance, helping him discover new opportunities, hone his teaching skills, and even find humour in daily challenges.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bud’s story serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of designing with empathy, embracing adaptation, and viewing accessibility not just as a technical requirement, but as a source of creativity and connection. It’s full of real-world tips, personal anecdotes, and a dose of inspiration.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you’re a designer, developer, educator, or simply passionate about building a more inclusive web, this episode is for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Useful links</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://us.wordcamp.org/2025/session/using-low-vision-as-my-tool-to-help-me-teach-wordpress/\">Using Low Vision As My Tool To Help Me Teach WordPress</a>, Bud&#8217;s presentation at WordCamp US 2025</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.freedomscientific.com/products/software/jaws/\">JAWS, Job Access With Speech software</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.pratt.edu/\">Pratt Institute</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.descript.com/\">Descript</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/05/using-low-vision-teach-wordpress/\">Using Low Vision As My Tool To Help Me Teach WordPress</a>, Bud&#8217;s post on Smashing Magazine</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 08 Oct 2025 14:00:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Nathan Wrigley\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:59:\"Open Channels FM: From Home Kitchen to International Orders\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=110428\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:66:\"https://openchannels.fm/from-home-kitchen-to-international-orders/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:163:\"Using WooCommerce and open source to take kitchen baking into an online cake business, embracing cake in a jar and building a vibrant brand with community support.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 08 Oct 2025 12:41:35 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"BobWP\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:26:\"Matt: Tim &amp;amp; Pablos\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150138\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/tim-pablos/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:652:\"<p>Two of my favorite humans, <a href=\"https://tim.blog/\">Tim Ferriss</a> and <a href=\"https://pablosspeaks.com/\">Pablos Holman</a>, had a great interview together.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Pablos has a <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F23CLXZP\">great new book out</a>, and <a href=\"https://audrey.co/\">Audrey Capital</a> is a happy LP in his <a href=\"https://deepfuture.tech/\">Deep Future fund</a>. Of my many hacker friends, Pablos is probably the most public.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 07 Oct 2025 13:36:03 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:94:\"Open Channels FM: How Decentralized Social Platforms Grew from Identica to Modern-Day Mastodon\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=110897\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:101:\"https://openchannels.fm/how-decentralized-social-platforms-grew-from-identica-to-modern-day-mastodon/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:188:\"Matthias Pfefferle discusses the Fediverse\'s origins and evolution with Evan Prodromou, highlighting decentralized social networks, protocols, privacy, and the future of federated systems.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 07 Oct 2025 11:12:52 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"BobWP\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:28;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:20:\"Matt: Beeper Updates\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150133\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:37:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/beeper-updates/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:277:\"<p><a href=\"https://blog.beeper.com/2025/10/06/beeper-september/\">Beeper has a fun set of September updates</a>, adding support for Google Voice, LinkedIn now runs on-device, typing indicators for Google Messages and Instagram, full Telegram custom emoji support, and more.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 06 Oct 2025 18:22:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:77:\"Open Channels FM: Why Linking and Permalinks Are the Backbone of the Open Web\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=110377\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:84:\"https://openchannels.fm/why-linking-and-permalinks-are-the-backbone-of-the-open-web/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:168:\"Dave Winer talks about the open web\'s basics, emphasizing that linking is crucial for real connection. Platforms limiting links miss out on that vibrant web experience.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 06 Oct 2025 12:49:41 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"BobWP\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:30;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:37:\"Tammie Lister: September in WordPress\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:34:\"https://binatethoughts.com/?p=2455\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:50:\"https://binatethoughts.com/september-in-wordpress/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5187:\"<p>Another month has turned just like the leaves as autumn settles in. I was lucky enough to get time to focus thanks to sponsors, here is what I did within WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">August reflections</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It’s worth noting I am aware that August didn’t have a month post, this was due to travelling back from being at WordCamp US. This post is a merged month in many sense as the theme has maintained the same as September saw solidifying of what I was doing.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A new team</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Core Program team was <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/project/2025/09/15/announcing-the-core-program-team/\">announced</a> and I will be the first team rep. This was a huge part of this month as required setting up and focus. I am beyond excited what this means. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am thrilled to say <a href=\"https://www.bigscoots.com/\">BigScoots</a> is sponsoring me to cover some time focusing on the Core Program team and thankful for the opportunity to go to sponsors and highlight where I am needed most.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Focusing on AI and editor</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Relating to the last section a little, <a href=\"https://greyd.io/\">Greyd</a> are now going to be sponsoring me to focus both on Core AI and also on Core Editor. This combination allows me to focus even more my contributions where they can be effective. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>This split focus will add to <a href=\"https://servmask.com/\">ServMask’s</a> sponsorship of me within Core AI already to give me extra time within that area.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Areas of contribution</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>My split this month was given a new focus thanks to being a team rep for a new <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/program/2025/09/12/welcome-to-the-core-program-team/\">team announced</a>, Core Program. Beyond that, top areas were:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>&#8216;Needs design&#8217;</strong>: adding design to Core AI experiments.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Triage:</strong> focused on 6.9 design issues, unblocking and also giving feedback.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Program team work</strong>: establishing team and getting goals brewing. Weekly posts <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/program/tag/this-week/\">here</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Core AI:</strong> focusing on roadmaps.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sharing the journey</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I got to share a few things this month, I also got to attend LoopConf and speak about AI at the local WP London meetup the night before:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://binatethoughts.com/the-sparkle-paradox-how-ai-signalling-undermines-adoption/\">The sparkle paradox</a>: specifically fuelled the designs I worked on for Experiments.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Spoke at WPLDN about &#8216;<a href=\"https://www.wpldn.uk/talk/when-the-interface-doesnt-matter-anymore/\">When the Interface doesn’t matter anymore</a>&#8216;.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br />Upcoming plans for contribution</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>October is already shaping up to be busy with Core Program and the 6.9 release.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Triage: </strong>focus on 6.9, but I don’t want to ignore the <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/ancient\">ancient and inactive</a> trac log. This month triage won’t be my main focus but more about unblocking</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Core AI:</strong> feedback and iterations for experiments and program work on abilities. I would also love to work on the <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/ai/discussions/23\">documentation</a> and handbook if time.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I had some awesome fun working on the issues for experiments. <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/ai/issues/13#issuecomment-3352028955\">#</a> <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/ai/issues/12#issuecomment-3353681251\">#</a> <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/ai/issues/11#issuecomment-3352146880\">#</a> <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/ai/issues/10#issuecomment-3352689787\">#</a></li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Core Program: </strong>shape goals collaboratively, goals will be posted weekly on #core-program in Slack.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sponsors this month</h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p>I now have these sponsors and from this month I am highlighting the areas they are helping me focus on if sponsoring a particular focus. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.bigscoots.com\">BigScoots</a> (Core Program), <a href=\"https://greyd.io\">Greyd</a> (Core AI / Core Editor), <a href=\"https://kinsta.com\">Kinsta</a> (Triage), <a href=\"https://servmask.com\">ServMask</a> (Core AI), <a href=\"https://github.com/aaronjorbin\">Aaron Jorbin</a>, <a href=\"https://github.com/timnashcouk\">Tim Nash</a>, <a href=\"https://github.com/jeffpaul\">Jeffrey Paul</a> and <a href=\"https://github.com/scotrumery\">Scot Rumery</a> (<a href=\"https://rumspeed.com/about/\">Rumspeed</a>). To everyone who sponsored me and helped me secure sponsorship, thank you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to sponsor me? You can through <a href=\"https://github.com/sponsors/karmatosed\">GitHub</a>.</p>\n</div>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 06 Oct 2025 09:06:18 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"binatethoughts.com\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:27:\"Matt: Telegram and Weird Al\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150113\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:44:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/telegram-and-weird-al/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2529:\"<p>I have two interesting interviews to share with you today, the first is <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjPH9njnaVU\">Lex Fridman interviewing Pavel Durov</a>, the founder of <a href=\"https://telegram.org/\">Telegram</a>. I started using and advocating for Telegram back in 2015, and <a href=\"https://audrey.co/\">Audrey Capital</a> was part of their aborted fundraise in 2018. As a software craftsperson, I&#8217;ve always had tremendous respect for the team and the rate at which they shipped truly novel design and UI. I&#8217;m amazed by the speed at which they ship major features across multiple platforms. The network also has incredibly resiliency, which they get into on the podcast. As I&#8217;m often in poor connectivity situations in planes or remote locations, Telegram has been one of the networks that works most reliably.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve met Pavel only briefly about a decade ago, but have followed his story as he&#8217;s a unique character with an ascetic lifestyle, target of many intelligence agencies, sperm donor father of 100+ children, and many other unique characteristics. I use Telegram like I use X/Twitter, I put things I consider semi-public on it and I think of it like a social network and development platform, and <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2022/08/telegram-channel/\">since 2022 I&#8217;ve cross-posted my blog to a Telegram channel using a Jetpack bot</a>. It&#8217;s probably my favorite community platform. The four hour interview between Lex and Pavel covers a lot of ground, but product builders will probably appreciate most the middle part around the 2-hour mark where they go into their engineering and design philosophies. (BTW I usually watch/listen to these at 2x speed.)</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re looking for something a little lighter on a Sunday I recommend this <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSu2eMkIyZs\">heart-warming conversation between John Mayer and Weird Al Yankovic</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I know this seems like an unusual pairing, but both Pavel and Weird Al are hackers in the sense that they examined the rules of the system and decided to create a new game.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sun, 05 Oct 2025 21:08:02 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:59:\"Tammie Lister: Why Gentle Leadership Builds Better Products\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:34:\"https://binatethoughts.com/?p=2447\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:72:\"https://binatethoughts.com/why-gentle-leadership-builds-better-products/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11249:\"<p>We&#8217;ve all seen it. A product launches, a feature ships, a choice gets made. And within hours, the not-so-hot, more grumpy takes arrive. Threads dissecting every misstep. Social media posts stating how they&#8217;d have done x or y better. Statements across the web cataloguing failures. Commentary that positions the critic as the one who would have done it better. This happens even more on Open Source projects, we&#8217;ve all seen it across WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is an increasingly prevalent issue in product circles. Yet, we seldom highlight the human impact of this culture and the more effective alternatives that can truly foster better products and stronger teams. Even more so in open source. It&#8217;s also worth noting that those who can drive change, those called and looked to as product leaders, are often the ones who contribute most to the problem. By inspiring others and adopting more positive practices, we can foster a more collaborative and thriving environment for everyone involved.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Changing Position of the Role of Product</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>My experience in product is a journey many of us share as we grew alongside the practice. We often had to fight for our place at the table, sometimes moving gently and other times more forcefully to ensure our voices were heard.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Times have changed, and now the product is at the centre of much of our work. It no longer needs to prove its worth or challenge existing components; instead, it should avoid adopting harmful practices seen in longer traditions, such as design, which have led to dangerous and destructive patterns of critique. It&#8217;s possible to disagree without resorting to tearing others down or stripping away their contributions. In fact, taking a more constructive approach is a sign of greater skill, as many of us have come to learn.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout my career, I have learned a great deal through trial and error, thanks to the incredible mentors who guided me and the space they provided for me to understand. Their compassion and calmness shaped my understanding of leadership; it&#8217;s not just about being in the spotlight, which was a breath of fresh air for someone like me who thrives behind the scenes.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Psychology of What We&#8217;re Really Doing</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When we share our thoughts on products and the teams behind them, we&#8217;re doing more than just providing feedback; we&#8217;re meant to encourage accountability and nurture growth. The impact of our words can ripple far beyond the initial conversation, creating a meaningful dialogue.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Studies in self-determination theory reveal that environments filled with criticism, rather than constructive support, can lead to loss of motivation. This is especially true over time. In open-source and collaborative spaces, the consequences are even more significant. Unhelpful criticism can generate conflicts and discourage participation, particularly for those from underrepresented backgrounds. Our language truly matters, and it becomes even more powerful when coming from influential voices.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/785876-leadership-is-about-making-others-better-as-a-result-of\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sheryl Sandber</a>g</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The evidence suggests that public criticism, especially when not accompanied by constructive input, doesn&#8217;t enhance products. Instead, it risks stifling the very voices we should be championing to drive improvement and innovation. Let&#8217;s strive to uplift one another and create positive pathways for making. I know I want to create in a space like that, and I&#8217;m reasonably sure those who often critique the loudest do.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Leadership Actually Looks Like</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This isn&#8217;t about being soft or avoiding critical conversations, far from it. But if harsh criticism is all you&#8217;re known for, people eventually stop listening. By taking this approach, you are showing an understanding that great products emerge from empowered teams, not demoralised ones.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;To me, leadership is about encouraging people. It&#8217;s about stimulating them. It&#8217;s about enabling them to achieve what they can achieve — and to do that with a purpose.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-leadership/lagarde-on-leadership-its-about-encouraging-people/2014/07/11/4696f284-06b5-11e4-a0dd-f2b22a257353_story.html\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Christine Lagarde</a></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The difference between critique and leadership is simple. Leaders focus on building capability, not broadcasting judgment. They build up whilst also setting on a path for that building. It&#8217;s certainly a harder thing to do, but in the long term, far more rewarding for both the leader and those involved. Being the critic, even if you have been elevated to a lead, eventually casts you as the villain of the piece, and that&#8217;s not good for anyone&#8217;s heart. Most leads got there through being incredible makers in the first place; somewhere along the way, they shifted from making to criticising, from building to broadcasting judgment.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Alternative: Being Part of the Solution</h2>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I raise my own voice—not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6628892-i-raise-up-my-voice-not-so-that-i-can\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Malala Yousafzai</a></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>If you see a product or team struggling, you have choices beyond posting about it.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Mentor someone on the team.</strong> Reach out privately. Offer your experience. It is often more impactful to say it privately. Share what you&#8217;ve learned from similar challenges. </li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Contribute directly.</strong> If it&#8217;s open source, submit a thoughtful pull request. If it&#8217;s not, offer specific, actionable feedback through proper channels. Build the bridge instead of pointing out it&#8217;s incomplete.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Support publicly, guide privately.</strong> Public spaces should be for celebrating attempts, acknowledging effort, and showing solidarity. Save detailed feedback for contexts where it can actually be heard and acted upon.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Balance your critiques with equal praise. </strong>When was the last time you praised a feature? Do that as much as you also critique and balance.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Build knowledge, not status.</strong> Research shows that when team members feel their psychological needs met, such as autonomy, competence, and relatedness, they&#8217;re far more likely to develop intrinsic motivation and engage meaningfully with their work. Your role as a leader isn&#8217;t to prove you could have done better. It&#8217;s to help others actually do better. </li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Myth of &#8220;Necessary Toughness&#8221;</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s a belief in some communities that toxicity is &#8220;a naturally occurring if not necessary facet of culture.&#8221; This is demonstrably false. Toxic behaviour causes contributors to leave projects and creates barriers to participation, particularly for newcomers and those from underrepresented communities. It causes burnout not just in those receiving but also in those giving. It eats at you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gentle leadership isn&#8217;t weak leadership. It&#8217;s strategic leadership. It&#8217;s essential to understand that the long-term health of products and communities depends on creating environments where people want to contribute their best work, not environments where they&#8217;re afraid to take risks and fail.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Evaluating Your Leadership</h2>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;You can evaluate the quality of your authority by looking deeply to see if compassion is the foundation of your leadership.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://laidlawscholars.network/posts/see-if-compassion-is-the-foundation-of-your-leadership\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zen Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh</a> </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This isn&#8217;t just an abstract philosophy. You can apply a practical lens for examining how we show up as leaders. The next time you&#8217;re tempted to post about what&#8217;s wrong with someone else&#8217;s or your own product, ask yourself:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Will this help the team, the product improve, or position me as knowledgeable?</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Who does this harm and who does this serve?</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Could I offer this insight in a way that builds rather than breaks?</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Am I solving a problem or performing expertise?</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The products that endure, the teams that innovate, they don&#8217;t come from cultures of constant public criticism. They come from environments where people feel safe to experiment, supported when they stumble, and mentored toward excellence.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your influence as a product leader isn&#8217;t measured by how effectively you can identify flaws; it&#8217;s also about how effectively you can address them. It&#8217;s measured by how many people do better work because you were there.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Building Better, Together</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Every product you see represents countless hours of human effort, difficult trade-offs, and people doing their best with the information and resources available to them. Before you critique, consider how you might contribute. Before pointing out failures, consider how you can prevent them in the future by teaching, mentoring, and supporting.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;At the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of my life, I want to say I contributed more than I criticised.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/62183586-dare-to-lead-brave-work-tough-conversations-whole-hearts\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brené Brown</a></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The industry doesn&#8217;t need more critics. It needs more builders. It requires leaders who understand that gentle doesn&#8217;t mean permissive, and that the strongest teams are built on foundations of trust, growth, and mutual support.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I can leave one thought at the end of this, it would be to consider: &#8220;What impact will your leadership have?&#8221; Great products are built by great teams. Great teams are built by leaders who lift others. Choose to be that leader.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sun, 05 Oct 2025 11:03:52 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"binatethoughts.com\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:33;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Matt: Greenwashing\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150105\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3909:\"<p>Tonight there was a lovely event at <a href=\"https://tinkertendo.com/\">TinkerTendo</a> by Raman Frey and Karin Johnson of <a href=\"https://www.gpdinners.com/\">Good People Dinners</a>, this one honoring <a href=\"https://davidgelles.com/\">David Gelles&#8217;</a> new book, <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Dirtbag-Billionaire-Chouinard-Patagonia-Fortune/dp/1668032260?tag=photomatt08-20\">Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away</a>. I&#8217;m a huge fan of Yvon Chouinard and really enjoyed his book <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Let-People-Surfing-Education-Businessman/dp/1594200726/?tag=photomatt08-20\">Let My People Go Surfing</a> which I read back in 2018. It was the first time hosting such a large 60-person dinner in the TinkerTendo warehouse, and thanks to <a href=\"https://copperhome.com/\">this Copper battery-operated induction stovetop</a> and an amazing local chef, <a href=\"https://www.komaaj.com/\">Hanif Sadr</a>, the food turned out amazing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve only started the new book, but I&#8217;m interested to see what&#8217;s happened in the 20 years between Yvon&#8217;s book and David&#8217;s, especially the story of <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/climate/patagonia-climate-philanthropy-chouinard.html\">how Yvon gave away all his equity and control in the company</a> to ensure a focus on his lifelong goal of environmentalism and conservation. Patagonia is one of the better corporate entities fighting for good, but it reminded me of how companies can put on a jacket of doing good while actually being evil underneath.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like I talked about the <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2025/09/externalities/\">economic concept of Externalties a few weeks ago</a>, I think it&#8217;s imperative that the WordPress community understands the history of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing\">Greenwashing</a>, which the <a href=\"https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/greenwashing\">United Nations defines as follows</a>:</p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Claiming that the company will achieve future environment milestones while not putting sufficient plans in place to do so.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Being intentionally vague about operations or using vague claims that cannot be specifically proven (like saying they are &#8220;environmentally friendly&#8221; or &#8220;green&#8221;).</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Saying that a product does not contain harmful materials or use harmful practices that they would not use anyway.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Highlighting one thing the company does well regarding the environment while not doing anything else.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Promoting products that meet regulatory minimums as if peer products do not.</li>\n</ol>\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/\">WordPress</a> and open source our environmental crisis comes from companies that frack the open source software and brands, which shows up as lack of investment in the code which falls fallow <a href=\"https://tech.eu/2025/07/25/chronic-underfunding-of-open-source-software-poses-strategic-risk-to-europes-digital-sovereignty/\">especially in the security sense</a>, or by attaching themselves to a brand or trademark and tricking people into thinking they&#8217;re associated with the Good Open thing, when they&#8217;re really a parasitic cancer on it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is happening right now in WordPress, so when you see a company hire a good person or sponsor an event that seems on its own a good thing, and probably represents hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment, weigh that against the tens of millions they&#8217;re spending with their other hand to destroy the source of everything they&#8217;ve benefited from, and if they were to win, endanger every open source project. It&#8217;s an open source form of greenwashing, perhaps call it <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openwashing\">openwashing</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sun, 05 Oct 2025 06:44:42 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:113:\"Gutenberg Times: Blocks galore, test template management, Woo product collections, and more—Weekend Edition 343\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=42093\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:119:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/blocks-galore-test-template-management-woo-product-collections-and-more-weekend-edition-343/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:20342:\"<p>Howdy, </p>\n\n\n\n<p>And just like that, the last quarter of 2025 has begun. It&#8217;s been an interesting year again, and now we are on the home stretch, heading into a Holiday season. It&#8217;s become my favorite time of the year when Autumn make nature paint trees and bushes in so many colors. After a life near evergreen Everglades of Florida, the middle European changing colors of the fall seems magical.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Soon it&#8217;s time to plan for 2026. Speaking of which, in case you missed it, WordCamp Asia <a href=\"https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/call-for-speakers-is-now-open/\">Call for Speakers</a> has been out for a couple of week, and the deadline is quite early: October 31, 2025. If you were thinking about going to WordCamp Asia, what would be a talk you would be interested in seeing in April of 2026? </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, the present is pretty amazing right now, too. So without further ado, the news. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yours, <img alt=\"💕\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f495.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /><br /><em>Birgit</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>PS: This weekend, on October 3rd, Germany celebrates the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Unity_Day\">35th anniversary of the Reunion</a> after the Iron Curtain was lifted. </p>\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-group\" style=\"padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<nav class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents\"><ol><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/blocks-galore-test-template-management-woo-product-collections-and-more-weekend-edition-343/#0-word-press-release-information\">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</a></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/blocks-galore-test-template-management-woo-product-collections-and-more-weekend-edition-343/#0-p\">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</a></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/blocks-galore-test-template-management-woo-product-collections-and-more-weekend-edition-343/#blocks-galore-with-telex\">Blocks Galore with Telex </a></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/blocks-galore-test-template-management-woo-product-collections-and-more-weekend-edition-343/#2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled\">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</a></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/blocks-galore-test-template-management-woo-product-collections-and-more-weekend-edition-343/#3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press\">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.</a></li></ol></nav>\n</div></div>\n</section>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\"></div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-word-press-release-information\">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>.<strong>Jonathan Bossenger</strong>, WordPress 6.9 release co-lead for testing, is asking for your <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2025/10/03/help-test-changes-to-template-management/\"><strong>help to test changes to the template management</strong></a>. The new feature is a great enhancement to the way templates are handled in the Site Editor. More eyes are needed to make sure it&#8217;s the best it can be in the short amount of time until the first Beta version is released. The instructions are detailed, and Bossenger added a video to show how the various sections of this test should work.</p>\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-callout undefined is-color-set\" style=\"color: #4c38c1; border-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 26px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: left; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: #f3efe9;\">\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/\">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s master branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now also available via <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/playnightly.json\">WordPress Playground</a>. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? <a href=\"mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com\">Email me </a>with your experience</p>\n</section>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\" style=\"height: 39px;\"></div>\n\n\n\n<p>The security and maintenance release, <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/09/wordpress-6-8-3-release/\"><strong>WordPress 6.8.3 </strong></a>is now available. John Blackbourn led the release and shares the details in his release post. Update as soon as you can, as it plugs a few security holes.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Carlos Bravo</strong> issues the <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v21.8.0-rc.1\"><strong>release candidate for Gutenberg 21.8</strong></a> and it&#8217;s available for testing. The final release is scheduled for October 8. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><img alt=\"🎙\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f399.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /> The latest episode is <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-122-gutenberg-21-8-and-wordpress-6-9/\">Gutenberg Changelog #122 – Gutenberg 21.8 and WordPress 6.9</a> with Beth Soderberg of <a href=\"https://bethink.studio/\">Bethink Studio</a></p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-no-vertical-margin\"><img alt=\"Gutenberg Changelog 122 with Beth Soderberg\" class=\"wp-image-42236\" height=\"193\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-11-at-12.32.48.png?resize=652%2C193&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>If you are listening via Spotify, please leave a comment. If you listen via other podcast apps, please leave a review. It&#8217;ll help with the distribution.</em></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-p\">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the WordPress VIP blog post and video, <a href=\"https://wpvip.com/case-studies/pew-research-center/\"><strong>Pew Research Center Builds Interactive Content at Scale</strong></a>, the Seth Rubenstein and his team share how they rebuilt their website using WordPress VIP to tackle challenges in a world where people seldom visit original sources. Their old method took weeks of custom coding for interactive content, which delayed publishing. By adopting a block-first strategy in 2022, they cut production time from weeks to minutes, enabling editors and designers to create quizzes and maps on their own. This shift allowed developers to focus on innovation while increasing publishing frequency and lowering costs with evergreen interactive content that engages audiences directly.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In his video <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7GRSnSd7SM\"><strong>Level up your Product Collections</strong></a>, <strong>Brian Coords</strong> demonstrates the new features in WooCommerce 10.2. He covered carousel layouts, taxonomy filters (Category/Brand/Tag), and an improved Cross-Sells collection for displaying products.</p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Joanne Courtright</strong> of Groundworx released a new <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/groundworx-testimonial/\"><strong>Testimonials plugin</strong></a> in the WordPress repository. Get the skinny from her blog post:   <a href=\"https://groundworx.dev/blog/introducing-groundworx-testimonial-modern-testimonials-for-wordpress-block-themes/\">Introducing Groundworx Testimonial: Modern Testimonials for WordPress Block Themes</a>. &#8220;Most testimonial plugins are still stuck in the classic era. This one is designed for developers and site builders who want testimonials that “just work” with Gutenberg, she wrote. It aims to be Gutenberg-native, theme.json aware, and accessibility-first. It includes a dedicated Testimonial post type + flexible blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> released the first version of an <strong><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/x3p0-authors/\">Authors List Block</a></strong> for multi-author sites. &#8220;This is especially useful if you’re coming over from using a classic WordPress theme and need a block that’s similar to the old <code>wp_list_authors()</code> template tag,&#8221; he wrote. The plugin comes with a full array of block design tools. It also sports options to display number of posts, various order filters, and feed links. </p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42113\" height=\"354\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-02-at-16.34.38-2.png?resize=652%2C354&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mike McAlister</strong> released his <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/ollie-menu-designer/\"><strong>Ollie Menu Designer</strong></a> for free in the WordPress repository. It is a powerful way to build  mobile and dropdown menus in the WordPress block editor—no coding required. For more details, watch <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w96lghXWhiI\">his announcement video on YouTube. </a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"blocks-galore-with-telex\">Blocks Galore with Telex </h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In his post, <a href=\"https://www.pootlepress.com/2025/10/if-automattics-telex-builds-this-you-might-not-need-that-page-builder/\"><strong>If Automattic’s Telex Builds This, You Might Not Need That Page Builder</strong></a>, <strong>Jamie Marsland</strong> explores how Automattic&#8217;s Telex AI tool could transform WordPress by enabling users to extend existing core blocks rather than just creating new ones. Currently, Telex generates custom blocks like video effects and timelines, but extending core blocks like paragraphs, tables, or buttons requires complex developer skills. If Telex could extend core blocks and offer a public directory for sharing these extensions, it could replace traditional page builders by unlocking the full potential of WordPress&#8217;s native blocks without adding technical debt or duplication.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tammie Lister </strong>started her personal <a href=\"https://blocktober.fun/\"><strong>Blocktober</strong></a>, posting a block a day on the newly created site. Every day at noon, she uses Automattic&#8217;s Telex and builds a new block. Spanning the arc of history back to the 1980s, Lister started with an <a href=\"https://blocktober.fun/ascii-tetris/\">ASCII Tetris</a> block. Here goes my Thursday morning&#8230;. </p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42099\" height=\"377\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-02-at-11.22.33.png?resize=652%2C377&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In his latest blog post, <strong>Marko Ivanovic</strong> made a set of <strong><a href=\"https://ivanovicmarko.com/2025/09/25/telex-for-designers/\">blocks for designers</a></strong> with the help of Automattic&#8217;s Telex. Earlier he also created <a href=\"https://ivanovicmarko.com/2025/09/20/interactive-icons/\">animated icon blocks</a>. Ivanovic is a designer working for Automattic, and since 2022. His post on <a href=\"https://ivanovicmarko.com/2025/10/01/wordpress-and-design/\"><strong>how he rediscovered WordPress</strong></a> and why any designer should embrace WordPress is worth a read, too. And I love those sticky notes.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https://ivanovicmarko.com/2025/09/25/telex-for-designers/\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42101\" height=\"331\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-02-at-11.30.51.png?resize=652%2C331&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled\">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In preparation for the WordPress 6.9 release on December 2,  <strong>Justin Tadlock </strong>published a new tutorial on the WordPress Developer Blog: You  on how to implement <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/09/border-radius-size-presets-in-wordpress-6-9/\"><strong>Border radius size presets in WordPress 6.9</strong></a>. &#8220;You define an array of sizes that users can apply to blocks that support border radius. You can also reuse them within your own theme stylesheets and <code>theme.json</code> file.&#8221;, he wrote.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"border radius presets coming to WordPress 6.9 \" class=\"wp-image-42118\" height=\"337\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/border-radius-on-gradient.webp?resize=652%2C337&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At WordCamp Gdynia I shared how to <strong><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/2025/09/30/streamlined-block-theme-development-using-wordpress-playground-and-github-for-no-code-version-contr/\">use WordPress Playground and GitHub for No-Code Version Control of Site Editor Changes</a></strong> The recording of my talk is now on WordPress TV. You will learn how theme developers can leverage WordPress Playground alongside the Create Block Theme plugin to create a seamless, browser-based development environment that integrates directly with GitHub for version control—all without writing a single line of code. <a href=\"https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ffMAVMjFxm1Ai7p2JWWwZAK5vQN5ryCbh-VXOqDjRiQ/edit?usp=drive_web&amp;ouid=101776844630674138344\">The slides are available on Google Drive. </a></p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/2025/09/30/streamlined-block-theme-development-using-wordpress-playground-and-github-for-no-code-version-contr/\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42115\" height=\"408\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/WCGdynia_-Block-Theme-Development-Playground-CBT-GitHub.jpg?resize=652%2C408&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\" style=\"height: 19px;\"></div>\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-callout undefined not-color-set\" style=\"border-color: #f9f9e5; border-radius: 22px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: left; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: #f9f9e5;\">\n<p><strong> <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2025&#8221;</a> </strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test, and Meta team from Jan. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. The previous years are also available: <strong><strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/\">2020</a> | <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2021/\">2021</a></strong> | <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2022/\">2022</a></strong></strong> | <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2023\">2023</a></strong> | <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2024/\"><strong>2024</strong></a></p>\n</section>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press\">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Long-time block developer <strong>Kevin Batdorf</strong> at <em>Extendify</em> just updated his <a href=\"https://github.com/KevinBatdorf/block-starter\"><strong>Block Starter plugin</strong> </a>repo—an &#8220;opinionated starter template for crafting WordPress block plugins,&#8221; as he calls it. It uses Tailwind v4 with output for the editor and frontend, TypeScript and Biome.js for code quality and type safety, and runs Playwright tests on PR using the Playground CLI. It also includes a Plugin Check on commits to main and before a release.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\"><em>Questions? Suggestions? Ideas? </em><br /><em>Don&#8217;t hesitate to send <a href=\"mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com\">them via email</a> or</em><br /><em> send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph</em>.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">For questions to be answered on the <a href=\"http://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast\">Gutenberg Changelog</a>, <br />send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-group\" style=\"padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\">\n<p>Featured Image: &#8220;Building blocks&#8221; by jgbarah is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 and found on WordPress.org/openverse.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>Don&#8217;t want to miss the next Weekend Edition? </strong></p>\n\n\n<form action=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/\" autocomplete=\"on\" class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-form ngl-form ngl-portrait\" method=\"post\"><div class=\"ngl-form-container\"><div class=\"ngl-form-field\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><label class=\"ngl-form-label\" for=\"ngl_email\"><br />Type in your Email address to subscribe.</label><div class=\"ngl-form-input\"><input autocomplete=\"email\" class=\"ngl-form-input-text\" id=\"ngl_email\" name=\"ngl_email\" required=\"required\" style=\"border-radius: 21px;\" type=\"email\" /></div></div><button class=\"ngl-form-button\" style=\"background-color: #005075; border-color: #005075; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; color: #ffffff; border-radius: 21px;\" type=\"submit\">Subscribe</button><p class=\"ngl-form-text\">We hate spam, too, and won&#8217;t give your email address to anyone <br />except Mailchimp to send out our Weekend Edition</p></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay\"><div class=\"ngl-message-svg-wrap\"><svg fill=\"none\" height=\"24\" stroke=\"#fff\" stroke-width=\"2\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" width=\"24\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><polyline points=\"20 6 9 17 4 12\"></polyline></svg></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay-text\">Thanks for subscribing.</div></div><input id=\"ngl_list_id\" name=\"ngl_list_id\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"26f81bd8ae\" /><input id=\"ngl_double_optin\" name=\"ngl_double_optin\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"yes\" /></form>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n</section>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 04 Oct 2025 07:41:54 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Birgit Pauli-Haack\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"Matt: Linkrot\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150093\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:30:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/linkrot/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2861:\"<p>One of the things I hate most on the internet, and part of the reason I started <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/\">WordPress</a>, was to fight linkrot. Ever since 1998, when <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/\">Tim Berners-Lee</a> wrote &#8220;<a href=\"https://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI\">Cool URIs Don&#8217;t Change</a>,&#8221; I&#8217;ve been obsessed with content management and ensuring that links don&#8217;t break. (BTW, TBL, a pioneer of creating the World Wide Web, <a href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/06/tim-berners-lee-invented-the-world-wide-web-now-he-wants-to-save-it\">has a great new profile out in the New Yorker</a>.)</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I learned today from the <a href=\"https://newspack.com/\">Newspack</a> newsletter that the <a href=\"https://www.houstonpress.com/\">Houston Press</a> is now on WordPress. Newspack is a distribution or bundle of WordPress designed for journalism, and it is led by <a href=\"https://kinsey.nyc/\">Kinsey Wilson</a>, who began his career as a night-shift journalist covering cops for a newspaper in Chicago, went on to have top editorial and business positions at The New York Times, NPR, and USA TODAY, and ran WordPress.com for a few years, which gives him a very unique position to help craft WordPress for journalists and publishers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Houston Press is an alt-weekly that wrote the very first profile of me in the world, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2004/10/press-and-cnet/\">which I blogged about here</a>. There&#8217;s a funny quote in there:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>He recently considered taking a job with a San Francisco search-engine start-up, but ended up turning them down. “They have a ton of money…But it would be 50- or 60- or 70-hour weeks, a lot of work, and I wouldn’t have time” to do WordPress. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>That &#8220;search-engine start-up&#8221; was <a href=\"https://www.google.com/\">Google</a>! How the internet might have turned out differently if I had taken that job, as my Mom wanted me to (because they offered free food). I still think Google is one of the most interesting companies in the world, one of the few places I&#8217;d consider working if I weren&#8217;t running <a href=\"https://automattic.com/\">Automattic</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back to linkrot, the original link to the profile in that article was <code>http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2004-10-28/feature2.html</code>, which this morning didn&#8217;t work, but thanks to the Houston Press being on Newspack/WordPress I was able to ping Kinsey and his colleague Jason Lee was able to fix it so it redirects to the new canonical URL for that content in minutes. A little corner of the internet tidied up! I love the <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/\">Wayback Machine</a>, but not needing it is even better.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 04 Oct 2025 00:24:40 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:16:\"Matt: Blocktober\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150063\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/blocktober/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:406:\"<p>It&#8217;s so exciting to see what the creative minds like <a href=\"https://iconick.io/\">Nick Hamze</a> or <a href=\"https://tammielister.com/\">Tammie Lister</a> are doing with Automattic&#8217;s AI vibe coding tool, <a href=\"https://telex.automattic.ai/\">Telex</a>. Tammie is doing a Blocktober, <a href=\"https://blocktober.fun/\">a block every day this month of October, you should follow along</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 02 Oct 2025 22:15:34 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:20:\"Matt: Fight For Open\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150050\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:37:\"https://ma.tt/2025/10/fight-for-open/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2067:\"<p>Sometimes the battle for open source and freedom can take on very prosaic and practical terms, but the wins can benefit everybody. To give an example: In <a href=\"https://www.beeper.com/\">Beeper</a> we need more memory for showing notifications, because we support end-to-end encryption for networks like Signal, but Apple&#8217;s default was to only give 15 megabytes — barely enough to do anything. The previous CEO of Beeper, Eric Migicovsky, started a lobbying effort with the <a href=\"https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/index_en\">EU’s Digital Markets Act</a> on behalf of the team to give third-party apps the same memory limits that Apple provides for their own apps, which is 50MB instead of 15MB. (And up to 250MB on their higher end devices.)</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today we’ve gotten a notification that as part of iOS 26 update Apple has shipped to 2.3B devices around the world, our memory limits issue has been addressed globally, for every application developer, and some interoperability requests we had for <a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/documentation/telephonymessagingkit\">SMS/RCS</a> have been addressed for EU users. Kudos and huge thank you to Apple for giving us all new capabilities to build amazing experiences for users on par with what they seek to deliver themselves. If you want to geek out on this, <a href=\"https://blog.beeper.com/2025/10/01/how-beeper-ios-implements-notifications/\">check out the technical deep dive that Beeper just posted</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>BTW, if you haven&#8217;t heard of it yet, <a href=\"https://www.beeper.com/\">Beeper</a> is an Automattic product which aims to democratize messaging, just like WordPress democratized publishing for the world, by allowing you to get all your messages from friends across 11 different networks, like WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter/X, Signal, Discord, in one single inbox. The new version we launched in July does this in a completely secure way that&#8217;s local to your device, so the same encryption, privacy, and security each network provides is maintained.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 01 Oct 2025 20:29:45 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:114:\"WPTavern: #187 – June Liu and David Denedo on Making the Web Accessible: The Mission Behind WP Accessibility Day\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:48:\"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=199767\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:127:\"https://wptavern.com/podcast/187-june-liu-and-david-denedo-on-making-the-web-accessible-the-mission-behind-wp-accessibility-day\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:48317:\"<details>Transcript<div>\n<p>[00:00:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress, the people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, making the web accessible, and the mission behind WP Accessibility Day.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to wptavern.com/feed/podcast, and you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wptavern.com/contact/jukebox, and use the form there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So on the podcast today, we have June Liu and David Denedo.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both June and David are key members of the WP Accessibility Day organizing team, a global, volunteer driven, event focused on improving accessibility in the WordPress ecosystem.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>June serves as the marketing team co-lead, and works with sponsors, bringing her background in project management to keep the events efforts on track.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>David, a web designer and content creator based in London, contributes to the marketing and post-event teams, with his interest in web accessibility stemming from his personal experience as a visually impaired user.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WP Accessibility Day has grown significantly in the past few years, uniting a large international group of volunteers, and organizers, to drive awareness and practical change in web accessibility.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event is powered by a host of teams, marketing, sponsors, tech and vendor, post-event, translation, speakers, and more, ensuring that everything from live captioning to sign language interpretation is in place.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We begin by learning about June and David&#8217;s unique paths to accessibility advocacy. One through direct lived experience, and the other through supporting a loved one with cognitive challenges. Their stories highlight why accessibility can&#8217;t be an afterthought, and how events like WP Accessibility Day are raising awareness in this important area.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We discuss what attendees can expect at this year&#8217;s event happening from the 15th of October, 2025. It&#8217;s free, fully virtual, and runs for 24 hours, making space for a diverse range of speakers and topics.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you&#8217;re interested in the moral, legal or technical cases for accessibility, there&#8217;s something for you here, including sessions on accessible design, risk management for agencies, legal compliance, and demonstrations of assistive technologies.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>June and David share how the event format, a combination of prerecorded talks and live chat, mixes polished content with real time engagement. Plus how translation and community involvement are key to its growing impact.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to learn more about how you can make your WordPress sites, and the web in general, more inclusive, or if you&#8217;re motivated by global collaboration or personal stories, this episode is for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so without further delay, I bring you June Liu and David Denedo.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am joined on the podcast by two fabulous guests. I&#8217;ve got June Liu and David Denedo. Hello both. How are you both doing?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:03:58] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> Hi there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:03:59] <strong>David Denedo:</strong> Hello. I&#8217;m doing all right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well, it&#8217;s very nice to have you both with us. The intention of today&#8217;s podcast is to draw attention to something which well, I&#8217;m sure many of you will know about. If you don&#8217;t know about it, I certainly hope that by the end of this, not only do you know about it, but you are highly engaged, and hopefully going to attend and all of those kind of things, maybe even contribute some of your time, you never know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s called WP Accessibility Day, and we&#8217;re going to get into that in a moment. Before we do that, I just want to get the little bio, the introduction from both of you, one at a time, just telling us who you are, what your interest is in WordPress and accessibility, I guess.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we&#8217;ll keep it nice and short and sweet. So I&#8217;ll go to June first. Just let us know who you are, June.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:39] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> Thank you, Nathan. I&#8217;m June, I serve on the organising team for WP Accessibility Day as the marketing team co-lead, and I also work on the sponsors team.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>My background is mostly project management, so my forte right now is helping the team coordinate tasks, and keeping the initiatives on track. Yeah, I coordinate between the sponsors and the marketing team to get the sponsor page prepared. So that&#8217;s basically my work with WPAD.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:08] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you so much. That&#8217;s great. And David, let&#8217;s go to you next. Same question really.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:11] <strong>David Denedo:</strong> Hi, I&#8217;m David. I&#8217;m visually impaired, so that&#8217;s why I love accessibility. I work in London as a web designer and a content creator, and I&#8217;m part of the WP Accessibility Day organising team, as part of the post-event people. But I&#8217;m also in the marketing team, just jumping around, and at least trying to put as much as I can into web accessibility.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, I got into web accessibility mainly because of some talks I had two years ago from the WP Accessibility Day, and that just encouraged me. And then here we are two years later.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you so much. So, WP Accessibility Day, one thing that just jumped out at me straight away from what you were both talking about there, you both talked about, I&#8217;m on the, and then you mentioned a team. That implies that there&#8217;s quite a lot of you in the background.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So just to give credit where credit&#8217;s due, I think it&#8217;s always important to make sure that we credit not just the two of you, because there&#8217;s probably a lot of people behind this as well. I don&#8217;t want to go down the route of missing anybody out. So I wonder if it&#8217;s possible for us to just mention the kind of teams and things like that. And if there are any people in particular that you&#8217;ve been working with that you do wish to name, caveat emptor, dear listener, I apologise on behalf of everybody on this panel. If we miss anybody&#8217;s name out, sorry about that. But let&#8217;s go for the, how many teams there are and how big an enterprise is this these days?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:06:39] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever counted how many teams there are, but I&#8217;ll list some of them. And David, add yours if I miss any, please.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a volunteer team that&#8217;s, right now, pivotal. That&#8217;s their work right now in preparing the event. The event is on October 15th, so we&#8217;re just about a month away. So the volunteer team is very active right now in onboarding the volunteers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then we have the tech and vendors. And those are also very active. They work closely with the volunteer team to prepare the day of. So they&#8217;re the ones that prepare the Zoom platform for us. So making sure that it all runs well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then we have website, APAC, post event, translation, sponsors, marketing. What else? I feel like there&#8217;s a few others that I&#8217;m missing. But there is a huge team behind Amber, Bet and Joe, working and making sure that we can make the event as smooth as possible, and take some of the load off of them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:07:36] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> The Amber, the Bet and the Joe that you just mentioned, we have got Amber Hinds, Bet Hannon and Joe Dolson. So there&#8217;s three names. Do you have any recollection whether they were the people that kind of kickstarted the event, whenever that was? Because if that was the case, it sounds like it&#8217;s gone gangbusters since then with lots of people joining on, and you two being some examples.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:07:56] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> We do have a pretty big team this year. And yes, you&#8217;re right, the history is that Joe Dolson did start WP Accessibility Day. I don&#8217;t recall all of the specifics, but I think the second year, Bet, I think it might&#8217;ve started with Bet and Joe, and then Amber also came on soon after that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But we&#8217;re in our fifth year. It&#8217;s very exciting. I joined last year as an organiser and it was a point in my time where I was returning to work. So finding WPAD was kind of a sweet spot for me to test out my skill sets again, get used to being out in the public, so I have a soft spot for them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you. Okay, so there&#8217;s a few that we&#8217;ve rattled off. David, I don&#8217;t know if you can fill in any gaps that might have been left there. If so, go now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:42] <strong>David Denedo:</strong> Yeah, I think those are the main ones that were involved. And I would say Amber Hinds, when she came on board, she brought in a lot of organisation because, you know, with Joe, Joe understands the technical bits of things, but he&#8217;s not really so organised. So when she came in, that&#8217;s why the team grew exponentially from 2022, I believe when she joined. And then the year after, things just kept spiraling. And then now we have a massive team with lots of volunteers, everybody&#8217;s happy to help.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other thing that is quite nice is that there was a nice spread of people who are volunteering. So it&#8217;s not just maybe from one region or one country. We are a very nice spread of people, so that&#8217;s really nice. So from different parts, from Asia, from Africa, from the Americas and all of that, they&#8217;re all wide base.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:33] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That&#8217;s amazing. Everybody from all over the place. That&#8217;s really lovely.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>David, in your introduction, in your bio, you described that you are kind of eating your own dog food a little bit here in that, I can&#8217;t remember the exact phrasing that you had around your eyes. How did you describe the condition that you have, if that&#8217;s the right word?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:50] <strong>David Denedo:</strong> Okay, yeah. So I am visually impaired, so I have very high myopia and high astigmatism. I also struggle to see myself, so that&#8217;s one reason why I got really interested when I saw how people are able to make the web more accessible. Because I grew up in a background where we had to adapt to so many stressful things, like there wasn&#8217;t really much help for people with accessibility needs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I didn&#8217;t really know there were ways to help people out. Until I came into the whole system and I realised that, oh wow, so you can actually do this to help somebody else. Because I was always struggling, most times I couldn&#8217;t see the screen. So I&#8217;m always like relying on other people to tell me what&#8217;s in front of me, what&#8217;s on the screen, and all of that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But then when you start to see that, oh yeah, we can use a screen reader, you can use screen magnifier, you can do this, you can do that, you can just improve a little bit on your website, or even on the reality, makes things more accessible. I was like, wow, I&#8217;ve been living under the rock basically.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:10:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s absolutely fascinating. I&#8217;m just wondering, June, if you have a similar story to tell in that, is there anything that you would like to share in that regard?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:01] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> I do. My mother had a stroke, and from that she had vascular dementia. And being her caregiver for that many years, and seeing the decline in her loss of independence, because she wasn&#8217;t able to navigate the medical system by herself anymore. It was kind of, I learned everything in hindsight. I wish I had the knowledge that I have today to have helped her like 8, 10 years ago. But that drew me in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was telling you how I came back into the workforce, and one of the things that somebody said to me was, hey, there&#8217;s this free event. It&#8217;s online, you don&#8217;t have to leave your house, just try it out. And it was WPAD. And when I was listening to the talks, I was like, yeah, wait a second, you mean that websites can be laid out differently so that it would be easier for somebody to navigate it, even with a mental decline?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it&#8217;s those simple, to us, it initially could be simple, but in the back end it might not be so simple. But just having her read through an online PDF, you know, it was difficult for her to hit the right area, because the PDF lines were so tiny. And her eye, hand coordination was reduced, so she&#8217;s not able to hit those lines to fill in the PDF.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So for me it was the acknowledgement of, oh my gosh, it doesn&#8217;t have to be this way going forward. So it&#8217;s me trying to learn as much as I can to direct my future clients into a direction that gives better accessibility to all, and not just their one demographic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:41] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It&#8217;s so curious that you&#8217;ve both got two stories where the end of it, the target, if you like, is the same, but how you&#8217;ve arrived at the things are entirely different.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>David, a very personal story about your own life. And June, well, another personal story, but viewed through the prism of somebody else. Almost like standing over somebody&#8217;s shoulder and being able to ascertain, well, this person&#8217;s not getting what they could out of the internet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it strikes me that if you rewound the clock, I don&#8217;t know, let&#8217;s say 30 years ago before the internet was in any way, shape, or form common, but you could describe what would be available in 30 years time. And you could say, well, so many people, they&#8217;d have this little device in their hand, and there&#8217;d be these machines where there&#8217;d be screens on desktops and things like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>At that moment, you would be thinking to yourself, this is literally the perfect technology to help people who, let&#8217;s say for example, are struggling to see. Are unable to get out of the house. There may be an aspect of their body which doesn&#8217;t function in the way that your body or my body might function.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You would describe that and you&#8217;d think, oh, this is like manna from heaven. This is the perfect thing. But it never turned out that way. The internet went in a way entirely leaving those people behind, I think, which was such a lost opportunity.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we&#8217;re kind of 25 years or whatever it is into the internet, and we&#8217;re now going back and filling in all of the gaps that probably, with the benefit of hindsight, should never have been left.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mean, I don&#8217;t know that there&#8217;s any question in there, but it&#8217;s curious that that one technology which could have made the lives of so many people so much more straightforward, really hasn&#8217;t serviced those people particularly well until events like this come along and educate the rest of us in how to do it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:23] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> I think, Nathan, you hit two big points. Everyone&#8217;s journey with accessibility is very personal, and unless you experienced it firsthand, or even secondhand in my case, you don&#8217;t really see that impact.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the second part is that the second nail that you hit is that a lot of times it becomes an afterthought. Accessibility becomes the afterthought. I think that with an event like WPAD, we want it to become the foundational, so we&#8217;re hoping to make that change.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> For example, I&#8217;m imagining, again harking back to how the internet could have been, we&#8217;ve now got a technology where a small rectangle held in your hand, with a few clicks of a few buttons can enable you to more or less have anything delivered to your front door, in a very short space of time. Which is like, how incredible is that, that that is even possible?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so this is the perfect answer to people, let&#8217;s say for example, who struggle to get out of the front door, and navigate the shops and what have you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet we&#8217;re faced with a situation where that sublimely cool technology is impenetrable, and unavailable, to many people because it never got baked in as a requirement, and we can come to that later. David, I&#8217;m sorry, I think I interrupted.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:36] <strong>David Denedo:</strong> Oh no. Yeah, what you said is quite right. There is an imbalance in the way things are getting better, but it&#8217;s getting better for a certain set of people, but leaving some other people behind. So that is the problem.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the web, it was improving at a very fast rate in terms of how to build the web, but somewhere along the line, people forgot that the whole essence of worldwide web, the man who created the W3C consortium, who basically created the web, the father of the web, his whole idea was that the web should be accessible to all. That was his vision, his goal from the very start.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But as people are trying to push the boundaries, sometimes they forget, well, it is quite normal that sometimes unless you are experiencing a certain problem, you will not find a solution to it. So now that we are bringing the awareness to people, then they&#8217;re now finding out, okay, we forgot this certain set of people, let&#8217;s now incorporate them into our thinking, into our design, into everything.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that is one nice thing about having a conference like WPAD, to help spread awareness to people. Because if you&#8217;ve never experienced a certain problem, for example, you&#8217;ve never been blind or you&#8217;ve never had something with your mobility. You may not really appreciate the struggles of those people. But when they&#8217;re able to express it out and explain to you in these conferences, then you can now get that third party understanding, and at least you can incorporate accessibility into your own lifestyle.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:17:21] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I have a question around that, because I am in the position where my eyes, despite the fact I wear glasses, once the glasses are on my nose, my eyes, functionally, I think you would describe them as normal, and I have good ish hearing, and my body functions. And so, David, you&#8217;ve basically just described me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It can be, it has been hard to imagine, what is the lived experience of people who are not in the same boat as I am?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I did wonder if a part of WPAD, I did wonder if a part of that was that educational piece? Whether it was explaining to people, web developers, people who may not be accustomed to what the conference is about, and what the summit will, you know, the educational pieces. I wondered if there was a piece where you explained, okay, this is the setup that somebody using a screen reader, this is what it feels like to them when they&#8217;re on the internet. This is what it would feel like, for example, I don&#8217;t know, if you are using a puff and sip system or something like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I don&#8217;t know if you are providing content like that, but I&#8217;d be curious to know whether you explain what the lived experience would be for people who may benefit as a result of the tech talks in the conference.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:34] <strong>David Denedo:</strong> Yeah, so from what we have planned, there are a few of the conference talks that will reflect about accessibility. I think one of them is by Dennis, he&#8217;s going to show how a screen reader user will access a website. And then there are also talks about post-production of videos. So some people will incorporate the talks in, or at least talk about the experiences, but it may not be like a full on description.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But yeah, I&#8217;ve seen a few of the talks that will be happening and they will be incorporating some of the disabilities that we know, like colorblindness, and then like audio and other things. So that will help people to get an awareness of what disabilities are out there, and how to incorporate that into building a more accessible system.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, that&#8217;s really interesting. I suppose the old adage is, you know, a picture says the same as a thousand words or something like that. And being able to perceive what&#8217;s going on. I&#8217;ve always found that incredibly motivating, because immediately I can see how the internet is a more difficult place than a thousand words could describe and what have you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, okay, so that&#8217;s interesting. And then moving on to the conference itself, I&#8217;m presuming that this is aimed squarely at people already using WordPress as their content management system, their website builder. But it is curious because, I don&#8217;t know exactly where you land on this, maybe what I&#8217;m about to say doesn&#8217;t fit at all, but I&#8217;m presuming the conference is designed to enable everybody to get some way along the road of producing an accessible website.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But presumably also the audience is a little bit of, trying to do what I&#8217;ve just described, make the case, the moral case, the legal case for needing to do it as well. So it&#8217;s the tech side of how to do it, as well as the sort of the moral and the legal obligations that might sort of follow that in train.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:20:32] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> Yeah, there is one session that I think you might find interesting along that line, is that it&#8217;s talking about accessibility as a risk management for agencies and for business owners. So I think that in particular, I have found it most interesting. With a background in project management, I&#8217;ve often had conversations where somebody will say to me, but why do I need to have it assessable? And then you&#8217;d have to take that pause and go, okay. But I think that to have the angle of risk management is certainly something that business owners will be able to relate to a little bit better.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also have another one that is talking about what features you should be on a lookout for so that you can kind of mitigate the legal portion of it. I&#8217;m not saying that you can avoid it completely, but at least you&#8217;re more aware of it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So there&#8217;s that one and, of course, our keynote speaker is Vitaly Friedman, from Smashing Magazine. He&#8217;s going to come at it from the UI, UX portion of it. So it&#8217;s not just all on the development, but it&#8217;s also on different aspects of website building and different viewpoints on business and ownership of a website.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:48] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s kind of interesting because there are many threads there aren&#8217;t there. If you were just to take the technical side, you could probably do a conference that lasted many, many weeks about the technicalities of how to do it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it&#8217;s curious that you&#8217;ve also leaned into the things like, well, the compulsion, the kind of maybe the advent of the ambulance chasing lawyer, dare I say it, who has realised, latched onto the fact that the European Accessibility Act over this side of the Atlantic is now a thing. There is no longer just a moral component to doing the accessibility work on your website. There is now increasingly a big legal hammer, which could be deployed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so that alone, I presume will draw a certain audience who, you know, if the only thing that they want to hear about is how to mitigate that problem, well, maybe that&#8217;s not the ideal motivation for it, but nevertheless, it is a bit of a carrot and stick, and it will bring some people into the arena, which is good.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:41] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> And here&#8217;s why I&#8217;d like to give a shout out to a team that I forgot, the speaker team. They&#8217;re the ones that put together the application, and they vetted through all the applications to see what would be more interesting for everybody.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rating system is, when they go through the rating system, they kind of make it anonymous of who the presenter would be. So it makes it, you are really looking at what the topic is being talked about, rather than who might be presenting. And that gives us an edge in finding topics that might not be as well known and from areas that are less featured.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we do have a couple of speakers that are coming from the continent of Africa, and those are always very interesting to hear. In the past, because of the location and the technical availability, there had been technical issues. But this year we&#8217;re having it so that the sessions are all prerecorded. So that will kind of help with the presentation of it, the clarity. But each of the speakers will be in the chat and they&#8217;ll be available to answer questions in the chat.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I think that&#8217;s an interesting fold into this year&#8217;s event, to have that feature in there so that the speaker is not just presenting, but they&#8217;re in the chat room answering questions. I think that adds another layer to the event.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:04] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I think what&#8217;s really nice about that as well is that if everything&#8217;s prerecorded, the speaker will get the chance to create and then re-edit, and then adapt and modify. And what you end up with hopefully is the best version of that talk.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the best will in the world, some people are not as great as others at doing live things. You know, they go down rabbit holes, and they lose their train of thought or what have you. This completely gets rid of that problem. They can do it as many times as they like and give you the best version.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But also that lovely aspect of, they suddenly become available to have a conversation in the chat, whereas before, they was presenting, you know, and presumably needed to go and have a bit of a lie down afterwards. Whereas in this situation, much more relaxed, you can ask them the questions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I really appreciate that format. I think that&#8217;s actually, that&#8217;s my preferred way of a summit, kind of like this, the Accessibility Day in this case, being put together. I think that&#8217;s very forward thinking. And I hope that you continue doing it that way because I think the presenters probably appreciate it. Your audience will appreciate it, because it will be polished, and also you get to chat with the person involved. Anything on that, David?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:11] <strong>David Denedo:</strong> Yeah. Another thing we forgot to talk about is the translation team. So as the talks are being presented, there are also some nice volunteers who are translating it into other languages to have as much diversity as possible. Because some people, English is not their first language, so we have a team trying to convert to like French. We have the one for Spanish. There are also some other ones, even like Hebrew and so many other ones. So it&#8217;s a very nice feeling to have so many translations and everybody is doing their bit.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is one thing I love about WP Accessibility, the entire organising team is the fact that everybody&#8217;s skill level, it doesn&#8217;t matter your skill level, you can always put in something. So that is something great. Whether you are a web designer, you are just a business owner, you can sponsor the event. If you are good with multilingual, you can be part of the translation. You can apply to speak.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The whole talks is not all technical, like you already mentioned. The talks are varied, so we talk about risk management, we talk about designers can give their own bits. People who are in business can give the business case for accessibility. So it&#8217;s all, it&#8217;s a lovely spread and I really love it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:30] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> There really is a lovely spread. I mean, firstly, one thing that I should have done right top of the show, which I didn&#8217;t, and I will mention it because I record a preamble before we actually start talking, one thing I will do is I&#8217;ll read into the record the URL. But I&#8217;ll do that now as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the URL is fabulous, by the way. It&#8217;s just ideal. If you are returning customer, if you like, it&#8217;s wpaccessibility.day. Just one more time, wpaccessibility, the regular spelling, no underscores, no hyphens or anything like that, dot day.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then as a subdomain you are going to put in the year. So in this case it&#8217;s going to be 2 0 2 5, 2025.wpaccessibility.day. And you&#8217;re going to find all the different bits and pieces over there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And one of the things that I noticed about the getting involved side of things is, yeah, there&#8217;s the whole sponsorship thing. So you can become a sponsor if you&#8217;d like to do that. But also you can volunteer, you can become a media partner. If you feel philanthropic and you just want to donate some of your money into the project, that is also an option. And then there&#8217;s a whole tab for the attendees as well. It&#8217;s under community. There&#8217;s an attendee section as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it sounds like it&#8217;s not just this little event which flicks on for a couple of days and then turns off again. I mean, certainly from your side, it sounds like there&#8217;s a whole fun community of things happening in the background.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And really that&#8217;s the glue that binds a successful project together. If it was all very uninteresting and dry and a bit boring and you were all feeling under pressure, it wouldn&#8217;t have so many legs, it wouldn&#8217;t be able to run for this many years. But I&#8217;m guessing that you&#8217;ve had nice experiences, right, in the background?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:04] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> Oh, yes. Yes. We have a lot of fun. But thank you for mentioning those links.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:08] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> No, I think that&#8217;s wonderful. So again, go and check that out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other thing to say though is, let&#8217;s talk about how it&#8217;s actually happening. Obviously you&#8217;ve described that it&#8217;s going to be prerecorded videos. How are you making that content available? What&#8217;s going to be the platform of choice, or how are you going to get it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is there a way that you can, I don&#8217;t know, for example, download all of the bits and pieces so you can watch them in your own time? Is it an event which is spanning a single day, you know, a 24 hour time?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:35] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> Yeah, we do say that it is 24 hours, but all the content and the videos, they&#8217;re going to be available for replay after we go through the post-event production. Either from each subdomain, as you mentioned, the 2025 will be available on the 2025.wpaccessibility.day.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year&#8217;s event is available on the 2024.wpaccessibility.day. So you can rewatch them. It&#8217;s also available through YouTube. So if you need some background noise, I often do it. I just turn on that and let it roll.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have to say, it is a lot of information to absorb, but I do find it to be very resourceful. I know that one of David&#8217;s work this year is to put in chapters for these past event videos. So that has been very helpful to me when I find the relevant video from the past. And I said, I remember somebody saying something about that. Now with the chapters there, it&#8217;s much easier to navigate and find it. So good work, David. Thank you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:37] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, indeed. Good work. But what&#8217;s this, in the show notes that were shared before we actually joined the call, it describes, it says here, and I don&#8217;t know which one of you wrote it, but it says, the event will be hosted through Zoom events. And Zoom is capitalised, so I presume it&#8217;s the platform Zoom that we&#8217;re all familiar with. I don&#8217;t know what a Zoom event is. Does that differ from a regular Zoom call? Is there some key difference?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:59] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> Yes. It&#8217;s different from like a Zoom webinar or a Zoom call. It&#8217;s a platform that has a lobby. You&#8217;re registering on our site, but then on event day you&#8217;ll be able to go into the Zoom event.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;ll be a lobby and there&#8217;ll be a chat room, that&#8217;s where you can find all the information for the event. So, it&#8217;s not like a traditional webinar where there&#8217;s just one link in order to go and join it, to join that session, or that sector of sections. So now you can go in and when that hour pops up, that session would pop up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:30:32] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Oh, I see. Right. So you go to this one central place, and everything&#8217;s kind of bound in this one, so as soon as you&#8217;re in, you&#8217;re in, basically, and you don&#8217;t have to keep clicking links in emails to find the latest session, which is going live.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:30:44] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> Exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:30:45] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay. That&#8217;s really nice. Dave, anything to add to that?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:30:47] <strong>David Denedo:</strong> Yeah. And you also have access to like swag. Everything will be in the event, so you can get some of the sponsor swag, you can chat with the speakers, you can chat with other event members, all within the same platform. So not having to jump from one platform to another platform to chat and then come back. You can lose people that way, but now everything all packaged together.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:31:12] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> I wanted to give a shout out to the platform itself. It allows us to do live captioning. A lot of times with webinars, it is just automated caption. We actually do have live captioners typing into Zoom. That is another layer to WP Accessibility Day that is not a feature in other events.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:31:32] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> No kidding, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:31:33] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> Yes. And the other big one, expense for us is the American Sign Language interpreters. So they will be also on hand on event day, and there&#8217;s a team of them that will be available to us, and they do the ASL.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year one of our speakers is from Australia and he will be bringing in Australian Sign Language, which is different from American Sign Language. So there&#8217;s another layer to the accessibility. We understand either British Sign Language or American Sign Language but, yeah, there&#8217;s Australian Sign Language too.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:32:08] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You drop this as if it&#8217;s really straightforward, but when my head starts spinning on the technicalities there, the idea of injecting real time, typed transcriptions, somehow overlaying that into the video, there&#8217;s a whole technical piece there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then you&#8217;ve got a sign language person. That&#8217;s a whole nother layer as well. That all needs, presumably, I don&#8217;t know if that&#8217;s going to be done live or filmed. Maybe there&#8217;s an opportunity.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:32:33] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> It&#8217;s live.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:32:33] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, okay. So all of that, there are lots and lots of moving parts here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:32:37] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> That&#8217;s why we have the technical and vendor team, and the volunteer team. They&#8217;re pivotal on event day to have those two teams in place.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:32:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Can I just ask, because I know there&#8217;ll be some people that are curious about the, how to describe it, the business status, let&#8217;s put it that way. And maybe this is not something that either of you can answer, I don&#8217;t know.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What&#8217;s the structure of WP Accessibility Day? So, for example, if I was to donate, in the UK we call these things charities. I think in the US the correct term is non-profit. So if I was to donate, do I have some sort of assurance that the money isn&#8217;t going to end up in some, I don&#8217;t even want to say the words because I know that nobody&#8217;s ethics are this poorly thought through, but I&#8217;m going to say it anyway. Just want to make sure that the money doesn&#8217;t end in somebody&#8217;s back pocket.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where did the donations end up? How is the structure of this organisation ensuring that everything is out in the open and clear and easy to understand?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:33:28] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> Well, this year WordPress Accessibility Day was recognised by IRS as the 501 C3 public charity. So based upon that, a hundred percent of our income that comes in goes right back into the event.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organisers and volunteers are not paid. Every one of us who are working on this is out of the goodness of our heart, and what time availability that we have.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The one caveat I will say, some of our translators are paid because translation is an income based business. And this is a recent development. In the past we&#8217;ve had to ask them to please donate their time to do the translation. But now we have a little bit more security to be able to pay them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>People who have the ability to speak multiple languages, look into the translation because if you aren&#8217;t able to participate as an organiser or a volunteer, donating your time to translate or being paid for be translators for us is a huge difference for us to bring all these sessions available to a greater audience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:34:36] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think everybody would understand that there&#8217;s, that is how that industry works, isn&#8217;t it? When you go to a WordCamp, for example, and you see the people doing the live captioning, or you see the people standing on the stage and they&#8217;re doing the sign language, I think it&#8217;s understood that that is what they do for a living.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:34:51] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> And I would be remiss not to give credit to our sponsors too. We have many sponsors who are repeat sponsors year after year, and they support us with their sponsorship. We are very appreciative of that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year we have some new ones and a lot of repeating ones from every range. Our higher level are of course now closed, but we still have the bronze level, which is at a $500, or a micro sponsor which is at $150. And the difference between that is the Bronze has a webpage, a dedicated webpage for their company, and the micro sponsor has a logo on our sponsor page.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:35:28] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So as of recording, and maybe that will keep going right up to the deadline, I don&#8217;t know, so if what you&#8217;ve heard has made you feel that you&#8217;d like to be involved on a sponsorship level, bronze is available, that one is $500, and there&#8217;s a micro one. And obviously you can go onto the 2025 Accessibility Day website and discover for yourself what&#8217;s available in there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we found out what&#8217;s happening. We found out why it&#8217;s being done. We found out some of the people that are being involved. I suppose what we ought to do at this point is drive people toward the schedule.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, you&#8217;ve announced it already, but let&#8217;s just make sure we&#8217;re doing it again. The date for this event is when?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:36:03] <strong>David Denedo:</strong> So it&#8217;ll be happening on October 15th to the 16th, and it&#8217;ll be 24 hour long event. So it&#8217;s going to go right up for 24 hours. We have the speakers all in the schedule, so you can go ahead and check it out. The link will be in the shownotes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:36:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It will. Yeah, that&#8217;s absolutely right. So the 15th of October, it&#8217;s a 24 hour event. So I don&#8217;t know if you start in the sort of Pacific neck of the woods, that seems to be the traditional way that things are done. So Australia, they&#8217;re the sort of first people to receive the content, and then it just goes around the globe. And maybe the people in, on the west coast of the US and Hawaii and what have you, they get the content more towards the end of the day. I assume that&#8217;s how it&#8217;s working.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if you go to the URL that we mentioned earlier and just add forward slash schedule to it, you will be able to see through opening remarks from Joe Dolson right at the beginning of the day, right through the keynotes and everything, to the closing remarks, or at least the last presentation, which is happening some 23 or so hours later.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think that&#8217;s all the questions that I had. Is there anything that you feel it would&#8217;ve been important to say that we didn&#8217;t say? If that&#8217;s the case, please feel free to use this platform now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:37:09] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> The event is free, but we do ask that you register, so that we do have a good count of how many people are coming. So please sign up at 2025.wpaccessibility.day and you&#8217;ll find the registration link there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:37:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Is that a mere request or is that a requirement? In order to gain access, do you need to have, yeah, okay. So I&#8217;m getting a nod of the head there from June. So go and register in order to access the content as well. David, anything we missed?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:37:38] <strong>David Denedo:</strong> Yeah, the only thing is that I&#8217;m excited for Vitaly Friedman, because he has a very wide following, so he will bring more people into our event, hopefully. And he is going to be talking about accessible designs, which is something quite powerful. Because in this day and age, people always associate accessibility with very boring designs. But he&#8217;s coming to show you that you can have very beautiful designs in 2025 and still be accessible. So that&#8217;s a very important topic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:38:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well, the WP Accessibility Day website is an example of that. It&#8217;s actually a really tasteful, beautiful design. I&#8217;m going to guess that it&#8217;s, you know, the accessibility credentials of it are fairly strong. Let&#8217;s just, make that assumption, but it&#8217;s beautifully designed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, we didn&#8217;t really touch on the names of the speakers or what have you. But yeah, I&#8217;ll just go through a few just as I scroll through, just to give you some ideas.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So accessible design patterns is Vitaly. Being a colorblind designer, typography, readability, digital accessibility, building accessibility that works in the global south, hyper accessible web design for the blind, audio accessibility, accessibility lawsuits, gosh, we&#8217;re only like six or seven in, and we&#8217;ve run the full gamut already. So here we go. Why accessibility matters, video and media your post-production, guide making WordPress events accessible, gosh, that&#8217;s fascinating. Auditing WordPress plugin accessibility, demystifying screen readers, technical checklists. That means testing WordPress themes and plugins for accessibility. The future is automated, will it be accessible? Making Gutenberg blocks accessible. I&#8217;m going to stop there, but you get the idea. There&#8217;s absolutely loads of breadth and depth.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s very much the case that if you were to show up, I would guarantee more or less that there&#8217;s going to be something which will pique your interest and keep you engaged. The schedule, like I said, is at forward slash schedule.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay, if that&#8217;s the case, I will just say thank you so much for being one of many cogs in this very important wheel. Thank you for doing what is incredibly important work, making the web accessible to far more people. Thank you. That&#8217;s quite amazing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So June and David, thanks for joining us today. Really appreciate it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:39:46] <strong>June Jiu:</strong> Thanks for having us.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:39:48] <strong>David Denedo:</strong> Thanks for having us.</p>\n</div></details>\n\n\n\n<p>On the podcast today we have <a href=\"https://2025.wpaccessibility.day/people/june-liu/\">June Liu</a> and <a href=\"https://2025.wpaccessibility.day/people/david-denedo/\">David Denedo</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both June and David are key members of the <a href=\"https://2025.wpaccessibility.day/\">WP Accessibility Day</a> organising team, a global, volunteer-driven event focused on improving accessibility in the WordPress ecosystem. June serves as the marketing team co-lead and works with sponsors, bringing her background in project management to keep the event’s efforts on track. David, a web designer and content creator based in London, contributes to the marketing and post-event teams, with his interest in web accessibility stemming from his personal experience as a visually impaired user.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WP Accessibility Day has grown significantly in the past few years, uniting a large, international group of volunteers and organisers to drive awareness and practical change in web accessibility. The event is powered by a host of teams, marketing, sponsors, tech and vendor, post-event, translation, speakers, and more, ensuring that everything from live captioning to sign language interpretation is in place.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We begin by learning about June and David’s unique paths to accessibility advocacy, one through direct lived experience, and the other through supporting a loved one with cognitive challenges. Their stories highlight why accessibility can&#8217;t be an afterthought and how events like WP Accessibility Day are raising awareness in this important area.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We discuss what attendees can expect at this year’s event, happening from October 15th, 2025. It’s free, fully virtual, and runs for 24 hours, making space for a diverse range of speakers and topics. Whether you’re interested in the moral, legal, or technical cases for accessibility, there’s something for you here, including sessions on accessible design, risk management for agencies, legal compliance, and demonstrations of assistive technologies.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>June and David share how the event format, a combination of pre-recorded talks and live chat, mixes polished content with real-time engagement, plus how translation and community involvement are key to its growing impact.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to learn more about how you can make your WordPress sites, and the web in general, more inclusive, or if you’re motivated by global collaboration and personal stories, this episode is for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Useful links</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://2025.wpaccessibility.day/\">WP Accessibility Website</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://2025.wpaccessibility.day/about/organizers/\">The WP Accessibility Day Team</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://2025.wpaccessibility.day/schedule/\">The WP Accessibility Day Schedule</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCes9XCUZd51CAigbBEGlfNg\">WP Accessibility Day YouTube Channel</a></p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Wed, 01 Oct 2025 14:00:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:14:\"Nathan Wrigley\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:43:\"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 6.8.3 Release\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=19204\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:59:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/09/wordpress-6-8-3-release/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4937:\"<p><strong>WordPress 6.8.3 is now available!</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a security release that features two fixes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because this is a security release,<strong> it is recommended that you update your sites immediately</strong>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.8.3.zip\">download WordPress 6.8.3 from WordPress.org</a>, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”. If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next major release will be <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-9/\">version 6.9</a>, which is planned for December 2nd, 2025.<br />For more information on WordPress 6.8.3, please visit the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/documentation/wordpress-version/version-6-8-3/\">version page on the HelpHub site</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Security updates included in this release</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The security team would like to thank the following people for <a href=\"https://hackerone.com/wordpress?type=team\">responsibly reporting vulnerabilities</a>, and allowing them to be fixed in this release:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A data exposure issue where authenticated users could access some restricted content. Independently reported by <a href=\"https://hackerone.com/mnelson4\">Mike Nelson</a>, <a href=\"https://hackerone.com/hurayraiit\">Abu Hurayra</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/timothyblynjacobs/\">Timothy Jacobs</a>, and <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/peterwilsoncc/\">Peter Wilson</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability requiring an authenticated user role that affects the nav menus. Reported by <a href=\"https://x.com/Savphill\">Phill Savage</a>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As a courtesy, these fixes have also been made available to all branches eligible to receive security fixes (currently through 4.7). As a reminder, <strong>only the most recent version of WordPress is actively supported</strong>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Thank you to these WordPress contributors</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This release was led by <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion/\">John Blackbourn</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the security researchers and release squad members mentioned above, WordPress 6.8.3 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people:</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorbin\">Aaron Jorbin</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/hurayraiit\">Abu Hurayra</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/zieladam\">Adam Zieliński</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/xknown\">Alex Concha</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/andraganescu%20\">Andrei Draganescu</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/\">David Baumwald</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/ehtis\">Ehtisham Siddiqui</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/iandunn\">Ian Dunn</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/whyisjake\">Jake Spurlock</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb\">Jb Audras</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/joehoyle\">Joe Hoyle</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion\">John Blackbourn</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jonsurrell\">Jon Surrell</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj\">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mnelson4\">Michael Nelson</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/peterwilsoncc\">Peter Wilson</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/phillsav\">Phill</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/noisysocks\">Robert Anderson</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/rmccue\">Ryan McCue</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/\">Scott Reilly</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/timothyblynjacobs\">Timothy Jacobs</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/vortfu\">vortfu</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter\">Weston Ruter</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to contribute</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/report/6\">pick a ticket</a>, and join the conversation in the <a href=\"https://app.slack.com/client/T024MFP4J/C02RQBWTW\">#core</a> Slack channel. Need help? Check out the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/tutorials/faq-for-new-contributors/\">Core Contributor Handbook</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Props to <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/ehtis/\">Ehtisham Siddiqui</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion/\">John Blackbourn</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/paulkevan/\">Paul Kevan</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/\">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorbin/\">Aaron Jorbin</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter\">Weston Ruter</a> for reviewing.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 30 Sep 2025 19:31:04 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15:\"John Blackbourn\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:40;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:25:\"Matt: What’s Your Time?\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150037\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:32:\"https://ma.tt/2025/09/tick-tock/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:908:\"<p>I think some of the best writing about technology PR is this ten-year-old article by <a href=\"https://www.onbackground.com/\">Aaron Zamost</a>: <a href=\"https://medium.com/backchannel/how-the-tech-press-forces-a-narrative-on-companies-it-covers-5f89fdb7793e\">What’s Your Hour in ‘Silicon Valley Time’?</a> It describes the cycles that companies go through in public perception, and the beauty of revisiting it ten years later is that you can see which of the examples are still relevant, or the domains that 404. As someone who has been around this clock probably a dozen times now, I highly suggest this for anyone &#8220;going through it.&#8221; Some of the most powerful words in the English language: <em>This too shall pass</em>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>See also: The Zen fable or old Chinese poem of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_old_man_lost_his_horse\">the old man who loses his horse</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 30 Sep 2025 17:30:25 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:95:\"Open Channels FM: Surviving the WordPress Plugin Grind Growth, Marketing and Overcoming Burnout\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=110777\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:101:\"https://openchannels.fm/surviving-the-wordpress-plugin-grind-growth-marketing-and-overcoming-burnout/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:237:\"In this WP Behind the Builds episode, guest Devin Walker discusses his transition from corporate IT to successful WordPress plugin development, focusing on GiveWP, WP Rollback, and lessons learned about business and community engagement.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 30 Sep 2025 11:34:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"BobWP\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"Matt: Om 59\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150022\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:28:\"https://ma.tt/2025/09/om-59/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3905:\"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-150030\" height=\"340\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2025/09/IMG_0803-1-edited-scaled.jpeg?resize=604%2C340&#038;quality=89&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"604\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I want to dedicate my blog post today to my dear friend and brother, <a href=\"https://om.co/\">Om Malik</a>, whose birthday it is. Om is a multi-hyphenate, but at his core, he&#8217;s a writer, someone who looks at the world and parses it down for others, a seeker who appreciates the spark of creation before most others.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Om was one of the earliest users of WordPress and he was one of <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2005/01/meetup-aftermath/\">8 people who came to the very first WordPress meetups at Chaat Cafe on 3<sup>rd</sup> street in San Francisco in 2005</a>. (You can tell what an early adopter he is because he has the username &#8220;Om&#8221; <a href=\"https://x.com/om\">on Twitter/X</a> and <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/om/\">Instagram</a> and WordPress and probably more.) We had connected on the WordPress support forums when I helped him get set up around the 1.0 days. After I moved to San Francisco to take the job at CNET he connected me to people like Phil Black, Tony Conrad, and Toni Schneider who would become, respectively, an investor, board member, and CEO of Automattic. These are folks I still work with and consider close friends today. As a journalist, he had a keen nose for BS and made sure as a naïve 20-something in SF I was connecting with quality people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since we met we&#8217;ve both had a shared love for photography, and I&#8217;ve seen Om blossom into an amazing photographer with a really unique style and approach, <a href=\"https://www.photosbyom.com/\">in fact you can even buy some of his photography prints</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years, we&#8217;ve dipped in and out of shared obsessions with cameras, watches, shoes, fashion, and design. We have a fair number of matching things in each. In photography we&#8217;ve shivered in minus thirty weather in Antarctica and Jackson Hole at odd hours to catch a special shot. We&#8217;ve traveled to Europe and Japan dozens of times, being very early (pre John Mayer and Kanye) to brands like <a href=\"https://www.visvim.tv/\">Visvim</a>. <span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">When I wear something like a bespoke<span style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\">, hand-made piece from <a href=\"https://45rglobal.com/\" target=\"_blank\">45R</a> to <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45HRzzc0waU\" target=\"_blank\">speak at WordCamp US</a>, he recognizes it off the cuff </span>and even knows the one store on Crosby Street in New York where you can buy it.</span> He is a tastemaker and an aesthetic connoisseur in every area he&#8217;s interested in, from food to coffee to pens, and everything in between. Sometimes we&#8217;ll start a journey together, for example, trying nice pens, and years later, I&#8217;ve moved on and he&#8217;s gone deep into collecting dozens of them, being in obscure forums and Reddits, or attending events like the <a href=\"https://sanfranciscopenshow.com/\">SF Pen Show last month</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you walk into a coffee shop with Om he doesn&#8217;t just know the barista&#8217;s name, he knows their dog&#8217;s name and the story of every person working there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m 500 words in, and I still haven&#8217;t even scratched the surface of describing Om&#8217;s journey, from growing up in Delhi to becoming a journalist for a Japanese publication in New York, a book author, party promoter, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, photographer, and explorer. If you want to understand the AI bubble we&#8217;re in right now, you should <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0471660612?tag=photomatt08-20\">read his book Broadbandits on the crazy telecom / Enron bubble</a>. This is a long way to say, happy birthday Om!</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 29 Sep 2025 15:50:56 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:43;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:19:\"Matt: Craft vs Slop\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150017\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://ma.tt/2025/09/craft-slop/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1964:\"<p>In an age where AI can generate an infinite amount of stuff, what matters? Some of the most interesting writing I&#8217;ve read on this comes from <a href=\"https://willmanidis.com/\">Will Manidis</a>, who makes it biblical and says that Craft is the Antidote to Slop:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>From Genesis, man enters not a paradise without labor but a world of intentional creation. The LORD God places man in the Garden of Eden<em> &#8220;to dress it and to keep it&#8221;</em> (Genesis 2:15) establishing labor not as punishment but as sacred vocation. This original calling invites us to co-create the Kingdom, tending and developing the world with intention and care. Our fundamental purpose is not consumption but participation in the ongoing work of creation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The serpent&#8217;s temptation represents the first shortcut in human history<em>.&#8221;Ye shall be as gods&#8221; </em>(Genesis 3:5) was not an invitation to deeper engagement with creation, but a way to get out of the work required to tend to it. The consequence wasn&#8217;t the introduction of work itself, but its corruption into burdensome toil: <em>&#8220;In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread&#8221; </em>(Genesis 3:19). Humanity&#8217;s first sin was, in part, choosing the easy shortcut over the meaningful process – preferring effortless gain to the demanding but fulfilling work of tending the garden.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>You can read the rest as <a href=\"https://x.com/WillManidis/status/1971920155996574168\">screenshots on X</a> or <a href=\"https://minutes.substack.com/p/craft-is-the-antidote-to-slop\">on his Substack</a>, but I hope he gets a real website soon. This also makes me think you should watch the <a href=\"https://www.weareasgods.film/\">We Are As Gods documentary on Stewart Brand</a>, supported by the amazing folks at <a href=\"https://press.stripe.com/\">Stripe Press</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Mon, 29 Sep 2025 06:41:36 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:44;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:111:\"Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog 121—Gutenberg 21.6 and 21.7,  Block Theme Development, and Block Themes\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:53:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?post_type=podcast&p=42062\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:124:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-121-gutenberg-21-6-and-21-7-block-theme-development-and-block-themes/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:81565:\"<p>In Episode 121 of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast, Birgit Pauli-Haack and Anne Katzeff dive into Gutenberg 21.6 and 21.7, touching on theme development, block themes, Figma workflows, Playground blueprints, and upcoming WordPress 6.9 features. They discuss enhancements to data views, grid layouts, the new accordion block, command palette improvements, block-level commenting for collaboration, accessibility updates, and the ongoing evolution of global styles and admin redesign, offering insights for both theme builders and developers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-121-gutenberg-21-6-and-21-7-block-theme-development-and-block-themes/#shownotes\">Show Notes</a> / <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-121-gutenberg-21-6-and-21-7-block-theme-development-and-block-themes/#transcript\">Transcript</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Editor: <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-reed/\">Sandy Reed</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Logo: <a href=\"https://markuraine.com/\">Mark Uraine</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Production: <a href=\"https://icodeforapurpose.com\">Birgit Pauli-Haack</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-larger-font-size\" id=\"shownotes\"><strong>Show Notes</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Special guest: Anne Katzeff</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-social-links is-layout-flex wp-block-social-links-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-linkedin  wp-block-social-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\" href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/annekatzeff/\"><svg height=\"24\" version=\"1.1\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" width=\"24\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><path d=\"M19.7,3H4.3C3.582,3,3,3.582,3,4.3v15.4C3,20.418,3.582,21,4.3,21h15.4c0.718,0,1.3-0.582,1.3-1.3V4.3 C21,3.582,20.418,3,19.7,3z M8.339,18.338H5.667v-8.59h2.672V18.338z M7.004,8.574c-0.857,0-1.549-0.694-1.549-1.548 c0-0.855,0.691-1.548,1.549-1.548c0.854,0,1.547,0.694,1.547,1.548C8.551,7.881,7.858,8.574,7.004,8.574z M18.339,18.338h-2.669 v-4.177c0-0.996-0.017-2.278-1.387-2.278c-1.389,0-1.601,1.086-1.601,2.206v4.249h-2.667v-8.59h2.559v1.174h0.037 c0.356-0.675,1.227-1.387,2.526-1.387c2.703,0,3.203,1.779,3.203,4.092V18.338z\"></path></svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">LinkedIn</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-x  wp-block-social-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\" href=\"https://x.com/ASKDesign2\"><svg height=\"24\" version=\"1.1\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" width=\"24\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><path d=\"M13.982 10.622 20.54 3h-1.554l-5.693 6.618L8.745 3H3.5l6.876 10.007L3.5 21h1.554l6.012-6.989L15.868 21h5.245l-7.131-10.378Zm-2.128 2.474-.697-.997-5.543-7.93H8l4.474 6.4.697.996 5.815 8.318h-2.387l-4.745-6.787Z\"></svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">X</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-wordpress  wp-block-social-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/askdesign/\"><svg height=\"24\" version=\"1.1\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" width=\"24\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><path d=\"M12.158,12.786L9.46,20.625c0.806,0.237,1.657,0.366,2.54,0.366c1.047,0,2.051-0.181,2.986-0.51 c-0.024-0.038-0.046-0.079-0.065-0.124L12.158,12.786z M3.009,12c0,3.559,2.068,6.634,5.067,8.092L3.788,8.341 C3.289,9.459,3.009,10.696,3.009,12z M18.069,11.546c0-1.112-0.399-1.881-0.741-2.48c-0.456-0.741-0.883-1.368-0.883-2.109 c0-0.826,0.627-1.596,1.51-1.596c0.04,0,0.078,0.005,0.116,0.007C16.472,3.904,14.34,3.009,12,3.009 c-3.141,0-5.904,1.612-7.512,4.052c0.211,0.007,0.41,0.011,0.579,0.011c0.94,0,2.396-0.114,2.396-0.114 C7.947,6.93,8.004,7.642,7.52,7.699c0,0-0.487,0.057-1.029,0.085l3.274,9.739l1.968-5.901l-1.401-3.838 C9.848,7.756,9.389,7.699,9.389,7.699C8.904,7.67,8.961,6.93,9.446,6.958c0,0,1.484,0.114,2.368,0.114 c0.94,0,2.397-0.114,2.397-0.114c0.485-0.028,0.542,0.684,0.057,0.741c0,0-0.488,0.057-1.029,0.085l3.249,9.665l0.897-2.996 C17.841,13.284,18.069,12.316,18.069,11.546z M19.889,7.686c0.039,0.286,0.06,0.593,0.06,0.924c0,0.912-0.171,1.938-0.684,3.22 l-2.746,7.94c2.673-1.558,4.47-4.454,4.47-7.771C20.991,10.436,20.591,8.967,19.889,7.686z M12,22C6.486,22,2,17.514,2,12 C2,6.486,6.486,2,12,2c5.514,0,10,4.486,10,10C22,17.514,17.514,22,12,22z\"></path></svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">WordPress</span></a></li>\n\n<li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-instagram  wp-block-social-link\"><a class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\" href=\"https://www.instagram.com/annekatzeff_askdesign/\"><svg height=\"24\" version=\"1.1\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" width=\"24\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><path d=\"M12,4.622c2.403,0,2.688,0.009,3.637,0.052c0.877,0.04,1.354,0.187,1.671,0.31c0.42,0.163,0.72,0.358,1.035,0.673 c0.315,0.315,0.51,0.615,0.673,1.035c0.123,0.317,0.27,0.794,0.31,1.671c0.043,0.949,0.052,1.234,0.052,3.637 s-0.009,2.688-0.052,3.637c-0.04,0.877-0.187,1.354-0.31,1.671c-0.163,0.42-0.358,0.72-0.673,1.035 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c0.592-0.23,1.094-0.538,1.594-1.038c0.5-0.5,0.808-1.002,1.038-1.594c0.222-0.572,0.375-1.227,0.418-2.185 C20.99,14.751,21,14.444,21,12s-0.01-2.751-0.054-3.711c-0.044-0.958-0.196-1.612-0.418-2.185c-0.23-0.592-0.538-1.094-1.038-1.594 c-0.5-0.5-1.002-0.808-1.594-1.038c-0.572-0.222-1.227-0.375-2.185-0.418C14.751,3.01,14.444,3,12,3L12,3z M12,7.378 c-2.552,0-4.622,2.069-4.622,4.622S9.448,16.622,12,16.622s4.622-2.069,4.622-4.622S14.552,7.378,12,7.378z M12,15 c-1.657,0-3-1.343-3-3s1.343-3,3-3s3,1.343,3,3S13.657,15,12,15z M16.804,6.116c-0.596,0-1.08,0.484-1.08,1.08 s0.484,1.08,1.08,1.08c0.596,0,1.08-0.484,1.08-1.08S17.401,6.116,16.804,6.116z\"></path></svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">Instagram</span></a></li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/live-q-a-design-systems-and-theme-json/\">Gutenberg Times Live Q &amp; A: Design Systems and Theme.json</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/06/05/hallway-hangout-theme-building-with-playground-create-block-theme-plugin-and-github/\">Hallway Hangout: Theme Building with Playground, Create-block-theme plugin, and GitHub</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gutenberg plugin releases</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/09/10/whats-new-in-gutenberg-21-6-10-september/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 21.6? (10 September)</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v21.7.0\">Changelog 21.7</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">Stay in Touch</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Did you like this episode? <a href=\"https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog\"><strong>Please write us a review </strong></a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ping us on X (formerly known as Twitter) or send DMs with questions. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/gutenbergtimes\">@gutenbergtimes </a>and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bph\">@bph</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>If you have questions or suggestions, or news you want us to include, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. </em></li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/\">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></li>\n</ul>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\" id=\"transcript\"><strong>Transcript</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Hello, and welcome to our 121st episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast. In today&#8217;s episode, we will talk about Gutenberg 21.6 and 21.7, as well as about theme development, block themes, and all this good, good stuff. And I&#8217;m your host, Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator of the Gutenberg Times, developer advocate, and core contributor for the WordPress open source project sponsored by Automattic. And with me is Anne Katzeff, a dear friend of mine. She joins me in this episode. She was here before on the show, and she&#8217;s a longtime WordPress theme builder, educator and artist, and a longtime friend of mine. He previously connected on WordPress Meetup Co-organizers in Southwest Florida, but that&#8217;s ages ago. Anne has been on a podcast before, and it was episode 109 almost a year ago. So glad you&#8217;re here, Anne. How are you today?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> I&#8217;m good, Birgit. Thanks for inviting me. It&#8217;s great to see you and reunite. I hope you&#8217;re well. I was just thinking, I can&#8217;t wait to catch up on all the WordCamp stuff that you and others have been posting. I&#8217;ve been immersed in two things recently. Redesigning a client&#8217;s very old website.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>When you say very old.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Oh, it was using. It&#8217;s still live, although it barely displays correctly because the code is so old. It uses custom templates from a custom theme that has some of the content baked into the code.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh. Oh, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> So it&#8217;s really hard to edit. The client has a real hard time doing that, as I do as well. And now I&#8217;m rebuilding the site. I&#8217;m using a cadence theme, and it&#8217;s a whole new area for me. I&#8217;m seeing the pros and cons of that system. And I&#8217;m also redesigning my own website. I don&#8217;t even want to tell you how long that&#8217;s been since I designed it. It&#8217;s built on Bootstrap. I do have a WordPress blog, so I have to update the bootstrap part and the WordPress part.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Okay. So you have the design and the styling is in Bootstrap, and you kind of massage it into the WordPress, so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Seamless. Okay. Yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>And, you know, people ask me, why don&#8217;t you do the whole thing in WordPress for me? I do occasionally build bootstrap sites, so this is a way. It&#8217;s kind of an excuse for me to keep current in what&#8217;s happening in Bootstrap. So I&#8217;m using new tools like figma for my prototyping, and once I get that finished and we&#8217;re nearing that point I&#8217;ll start rebuilding and bootstrap, and probably I&#8217;ll use the 2025 WordPress default theme for the blog part. So with both of these projects I&#8217;m using these new tools and riding a learning curve and it&#8217;s all good. It&#8217;s challenging and stimulating and integrating the new with the familiar. So it&#8217;s like my mind is like uhh.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, but it could be. It&#8217;s a great exercise. You have to kind of see okay, how far can I still rely on what I&#8217;m doing? And oh this cool new stuff is also good. So I know that Jonathan Bosinger, he&#8217;s a co-worker of mine and he was one of the educators on the Learn team and he has started live streaming and this last livestream he&#8217;s trying to. He got a Figma design from a designer and now wants to create a block theme about it and finds that there are no like you know in the old days where you had a Photoshop to WordPress kind of. Yeah, yeah. He kind of had hope that there is a from figma to WordPress kind of thing and there is but you need to be very deliberate on how you set up Figma exactly to make this work. So.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> God, I was just thinking about all that. That&#8217;s so interesting. Yeah. You have to have they call it auto layout and of course I don&#8217;t, and I&#8217;m not going to redo all my stuff in Figma just to pray that whatever plugin I use will work. But that&#8217;s what they recommend the so. Oh well it wasn&#8217;t what I had planned. I wasn&#8217;t going to do an automated thing but. But now this kind of validates a reason why I can&#8217;t. It&#8217;s not quite there yet. Yeah, there are curious things in Figma and there are amazing things in Figma.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So it&#8217;s like any new tool. Yeah, yeah. It has your tradeoffs and you need to kind of unlearn a lot of things before you can learn. Yeah. So the VIP theme builders or designers, they actually have a process where they go from Figma to theme JSON because they&#8217;ll have websites where they like you do. There&#8217;s a component that&#8217;s not WordPress and there&#8217;s a component that&#8217;s WordPress, or they have customers that have multiple different brandings for different things but they&#8217;re also, they&#8217;re all in Figma but then you can do themes and then that theme, you can use a plugin that you can then export your design decisions on the, on fonts and on colors and other things to migrate to theme JSON and then immediately kind of start up a block theme. I&#8217;m going to find that, dear listeners, I&#8217;m also going to find the link for you, not only for Anne. Thank you. We had David Bowman on the live Q and A maybe two years ago where he kind of demonstrated that all. So we will share those in the show notes and kind of see how that, I don&#8217;t know how that kind of works with you and how you approach figma, but it might be a good way to see if that works for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> That would be fascinating as well. I mean, I am using variables for some of my styles. I&#8217;m limiting it because again, of the learning curve. But I&#8217;ve got so far the color palette and very basic typography assigned to, you know, text in the six head levels to match up with a bootstrap scenario. And I&#8217;m thinking ahead even beyond that. Well, how will I translate that into a WordPress theme? So it&#8217;s. I like the complication. I don&#8217;t mind it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, yeah, no, the complexity is really intriguing because all of a sudden you kind of have these, all these pieces that fit together very well and you feel like, oh, this is genius.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Yeah, yeah, I actually, I wish I could remember the guy&#8217;s name, but I saw, I watched a YouTube video. Maybe I&#8217;ll find it and I&#8217;ll send you a note about it. But he explained the Figma variables really well, and he has maybe an hour and a half tutorial that I&#8217;ve yet to just scratch the surface.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, I know that Justin Tadlock, who is our theme guru, I would call him, he is working on a design system where he combines the color palette and the fonts with semantic kind of. So he&#8217;s not saying, okay, this is the main color, this is the background color, foreground color. But he&#8217;s saying, okay, this is a text color and has a separate design system that&#8217;s built into theme that he builds into theme JSON. So he can actually switch out a theme if the theme actually follows the same standards in there. He just can change colors and then the theme looks totally different.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Exactly. That&#8217;s kind of the idea behind the variables.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Definitely try to be semantic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Michelle Hunt did a good funnel from Atomic Design to the Design system at WordCamp US and the video is online. And she also had a similar custom color setting design system in Theme JSON actually built into. Yeah, so I&#8217;m, of course I&#8217;m going to share all that, but with you and our listeners.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Yeah. We can&#8217;t anticipate everything that comes up in these conversations, can we? No, we don&#8217;t have all the links right here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. But at least I know where I can look. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I&#8217;m writing a blog post and I&#8217;m still a little bit stuck in that. But on how to use Playground to build a theme demo where you can have content, like to showcase your theme and then create a Playground blueprint to share with your clients or your customers so they can test WordPress with the theme and some content in there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>So great idea.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So they know how the patterns look or the color scheme or how the front page can look. And because sometimes you have this problem that you have a theme and you see that there was a front page, but when you install the theme, it doesn&#8217;t look like that. Yeah, so, yeah, so that&#8217;s kind of part where theme builders or even agencies can really make some great showcase for their product. And I&#8217;m using Playground, but there is actually importer. So you can put all the content into your local site and then export it and then import it into Playground with the blueprint. Kind of have the XML file on GitHub and it kind of puts it in and you can do all the settings here. What&#8217;s the front page like? A blog post or a block theme? Or is it a page? Or is it. Which one is the news page then? And so you can build that all out. And now I&#8217;m kind of. The missing piece is still navigation. So the navigation, if you just build the pages, it automatically builds the page layout or the page list layout. But if you do a custom navigation work, it doesn&#8217;t get imported yet because somehow the parser doesn&#8217;t know that those links need to be transferred to the new site. So it didn&#8217;t work. Right. But I&#8217;m working on it and I know that the Playground people are really busy on doing stuff, doing this and fixing things. So that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m working on. And I&#8217;m.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>So it sounds like you&#8217;re using it also as a prototyping tool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> You could, you could. Yeah, yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Is it like the concept, like a live link that you can share with a client and they can view it? Yeah, okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah. You could also do the prototype thing with. Well, you can share. You can. Yeah, you can share it with a client and every client who kept the link gets the same site. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>So is it stored in GitHub?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>No, it&#8217;s stored in memory on browser. On the browser, it&#8217;s Playground is a tool that runs WordPress. In the browser. You don&#8217;t need a server, you don&#8217;t need a database. You just need the playground.WordPress.net and then you have a WordPress site. And then with blueprints that are configuration files in JSON written in JSON, you can say, okay, which plugin do I want to install? Which. What&#8217;s the landing page? Which theme do I want to have in there? And do I want to have additional content in there? Yeah. So you can use it to showcase your plugin or your theme. And we use it for. For all kinds of different things as well. And on the team, we use it to test PRs from a good look and track that are not merged yet, that are not yet in a. In a version of that. So you can just kind of isolate the whole thing and just test this particular thing. That&#8217;s really cool. And I&#8217;m going to have a talk at a WordCamp about using Playground, GitHub and the great block theme. Okay. To change themes without touching code. So making changes to the themes through the editor. So if you need a new template or need to change a template, change or add colors and all this kind of things, but then at the end you export it to GitHub and it creates the PR that then one of your developer is going to merge with the theme where all the other developing things are happening.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>That sounds really cool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Well, clearly I haven&#8217;t used Blueprint very much.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Or Playground.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Or Playground. Sorry.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, but I get what you said before. Yeah. I like the complexity. So. Okay, let&#8217;s see how complicated and easy we can make it. Yeah. Well, I think we could now head into Gutenberg 21.6. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WordPress 6.9</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So WordPress 6.9 is coming. Let&#8217;s talk a little bit about WordPress 6.9. We will have other shows about that, of course, but just to get the timing right, we are about four weeks away from Beta 1, and Beta 1 is pretty much feature freeze, and it will all have in there 15 Gutenberg releases from 20.5 when WordPress 6.8 came out, 20.4 was the last one. So 20.5 until 21.9, it&#8217;s pretty much 15. But there was a period of Gutenberg releases for about four, four months when not a whole lot of features came in. But that is going to be offset that in the last two or three releases. There will be a ton of things in there. So we will change our cadence from having two Gutenberg plugins in a show to one and do another. I hope we can go back to every other week instead of every month recording. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gutenberg 21.6</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>What we are talking about today is about Gutenberg 21.6 before I go in there. So release is going to be December 2nd, so everything you need and beta one is October 21st and in between are release candidates and release candidate one, I think is November 2nd or something like that. So by that time we hopefully have all the developer notes in there and Source of Truth will come out there at the same time or a week later. So just so you can prepare a plan or not. I&#8217;m a planning person, so I always need to know the dates. I always have. Most of the time I have a plan. So when something changes, I know what to change. Yeah. So. Well, let&#8217;s head into the Gutenberg 21.6. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Enhancements</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It has a few enhancements and we start with the Data Views enhancement. And one of them is. Seems to be a minor thing, but there is a card layout in the components for the Data Forms where you can support combined fields and show the description in there. And that&#8217;s fairly new. So there&#8217;s also a storybook documentation out for those plugin developers who all kind of want to try out the new Data Views and the Data Forms. Data form is really where people then can enter stuff, filtering and all that. That&#8217;s all in Data Forms. And then there&#8217;s also in the Data Views we have the grid layout is now a little bit more flexible. You can have it without a title and then you have the actions are available on Hover, which is quite nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> But yeah, I like that. That&#8217;s a wonderful enhancement. And of course it got me into another path of both grids and thinking about using the grid layout for the post template. So I started to play around with that. Got lost in that for about an hour. So far I don&#8217;t really see an advantage for using the grid over the default grouping with columns, but I&#8217;ll play around with it a bit more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, there is actually a more interactive way of using the grid layout in the Gutenberg experiments. So that might be. So when you use the Gutenberg plugin, there&#8217;s one menu item under Gutenberg that says Experiments, and there are probably 10 different experiments, amongst them the new blocks that are in there, but they will come out of experiments hopefully soon. There&#8217;s also the data view usage for posts. Because right now it&#8217;s only a site editor with pages where you can use the data views but also use them for posts. And there are a ton of experiments and one of them is interactive grid layout where you can drag and drop things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Oh really?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Use it. Yeah. For different kind of content as well. So you have pictures in there, you can have a cover in there and you can have just text in there and each grid and then you can also stretch it out over two rows.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Oh yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Or two columns or two rows kind of thing. And. And it. Oh, cool. Kind of merges all that. So it&#8217;s really cool. But it hasn&#8217;t gotten any updates for a while. It&#8217;s still an experiment because of our other priorities. But it&#8217;s definitely. You see what&#8217;s coming. That&#8217;s one thing. Also to kind of okay, how can we. How can this be improved? Yeah, and kind of. Yeah, let the developers know. That&#8217;s the. Yeah, I like the grid layout too.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Do some interesting things with it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Definitely.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Yeah. There were updates to the core data packages but they are so developer oriented and so technical that if you&#8217;re interested that just check out the changelog of 21.6. But 21.6 has one new thing and that&#8217;s. Well, it was actually in 21.5, but that&#8217;s the accordion block and I cannot talk often about it. Often enough about it. I&#8217;m really happy that the accordion block made it into Gutenberg. Now it&#8217;s still under experiments, so you need to switch it on. I think it&#8217;s the second. The second from the top on that page. I had a plan to create a post about all the experiments that I Gutenberg. But yeah, that kind of fell to the website.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Well, it&#8217;s constantly changing I would think.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, that&#8217;s one thing, but it&#8217;s also kind of. Oh yeah, well, let&#8217;s do the other cool stuff too. Yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>I&#8217;ve seen a lot of discussion about the new accordion features and I checked about. Of course, you know, I had to look at that. I still think the UI needs some tweaks. Although of course I. I think the add button is a no brainer. That&#8217;s a really good addition. So I was looking at the accordion from a user point of view. Not on the front end, but the back end. And those pan. What do they call them? Panes. They&#8217;re tucked right next to each other. I think just from a UI point of view it would be nice to add a little bit of space between them. Because I had trouble acclimating to how does this actually work and what&#8217;s going on. I hit this plus sign and then it opens up. So just a little bit more tweaking on that, I think would be.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, I think that&#8217;s also something to think about with block style variations, where you can actually put that in a style.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff</em>: Sure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>And then I did some discovery on that because I wanted to figure out how many different designs can I come up with? My AI can come up with that. I can put a variation. How many did you discover? Right now, I did it all by hand and kind of do the discovery because I had the whole same thing. But I had too much white space. I did a background into the panel.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>That&#8217;s a good idea. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>And then I had a white space there. And so I needed to reduce the margin to get rid of that white space. But, yeah, I think that&#8217;s the design decisions. It&#8217;s so new that you&#8217;re. There are not all the supports are there. I think you can have some dimension support there with spacing and margins. So you can definitely see that in the side. In the inspector controls and the sidebar of the block. You just need to make sure that you select the right block, because there are four blocks. One is the accordion, that&#8217;s the wrapper, and then you have the header, and then you have the panel, and then you have the content. Yeah, there&#8217;s a. A lot of moving parts that if you create a style variation for that, people can just, with one click.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Oh, okay. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Change the design of things. Yeah. Kind of make it either an FAQ or pricing or whatever to do that. So style variations are really a cool feature. Yeah. So the next thing is. Well, the query loop block had a. Had a broken placeholder and it&#8217;s fixed now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>And that&#8217;s on small screens, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, that&#8217;s from plus on mobile, pretty much the next one is. Or Core Commands. So Commands is the command palette where you do Control K and then you get a little. Like on a Mac, you get little things and you can say Open Site Editor or add a page or something like that. And now you can now return to the dashboard. Yeah. Because you&#8217;re five levels deep in the Site Editor and now you want to go back to your post. You just open up Control K and say return to Dashboard or just type in Dashboard. And then it kind of gets you to. To that place. It also has some permission checks, so if you are not allowed to go there, you&#8217;re not you&#8217;re not going to go there. So that was kind of missing before. It was kind of. Yeah. Wherever you go, you go.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Oh, so it was like a back door.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Access to.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Wow. But it&#8217;s all, all in the admin. There&#8217;s nothing on the front end, but it&#8217;s. I think it will. So the command palette has those in. In 28. So in the next one there will be additional commands. So command palette, you can register commands with code. So plugin can say, okay, if, if that&#8217;s a team, a team plugin with team members, you could say add a team or yeah. Update theme or something like that. And then because it&#8217;s just a one liner kind of thing, you could also then tap it into the Abilities API. That&#8217;s kind of the next step. It&#8217;s not going to be in 6.9 for sure, but it is something that you can kind of daisy chain some workflows or tab into an AI ability kind of API that then lets you also do some AI stuff there. So it&#8217;s kind of that interface that you will be in in the future more often if you so choose to. But I think that&#8217;s a really interesting development there because now, right now you always have to remember, okay, which menu is it in and where do I go and what&#8217;s the name of it? Yeah, is it template parts? Is it pattern? Is it templates? Is it pages? Yeah, what&#8217;s.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>I tend to click on my little picture icon to get back to the previous screens.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Yeah, yeah, that&#8217;s what I tend to do because I don&#8217;t know how often.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, how often do you do it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. And now you can just do Control K and I like that. Then you&#8217;re back there and you don&#8217;t have to do 15 plus things. Yeah. So no, I really am quite. I like the command palette anyway. But now it has so much perspective in the future.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">New APIs</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>The next thing is about global styles and we talked about. No, we didn&#8217;t talk about it. So you can now, in the theme JSON file, you can now have support for form elements like the inputs, all the inputs on your site, or the dropdowns and selects. So if you create forms and you can style them through the theme JSON file, you don&#8217;t have to do custom CSS for that anymore. Many, many theme builders ask for this too because it&#8217;s, well, what&#8217;s a website without a contact form? Yeah, what&#8217;s a website without a get me your quote or something like that? You need some forms and then you want to style it. You don&#8217;t want to kind of have another CSS file in there. If you have those tools for theme JSON and oh yeah, the developer blog, what&#8217;s New for Developers in September Edition that came out about two weeks ago had some code examples on how you can put that in your theme JSON. Yeah, how. How you phase it and all that. Yeah. So it&#8217;s okay. It&#8217;s really cool. It shows you how to. So you get into the elements section of your theme JSON and then you have text input and then you can do borders, colors, typography, or select and have the different colors for text and background, for instance. That&#8217;s the example in the developer blog.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> So more and more we can do things in theme JSON that will allow us to use additional CSS or custom CSS less and less.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yes, that&#8217;s one thing. And you could actually write CSS in a custom.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>That&#8217;s true.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it&#8217;s. It&#8217;s such a habit to go to additional CSS and just fix something. Yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Or I have very little. Well, actually this comes up later in the changelog, so I won&#8217;t get too deep into it, but I have very little in my additional CSS these days.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>That&#8217;s good.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>It&#8217;s just those few instances where I just can&#8217;t do it in theme JSON.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, it&#8217;s still not particularly all covered there. Yeah. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bug Fixes</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So now we come to the bug fixes. And one was the randomization of the gallery block doesn&#8217;t work when the lightbox is enabled. But you had a question there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Yeah, I wasn&#8217;t thinking about that randomization. I didn&#8217;t know about that bug. But in the projects that I&#8217;ve been working on, I noticed the lack of navigation in the. The light box. So I know that that&#8217;s deep in the works now. And look, I. I just recently went to the PR and it looks like a lot of progress has been made. I think they&#8217;re about to say this is a done deal, or maybe they already have. So that&#8217;s really good because otherwise you would do all the things you needed to do to enlarge the image, but you couldn&#8217;t get to the next image in the gallery. Well, that&#8217;s not really a light box, is it?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, well, everybody Lightbox, I think they&#8217;re around for 15 years now, so everybody has a different idea. But yeah, it was.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> It was definitely missing navigation to. To just kind of use it as a slider that you can Slide exactly. Forward and backwards without having to. You click on the X and then you&#8217;re at the gallery and then you have to click on the next pictures and then go it up. So it was a little tedious. After the third one, everybody escaped. Yeah, that. Yeah. And PR that Anne is talking about is the 62906. If you want to go on. On the GitHub and check it out. 62906. And yeah, they&#8217;re pretty far with it. It&#8217;s some nice previous and next. And you get some. Yeah, I tested it too. Yeah. With Playground you cannot do Gutenberg and then the PR and then you can play around with it. And that was quite nicely done. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of people have given input not only from the developers or from the contributor, but also from other developers and from the accessibility. Because that was. I think the first part was the accessibility part was. It didn&#8217;t kind of pan out. So they. They did some interesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Oh, were the arrows too small or something?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Errors too small? No area label, no announcement. Yeah, there&#8217;s a lot of things that need to happen for accessibility there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>I&#8217;m deep into accessibility these days. I mean, with this client&#8217;s site being redesigned, her brand colors don&#8217;t cut it for accessibility. And I don&#8217;t know how, but I somehow convinced her to tweak the web colors to meet the accessibility requirements. I think I was so happy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh, my God. Yeah, so it&#8217;s.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>It&#8217;s a big thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. You don&#8217;t want to get them. Get them into trouble or. Yeah. Have a. The user less optimal experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Yeah, exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So I think we talked about it. A plated science and classes to the experimental form block. That&#8217;s part of the getting the element section into the theme JSON part. There is an experimental form block though. So if you have the Gutenberg plugin installed and go to experiments, One of the 15 choices there is form block. So you can actually create a form from those blocks in your editor. But most people actually have a separate plugin for their forms. I&#8217;m not sure how expanded that&#8217;s going to be used. Yeah, that&#8217;s pretty much. We are through the bug fixes and then there&#8217;s one fix. So much. So the zoom out. We had this in 6.8. There was a problem that when you have the show template, you couldn&#8217;t show the template when you were in zoom out, and now they actually put it out. It didn&#8217;t work. You just didn&#8217;t get it to it. And now they actually took the. They now fixed it that the zoom out is disabled when the show template is toggled off. You need both. You need to in zoom out because when the show template is off, the renderer doesn&#8217;t see the main section of the page because that&#8217;s all the content anyway. But zoom out needs to have that main section. So it&#8217;s all kind of. Wasn&#8217;t consistently kind of working. So now they finally fixed it. Anything else? No, I think we&#8217;re through with 21.6. Except there&#8217;s some block library. Image block.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Code Quality</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Oh, yeah. And that got me thinking how useful it would be to have live updating with the alt text. Because if I change the alt text in the media library for an image, it doesn&#8217;t automatically sync to where it&#8217;s being used in a page or a post. Oh, I have to. I have to click on the image and the page or the post and replace it with the same image with the revised alt text. So I was thinking, wouldn&#8217;t it be nice if that was all synced together? And then that got me down another path. So maybe you have the answer to this question. So I noticed for, well, quite a long time, I&#8217;ve been noticing that when you&#8217;re in the image library and you click on an image, the fields differ depending on your media library mode. If it&#8217;s list and you click on an image, you get a different set of metadata or fields versus a grid. And I think it&#8217;s. With the grid. Yeah. There&#8217;s no alt text option from a list mode, but there is from a grid mode. And so why. Do you know why those fields differ?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>No, I have no idea.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> I don&#8217;t know either. Ladies and gentlemen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yes. Well, it&#8217;s interesting that you actually notice that. Yeah, I. Yeah, I always have my media library on grid, so I&#8217;m not.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Yeah, me too.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>I don&#8217;t. I don&#8217;t see the difference, but you&#8217;re right. Yeah. I know that the contributors are working on the media library for the admin redesign and I think it would be good to talk to them about it because they also will have a grid view and a list view, because the data views actually support that. Yeah. So to make sure that definitely needs to be consistent, you know that all.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>The fields are available here, maybe in the outreach channel. I&#8217;ll put it out there and see if anyone.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Yeah. Or we wait until 6.9. After 6.9. Yeah. Because I think. Yeah, that&#8217;s where it&#8217;s not. 4619. We are. We are all hoping for. For the data views coming into 6.9. But I&#8217;m. The data views will be in there, but I don&#8217;t think that the admin design will come in for 6.9. That&#8217;s just not enough time. Right. It&#8217;s now only four weeks. Okay, so you have question. Oh, you have another question in there?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Do I know?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Create Block Theme</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> About the Create Block theme and style editing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Create block theme. Oh, right. Create block theme. So it&#8217;s interesting. I haven&#8217;t looked at it in a month or so. It&#8217;s good to sometimes look at it with fresh eyes. And it looks like there used to be two paths to editing the styles and it looks like those have been eliminated. You were once able to edit via this path, Appearance editor, Design styles. When you get to design and you click on styles, there&#8217;s no longer the option to edit them from that point. And then the other way would be from a page or a post. I no longer see the cbt, the Create Block theme wrench. I see it only when on the side. Templates, template parts, sync patterns. And another interesting thing, I mean this is all. It&#8217;s a lot of information here, but let me try to slow down. So both of those previous paths gave access to that full featured. What I call the full featured Create Block Theme panel. It had all the things that you can do with the Create Block theme plugin. Now the other thing I noticed is if you click on a page as if you&#8217;re editing it like a normal person would edit. You know, regular person, not normal, but regular person, the wrench is no longer there. However, if I go through the full site editor path and click on a page, the wrench appears that way. So it&#8217;s just this inconsistency, and I&#8217;m a pretty well versed user and it was a little confusing. It&#8217;s like, well, why can I get to the full feature panel this way and not that way?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. So one is that the page post editor, when you go from WP admin posts and pages goes in a slightly different editor mode than go into the appearance and editor. When I first listened to you, I thought you might. It wouldn&#8217;t be related to the create block theme because with the site editor we also have two different path to access styles. Yeah. One is through editor and then styles. There&#8217;s no design anymore. It only says styles. It&#8217;s with the navigation styles, templates and patterns. When you click on styles there, you have access to the same thing that comes if you are in the edit mode on a. On A template or on a page. You also on the right hand side there&#8217;s a styles interface. Both are now kind of pretty much on par with the features. So before a couple of months ago or maybe even longer, there was a discrepancy between what you could do on the right hand side in the styles and if you come from the left hand side. But that is pretty much eliminated. The only difference now is only how the style book looks, but it&#8217;s really marginally. Yeah, but we have one thing that comes with the next plugin release that we&#8217;re going to talk about is the additional CSS you will only access on the right hand sidebar and not on the left hand side. And that has been fixed now. So you get to the additional CSS from both sides. But the Create block theme has changed. So the great Block theme theme plugin only works in the site editor. So if you come from the pages or from the posts on the WP admin, you don&#8217;t have access to it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> So you only have it in the Site editor. And I think that makes sense because that&#8217;s. It does what you do with that. Yeah, because that&#8217;s the place where you actually would edit a theme component. So it also had changed the right hand side sidebar. When you click on save the changes to the theme, you get additional checkboxes. What exactly do you want in your theme? So that definitely was an improvement there because it also included some localization from text and you could also kind of eliminate the navigation IDs and all that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>And I brought another issue up with the team several months ago, which is the cbt, which I&#8217;m calling it CBT Create Block Theme Plugin. That&#8217;s my shorthand, the page for it from the administration sidebar. When you go to it directly from the sidebar, those options differ from the full site editor pathway to it. In my mind, all of that should be the same. You should have the same access to the same features.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Well, on that settings page, the only thing that you get from there is actually what you want to do. Do you want a greater theme? Do you want to create a from scratch, do you want to clone it? Or do you want a child theme? All the other features are actually in the site editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Need to be connected with the site editor. So I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s a whole lot of benefit from it to put it in a settings page that you. That has no connection to any of the other features that are in there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Yeah, I, I hear you. I understand that I just like consistency.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>I think it&#8217;s less confusing when you have the same. That&#8217;s a full page devoted to it. Why don&#8217;t I have access to everything that I can do with it? That&#8217;s my logic.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Because you need the editor too. The settings page doesn&#8217;t have access to the editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Yeah, yeah, I totally understand that. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> It&#8217;s like when. Why, why don&#8217;t you have the font or dimensions in a settings page? Yeah. Because it&#8217;s not the editor that has that sidebar. Yeah. Okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Fair enough. All right. This is why it&#8217;s good to talk.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah. But I, I hear you. With all the questions that we have there. The inconsistency is definitely something inconsistent. User interfaces overall, the whole site editor. I think there have been great strides made in the last four months to make this all more consistent. Have all the support for all the blocks like the border and fonts and dimensions that every block. Who has. Who needs it, actually has it. Because there are really some inconsistencies that some. Why does the heading not have a font size or something like that? Yeah. When everybody else, every other block has it. But that&#8217;s. It takes a. A lot of perseverance to get through I don&#8217;t know, 60 blocks and kind of make them all consistent that have been built in the last three years. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gutenberg 21.7</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s get into 21.7. The release is going to be on Wednesday, tomorrow, September 24th. We are recording this on September 23rd. So the listeners. When you, when you listen to it, it will already be out because we are not publishing it until Sunday, our episode. So let&#8217;s get into it. We are doing that from the talking through the changelog from the release candidate one that was published last week. So just to. If there are changes on what we didn&#8217;t have in there from the final release next tomorrow. Okay. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Enhancements</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This release has quite a few additional updates on the block comment thing. So that&#8217;s part of the Gutenberg phase three collaboration phase. Where you have one is from the collaboration phase one is synchronized editing where multiple people are working on the same post at the same time, which is a bit scary, but it works in Google Docs. But we are not there yet. But what already is in the works and has been for a while is the block level commenting. So you can. You&#8217;re in your block editor and you click on. And anybody else who has access to it can go in there and say, okay, in this paragraph, change a comma, an acronym, a wording kind of thing, put it in a comment and then you can resolve it in a comment. So the comments show up in the right hand side in the sidebar and each block that has a comment has a little icon that there are comments in there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Oh wow.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And then you can add a comment by going to the block settings, block options drop down where you also have the grouping and the before and after. There&#8217;s also now comment on the block, and then you can start commenting on it, and then it shows up in the sidebar and then other people who are also come back tomorrow or something like that can answer that or you can also resolve it. So there are quite a few improvements on that. So first is that we only talk about two of them. One is to render the comment content. So it&#8217;s rendered in the comment the content completely. So it doesn&#8217;t. And it&#8217;s still. It&#8217;s a HTML kind of thing. So you can put in links in there without having all the HTML. Yeah. Kind of anchor links there. That&#8217;s one thing. And the other one is that the user text area auto size up until now you couldn&#8217;t. You could write in it, but it kind of would go underneath the box. You had to manually kind of increase it, but now it&#8217;s auto sized. That&#8217;s really cool. Yeah, yeah. So. And I know you are a single site producer so you probably might not have a whole lot of use case for that. But I can see, I can see.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>The use for it for sure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Would you kind of work with your clients on that or rather with another coworker like a developer or something?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>I think to educate my clients about the feature and then they could work together on content. It&#8217;s a nice collaboration tool but with any page or post only one person can edit at a time. So there&#8217;s that which is a useful barrier, unlike a simultaneous thing. So I can definitely share that with people, let them know about it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So there&#8217;s now the ability to reopen resolved comments to see enable inline comments for published posts. Yeah, so if you. Up until now when it was published, all the comments would go away. You wouldn&#8217;t see them. So there was a lot of thought going into that how it&#8217;s actually used from the previous versions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>You know, actually my brother uses WordPress. He&#8217;s a writer and he works with a rather large company. So I&#8217;ll let him know about this upcoming feature because I don&#8217;t know how they manage the editing of content and it would be good if they could do it right there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, it&#8217;s kind of. It could eliminate one step. So when you work with a team on a, on a content you normally go into, or we go with the developer blog and other blogs, we go into Google Docs, write the draft, have all the communication in there, including the comments there and then once all the things are resolved, you copy paste it over to WordPress and that sometimes gets you into trouble. And that copy paste step and the reformatting that is necessary kind of could be eliminated with something like that. Yeah, absolutely.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Exactly. Back in the day when I used, when I was a print Designer, we used InDesign. There is a plugin, so to speak, for InDesign where content writers could do all their magic, all their writing right in. It&#8217;s. I think it&#8217;s. It&#8217;s not in vision, I&#8217;m not remembering, but it doesn&#8217;t matter. Same concept.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> What I really like about it as a designer, they had no access to the styling, they couldn&#8217;t change the colors, size. Yeah, I really like that. You know, the head is. Just leave the head alone. It&#8217;s 24 pixels or.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Print design points.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I get this. Yeah. That is actually coming also to WordPress with the write mode. It&#8217;s kind of a content only mode that you can have patterns in content only and you can only change wording on that. But the rest of it is. Even the, the structure of the pattern is locked. So there is a design mode and a write mode. It also streamlines kind of the process because you&#8217;re not distracting by all the design features you could do. Yeah, so I really like that. But that. That&#8217;s coming.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Same idea.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah. It&#8217;s also. Yeah. So yeah, in 21.7 there&#8217;s also quite a few updates to the data form, especially data forms, also data views. But it has to be kind of to make the form handling kind of bringing up to par to what actually other forms are doing. So the form component has quite a few additional updates in there. So it&#8217;s the radio control, be it the Boolean field types with a toggle, you know, being. Having a URL field that can be in the field control, having a phone field. So it kind of is a build out of what you actually expect when you do forms. But it&#8217;s all in the data view. So it will be in the admin section, not on the front end. So think about when you have a post or page where you have a quick edit. Yeah. Where you can change a few things. That is the form that this is working on. Yeah. Or what the people are working on is kind of. Okay. In the admin we have a user putting data in what can. What controls do we have available for that? Not on the front end or something.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Or in the edit in the block editor. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Okay, so this is just for quick view.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Well, it has a better panel for that. The whole data views has. I think Matthias talked about that in one of his blog posts on the Make Core blog about the different building blocks of the new admin design. And one of them was the infrastructure and what&#8217;s on the panel. So thinking about what are the rooms in the house. You have a kitchen that is differently furniture than the living room and you need the different tools in there. And the form is. Is in a tool you can actually create a form that is then triggered through a modal. Yeah. Or you can add. Open up another panel on the right hand side kind of the data. So those are decisions that the developer is gonna. Is going to make. So plugin developers for most of our plugin developers or core developers. And then you have different tools available for different use cases. Yeah. And. But you always need a form. Right. If a user is going to change something. So depending on how much space you need, quick is only Quick edit is just a very limited. Yeah, yeah yeah. This is going to be a little bit more comfortable to do. Yeah it&#8217;s really interesting to. To see it all come to together and how. How granular the whole development process is. Yeah. So the next ones are kind of navigation pieces. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> I noticed the changing add page to create page and it seems like such a small thing, but it&#8217;s, you know, it&#8217;s significant. I like that one. That&#8217;s a good change.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. And it reminds me, I did some. Some support in. In the forums of WordPress forums and there was one person who had trouble distinguishing between creating a pattern. Yeah. Adding a pattern.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Oh yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. It&#8217;s it for. For mere mortals, I would say. Yeah, it&#8217;s the same. Yeah. I add a page. Yeah. Let me put the count. Or. But the pattern is you create a pattern that you can reuse or. Or you add an existing pattern to the page.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>It&#8217;s kind of that. Yeah. And this is pretty much similar to add a page or create a page. So add a page would be a page link that you add from your existing page and create a page as okay, I want that link, but I don&#8217;t have the page yet. And now you get a button that says create the page. And of course in the write mode it&#8217;s going to be hidden.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>And you were asking me to check on the status with the navigation block and I don&#8217;t see anything that&#8217;s changed. If you edit the navigate via the navigation area. So you go appearance, design, navigation, the UI seems to be the same as it has been for months, which is in my opinion, ugly and confusing. But if you edit via the design area. So if you just stop at appearance design and click on the navigation there, the. It&#8217;s so much more aesthetically pleasing. It just makes for a more enjoyable experience. It&#8217;s attractive and intuitive. So I know this has been on their plate for a while and when I say them, I mean all these wonderful WordPress team developers. Maybe a good place to start improving this UX is to somehow merge what we&#8217;re seeing in the design UI with the navigation UI.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, yeah, no, I get you. Yeah. I. When I was creating my theme demo, I had the same. I couldn&#8217;t do anything with the. Well, I saw the dark side of the site editor. It&#8217;s the dark side menu and on the right hand side. So when I go into a template header and just click on the navigation, it opens up the sidebar on the right hand side and there you can add blocks or add another page link and it&#8217;s, it&#8217;s very pleasing to kind of add to that. That part. You don&#8217;t have on the right hand side or on the left hand side in the dark area of navigation or all you can do is I think click on edit and then you go somewhere. But it&#8217;s the isolated navigation and it&#8217;s kind of plucked on top of the. This.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Yeah, exactly. It&#8217;s just this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>You don&#8217;t see very nondescript piece of navigation plopped the top of the screen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>On top of the content design it. You can&#8217;t, you can&#8217;t. You don&#8217;t see it in context. Yeah, so exactly. It&#8217;s definitely something to think about in, in the. In the next few versions to come. Yeah, yeah. And there was this big or that issue that Matthias wrote about. What other new blocks do we need?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Oh, yes, yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>And Justin Tadlock kind of reversed his stance on what needs to be in Core and he wrote of the Gutenberg Times on why we need new blocks, and that is so theme developers can actually prepare for that out of the box. They don&#8217;t have to check. Is an accordion available from. I don&#8217;t know, the other 15 plugins that have accordions and how to style it. There is one in Core and that&#8217;s what my theme is styling the same with a table of contents block. Or there will be. So they are working on grading the table of content ready for coming out of the experimental stage, which it has been for I think three years now. Yeah. So. But there were no resources to kind of attribute to the table of content block.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> So would this be something you could use in a blog post to identify the sections of the blog post itself and they would be anchor links to that section. Oh, nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. That&#8217;s a table of content block. Yeah. And if you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>I know a use of that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Several of my own blog posts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. Yeah. And if you don&#8217;t have Gutenberg installed, the plugin installed, you don&#8217;t have that block. Yeah. Because it&#8217;s. It&#8217;s only available in Gutenberg and it&#8217;s not yet in Core. But there&#8217;s a big push to hopefully get it into Core. The implementation had some accessibility issues and then some usability issues, but there was kind of. The first version was in there, but then every so. And then the other contributors tried to change it, but then they couldn&#8217;t follow through on this because. Yeah. And now maybe this time is the right time. And then there is a new block. It&#8217;s called the terms query block. It&#8217;s like the query block for post, but it also is for terms. So that&#8217;s the categories and the tags. So you can list them in a rolling block in a post. So I need to see it, how it works to kind of find a good use case for it. But we probably have that. It&#8217;s already in Gutenberg and it has an order by. And with a single drop down and. And these kinds of things. So.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> So it&#8217;s almost like integrating. Could you integrate that on the same page as a. A category?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. With the descriptions and all that. Because it has the tone blocks in there. Yeah. So you can kind of. So if you. For instance, if you have a parent category and you have a blog post in that category, you can say, okay, I want. Underneath every single post, I want a list of all the categories for that parent category or the children category. So people can navigate a little bit deeper into my content forest.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> I bet that would impact SEO positively, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Well, yeah, if you don&#8217;t have too many. Too many categories and too many terms. Yeah, because that definitely. If you have too many terms, you get into the duplicate content issues when multiple terms of the same content in there, but that&#8217;s a different story. So. But it gives you more flexibility on how you can link deeper. That definitely. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And then we mentioned that before that in Site Editor always show the additional CSS button is now finally available in and it will come to 6.9 is what we talked about before that you did we talk about it. Well, with the Site editor you have a place where you can add additional CSS for your site. That what you, you know also from the customizer from classic themes where you had additional CSS. CSS that wasn&#8217;t in the theme. It was on the right hand side on the styles. Yeah, you could add that. But when you were on the left hand side of the styles you didn&#8217;t have a way to add the additional CSS.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>See now this really. This threw me for a loop because I never noticed that, and I can&#8217;t reconstruct the sequence of events from. I have a tutorial site using the 2024 theme and it has just a little bit of additional CSS in it. So yesterday when I noticed this and I explored and I saw my additional CSS field disappear when I deleted its contents and I was like, oh, that&#8217;s not good. And it really threw me for a loop because I always have a backup. So I uploaded my theme backup and thinking it would be in theme JSON and reinstate itself, but it wasn&#8217;t reinstated. So then I had to look at my revision history and find the spot where I was before I deleted really unsettled me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, I imagine. I imagine. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>So now if you&#8217;re saying the additional CSS in the right sidebar is the same as what shows up in the. Okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. So if you said okay, there must be another way to get to the additional css.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Clone to the right hand side. But that, that is such a. Yeah, it kind of really threw quite a few people. Oh yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> So but why didn&#8217;t it show up in my theme JSON? That&#8217;s what I was.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>It&#8217;s not, it&#8217;s not routed through theme JSON. It&#8217;s user content. So it&#8217;s in the database and when it, when that renders, it renders the last item before the in the head with the styles. That&#8217;s the last thing that is going to pull in. So it overrides everything else what you had in theme JSON in the default. So that&#8217;s why it kind of doesn&#8217;t show up in theme JSON because it&#8217;s a different level of customization. Yeah, it&#8217;s the last defense, so to speak is the user oriented stuff. I&#8217;m glad you pointed this point in pulled in last. Yeah. You will see it so if you go to View Source, you see your additional CSS, the last style tag before you start with the content tags. All that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> All it takes. Okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Thank you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>You&#8217;re welcome.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>I can breathe now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. But it shows you that it&#8217;s really hard to kind of keep it all straight when you have multiple places where you can change styles. Because the same thing will happen when you change. So you could change your. This appearance of a block for the whole site in the styles styles and then you go further down this typography layout and then you have blocks there. You change how each block, how a block appears every time you use it. But there&#8217;s also a place when you have a paragraph on one page and you change the look and feel of that paragraph through the right hand side with the. With the tools there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Sure.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>That&#8217;s two places. And the other places theme JSON also kind of controls how a block looks. Yeah. So if something is not right, you have to look at multiple places to find the place where you can change it or where you can. Where it actually was controlled. So that&#8217;s why the additional CSS is just another place to look and to kind of control this. But I think to eliminate the cognitive load, I think learning how to put custom CSS in the theme JSON is probably a good additional skill set to have kind of take away think about not doing the additional CSS right because the advantage is also it only will be loaded. So the additional CSS is always loaded on each page even if the block or whatever you have is not on the page. But if you do it in theme JSON, it will only pulled in when that particular element or block is actually on page. So it&#8217;s actually a performance issues as well. But not a whole lot of people put a whole lot of in additional CSS. So I think it&#8217;s negligent. But just a cognitive load that kind of eliminate another place to.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Right. And that ties into a whole other subject. Not for now, not for today. But CSS specificity, that&#8217;s a whole other thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Gets very complicated.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Volumes of books have been written about that. So the command palette is getting another update with 21.7 that is made the navigation commands available on all screens. So you can now go into your Tools menu on WP admin, hit Control K and say go to Site Editor. Then you can kind of jump like that. You don&#8217;t have to be in the editor to use the command palette. We talked about it before, but it&#8217;s getting more and more in there. Oh, there is a nice template API change that it reads really non-ecstatic. This kind of allows template duplication plus the concept of active templates. That&#8217;s something I would ask anybody who does works with template to test out. Because what it helps you is that you can have multiple single post templates on your site and only one is active. So if you have a plugin that kind of adds templates to your site. So through the template hierarchy that WordPress has, there are certain templates need to have a certain slug to be pulled automatically. So the single post or the archive pages or that. But if you want to test out different kinds of templates, right now what you do is use patterns for a certain template and you&#8217;re not adding them to templates, but you&#8217;re adding them to patterns.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>But if you can do, okay, I have a single post template. Oh, and I also want to know how it looks without the featured image to add another single post template and then you can activate each one of them. And that makes it for a much clearer proposition on what templates do and what patterns do. And that also when you have a plugin that adds a template, because plugins now can suggest. Oh, push templates into the template editor. Yeah. Like woocommerce. Yeah. Is going to do that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Or when you have a theme, a team plugin or a business directory plugin, you can get the templates into your template editor. So you can modify them. Yeah. As a user, but you already have a team member custom post type template, so the plugin would overwrite it. But if you can have multiple template duplication, deplete duplication or multiple, not only two, but more, you can just. With the activation flag, you can say which one is the one that&#8217;s going to be rendered on front page. Does it make sense?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Okay, cool. So. And I&#8217;m totally excited about that. Yeah, I can&#8217;t.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>This is. It&#8217;ll take me down so many different paths. I won&#8217;t get any work done for a month. I&#8217;ll be busy exploring and testing. That&#8217;s all good.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. But Ela Vandorp, one of the Goodmoor developers, has been working on that for so long. Yeah. And when you go to the PR, it has, I don&#8217;t know, 150 comments or something like that. Yeah. But it&#8217;s. It finally made it into the Gutenberg plugin release. Yeah. Now we can test it before it goes into WordPress core in a month. So go and test it, please. Okay, everybody here on the Gutenberg Changelog Podcast needs to test this. And Aki Hamano, he&#8217;s a contributor from Japan.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Oh, sure. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">New API</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. He has a few things that really he contributed quite a lot to Gutenberg in the last year and he introduced a new function called Use Commands. So you can register more than one command for the command palette, which is good, especially when you kind of think about kind of getting the abilities API kind of connected with the commands palette. So yeah, for developers it&#8217;s definitely something to check out how you can add additional commands to the command palette for your users. Your agencies probably can change some of the workflow hiccups that some of the clients have. Yeah. If you can add a command to it and you teach them to control K and you something, that&#8217;s definitely good. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bug Fixes</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot of bug fixes, bug fixes, data form fixes. Yeah, I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s anything I wanted to point out except the global styles bug fix was. Is that the border radius presets kind of had a little bug in there that it generated the wrong variable name in pattern code. And that is definitely fixed. It works. Thank goodness it works good for them. In the block library accordion now has a block gap support. I think that&#8217;s what you are kind of thinking about.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Oh sure. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>That is now in 21.7 and then you also have a term list drop down.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Oh, there was a limit. What is. What is the new limit?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>I think it&#8217;s now 100.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Oh, I was just thinking yeah, 100 would be good and I would never get to 100 but someone might.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> It takes 10 to 100. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>So okay, that&#8217;s quite a limit. 10.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Well, you shouldn&#8217;t use too many terms because each term creates another page. A page that needs to be indexed and doesn&#8217;t have a unique thing there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Content only pattern patterns.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Yeah, that&#8217;s definitely something to test. Is kind of added content in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>So the purple icon was taken away.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>I think so, yeah. Well, in the right mode. Yeah. It&#8217;s kind of that mode where you only can change certain things and not do design. So unsync patterns are actually content only by default. So when you add them to the page you only kind of change content if. If it&#8217;s in the write mode. Yeah. So you don&#8217;t get distracted by certain things like edit. Yeah. If you want the pattern to be. It&#8217;s unsynced so it doesn&#8217;t propagate the design over every usage. But you still want to have a consistent layout. And then editors who use that in on the page shouldn&#8217;t change the composition of the pattern, only the content that&#8217;s. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Experiments</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>And then there&#8217;s a pattern content only experiment that makes the template parts section blocks. Yeah, that was one thing that came out of section styles that&#8217;s in 6.6. IIn WordPress 6.6 is that you have patterns that are actually sections and you could style them through JSON files. And then you only get in the style section of the right hand side. You get, I don&#8217;t know, two or three styles and every. The pattern changes its look and feel according to their styles. But it was hard to figure out what makes a pattern a section and whatnot. So it ended up that every group block was actually a section. So the styles would apply to other group box as well that were not meant to do. But there was no way to say okay, only for section styles. I want these. So this call for action or call for call for action block or book kind of things. So it was a little confusing for the users to apply that and some of the features. So in zoom mode when you added a pattern you had a little, little drop, kind of a. A fluid drop that would. You could toggle through. Not toggle, browse through. All the styles that are. Can be attached to that pattern. Oh yeah. And those also needed to be sections. But it wasn&#8217;t clear what does one pattern distinguish. The other pattern is a section. And now they are trying to do that in an experiment and see how far it gets with also the styling part. I don&#8217;t know if all that makes sense what I&#8217;m saying, but.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> No, no, I understand.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>I think that was it for 21.7 that I kind of saw. Yes, that&#8217;s it. Yeah. So now we&#8217;re coming to. I think we&#8217;re really out of time today with our. With our episode here. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What’s in Active Development or Discussed</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>So I wanted to talk about tabs, we need to kind of have it in front of us. Yeah. So it. They are not. So one of the new blocks that are. Is worked on is the tabs block. Okay. And the other one is the modal block or the pop up block is kind of when you. So you have a trigger, you have a block for a trigger and then when a user clicks on it, then a modal comes up and you can fill out something. That&#8217;s also in an HTML standard, but there&#8217;s no blocks there. And it definitely is a common use case for certain things. And those things are. And the same as tabs. So you have not as an Accordion where you have one header and then the panel opens and then the next header is. You have multiple tabs on top and then the panel changes. That is also in the works. I hope it makes it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff</em>: Oh, nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Makes it to the 6.9, but I&#8217;m not quite sure it actually goes there because I haven&#8217;t seen anything in the last week that kind of contributes to that. But I&#8217;m also. I might have been out of the loop there because there are so many things that going on at the same time. And I&#8217;m. I&#8217;m waiting. I know that Anne McCarthy, she&#8217;s working on the kind of what&#8217;s the state of the development now? But I hope that it comes out next week or something like that and then we have it for the next episode.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Good timing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. So WordPress 6.9 comes with really a lot of good features and also quality of life changes for. For the editor and for the flow of things. So I&#8217;m really excited about that. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> And wasn&#8217;t there a reduction in the number of releases that was decided to condense?</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yes. So in January there were initiatives when Automattic said, okay, we are going to stop contributing for a while. And then the core committers then decided, okay, if it&#8217;s not that we have one more release, that was 6.8 and that would be the only release in 2025. And then in May, Automattic decided to contribute again and kind of push everything further and then said, okay, then we can also have one more release this year.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And that&#8217;s 6.9. And that&#8217;s what we are building up to. That&#8217;s also why there are so many and Gutenberg releases kind of put together into one of the. Into the major WordPress release. Normally it was kind of between 7 and 10, but now we have 15.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff:</em> Okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, so yeah, yeah, but that was a good question. Yeah. Not everybody kind of know they stopped, but did we start again contributing to Core? You know. Yes, we did. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Excellent. Well, I look forward to the next release.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>We do, yeah. So we are at the end of the show. Thank you so much for going through that with me, Ann. It was great to talk to you again.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>I know. It was great to talk with you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. As always, dear listeners, the show notes will be published on <a href=\"http://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast\">GutenbergTimes.com/podcast</a>. This is episode 121, 121. And if you have questions, suggestions or news you want us to include next time, send them to <a href=\"http://changelogutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a> that&#8217;s <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a> and the show notes will have all the contact information for Anne and it will be on, as I said, Gutenbergtimes.com. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>So thank you, everybody. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Thank you for thank you, Birgit. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Thank you, Anne, for your time. And I hope you have a wonderful time in fall. Take care. Bye bye. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Anne Katzeff: </em>Bye. Bye.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sun, 28 Sep 2025 20:07:25 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Birgit Pauli-Haack\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"Matt: Saturday Shares\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=150000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:38:\"https://ma.tt/2025/09/saturday-shares/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2724:\"<p>A few links for you:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>From Kirschblütenboogie to Khruangbin (from Houston!), here&#8217;s a <a href=\"https://open.spotify.com/playlist/27gcPbqPTfnjS1xnfq9jFe?si=lF1sBoR1R3SyrPOEu3c3aQ\">Saturday chill Spotify playlist I made for you to have good vibes this weekend</a>. Perfect for sunsets. Hat tip: <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielgruneberg/\">Daniel Gruneberg</a> who first introduced me to Hermanos Gutiérrez.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://openssf.org/blog/2025/09/23/open-infrastructure-is-not-free-a-joint-statement-on-sustainable-stewardship/\">Open Infrastructure is Not Free: A Joint Statement on Sustainable Stewardship</a>. &#8220;Billion-dollar ecosystems cannot stand on foundations built of goodwill and unpaid weekends.&#8221;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Chat-based photo editing is one of the most magical uses of AI right now, and <a href=\"https://blog.google/products/photos/android-conversational-editing-google-photos/\">Google Photos just made it available to everybody</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Did you know <a href=\"https://automattic.com/expectations/anti-glossary/\">Automattic has an anti-glossary</a>?</li>\n\n\n\n<li>It&#8217;s cool to see <a href=\"https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2025/07/07/copyleft.html\">Vitalik Buterin come around to copyleft licenses</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>I&#8217;m going to <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQDNgy774sg\">re-link the Grit interview, some people are saying it is their favorite they&#8217;ve seen of me in years</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>BCG has an annoyingly-good rundown of <a href=\"https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/corporate-development-finance-function-excellence-art-of-capital-allocation\">The Art of Capital Allocation</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://siliconangle.com/2025/06/26/linux-foundation-open-source-ai-opensourcesummit/\">The Linux Foundation thinks open source contributes $9 Trillion in global value</a>. Really what we&#8217;re doing is sharing the technological phylogenetic branches for humanity&#8217;s progress.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/08/study-social-media-probably-cant-be-fixed/\">A great interview with Petter Törnberg on his paper about how social media might be structually dysfunctional</a>. &#8220;Rather than bringing us together into one utopian public square and fostering a healthy exchange of ideas, these platforms too often create filter bubbles or echo chambers.&#8221;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>See <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4JxqES_Gzk\">Harry Mack meet Will Smith and Martin Lawrence</a>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Fun fact: this post has the ID of &#8220;150,000&#8221; in <a href=\"https://codex.wordpress.org/Database_Description#Table:_wp_posts\">my wp_posts table</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sun, 28 Sep 2025 01:31:04 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:99:\"Gutenberg Times: WordPress 6.9 is coming, moar plugins, Query block and fonts—Weekend Edition 342\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=41984\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:106:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-9-is-coming-moar-plugins-query-block-and-fonts-weekend-edition-342/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:19187:\"<p>Hi there, </p>\n\n\n\n<p>I send you greetings from Gdynia, a polish port city on the East Sea, with some pirate roots, maybe. My only clues are pirate theme of the WordCamp Gdynia, with the Wapuu, the harbor cruise on a pirate ship, and the branding assets of the WordCamp. For one of my slides, I had Gemini create a background image to celebrate the Site Editor the pirate way. </p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy the weekend edition and have a fantastic weekend!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yours, <img alt=\"💕\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f495.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /><br /><em>Birgit</em></p>\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-group\" style=\"padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<nav class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents\"><ol><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-9-is-coming-moar-plugins-query-block-and-fonts-weekend-edition-342/#wordpress-6-9-is-coming-into-focus\">WordPress 6.9 is coming into focus. </a></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-9-is-coming-moar-plugins-query-block-and-fonts-weekend-edition-342/#0-p\">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</a></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-9-is-coming-moar-plugins-query-block-and-fonts-weekend-edition-342/#2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled\">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</a></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-9-is-coming-moar-plugins-query-block-and-fonts-weekend-edition-342/#3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press\">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.</a></li></ol></nav>\n</div></div>\n</section>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"wordpress-6-9-is-coming-into-focus\">WordPress 6.9 is coming into focus. </h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I almost missed it; <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/07/28/roadmap-to-6-9/#comment-47884\">commented</a> on the Roadmap post that some priorities changed for WordPress 6.9:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list has-light-background-background-color has-background\">\n<li>&#8220;Added in a “New blocks<strong>” section</strong> under “Refining Content Creation” after there’s been a shift in momentum there.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Removed “An initial experimental version is planned in the Gutenberg plugin, where contributors can opt-in and offer feedback” under “New WordPress Admin experience” as that’s no longer planned based on the current state of work.&#8221; </li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>McCarthy</strong> is also <a href=\"https://nomad.blog/2025/09/24/exploring-work-in-progress-for-wordpress-6-9-v2/\"><strong>Exploring work in progress for WordPress 6.9 v2</strong></a> on her personal blog. You&#8217;ll find videos and links to all the pertinent information. It&#8217;s a lot; you probably have to be selective to digest it all. She updates us all about:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Ability to hide blocks</strong>: The first version will just be a hide/show menu item. Don&#8217;t get rid of the Block Visibility plugin just yet.  </li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Command Palette everywhere</strong>: It is already available in GB 21.5. Additional work is done on the back end to solidify the API. </li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Block commenting</strong> has received a myriad of updates, and the UI is still refined. </li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>New block</strong>: summarizes work around already merged Accordion and Post Term query blocks and work on the way for the Page breakcrumbs, Icons, Stretchy, Tabs, Time to read, and Table of Contents blocks.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Simplified site editing</strong>: Two different experiments are pursued, one more Write/Design mode and the other is a Pattern ContentOnly idea. Videos and more details are in the post. </li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Expanded template management</strong>: work around duplicate templates, switch which one’s active, disable theme templates &amp; keep your custom ones, and use the new “Active templates” view.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Various dev updates</strong>—standardized UTF-8 support, Abilities API, Interactivity API, Block bindings. </li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jamie Marsland </strong>gave a sneak peak on <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSXUfsECVFI\"><strong>WordPress 6.9 in 250 seconds</strong></a> and covers <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/\"></a>Block-level commenting, improved template management and portability across themes, block hiding, and more powerful editing controls.</p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Last month, <strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> already published a tutorial on how to <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/08/registering-custom-social-icons-in-wordpress-6-9/\"><strong>register custom social icons in WordPress 6.9</strong></a> on the WordPress Developer Blog. With the new WordPress version to be released on December 2, 2025, developers will be able to create block variations using JavaScript for editor registration and filter the block_core_social_link_get_services hook for frontend display. The tutorial demonstrates building a plugin that adds Ko-fi, IMDB, Letterboxd, Signal, and YouTube Music icons, including proper brand color styling for both logos-only and standard variations, making social media integration more flexible and customizable.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><img alt=\"🎙\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/16.0.1/72x72/1f399.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /> The latest episode is <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-122-gutenberg-21-8-and-wordpress-6-9/\">Gutenberg Changelog #122 – Gutenberg 21.8 and WordPress 6.9</a> with Beth Soderberg of <a href=\"https://bethink.studio/\">Bethink Studio</a></p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-no-vertical-margin\"><img alt=\"Gutenberg Changelog 122 with Beth Soderberg\" class=\"wp-image-42236\" height=\"193\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-11-at-12.32.48.png?resize=652%2C193&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>If you are listening via Spotify, please leave a comment. If you listen via other podcast apps, please leave a review. It&#8217;ll help with the distribution.</em></p>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-p\">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>During their latest <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28VenSxzTZs\"><strong>WPCafe #128 </strong></a>show, <strong>Keith Devon</strong> and <strong>Mark Wilkinson</strong> of Highrise Digital shared how they use the block editor to support their sales effort.</p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ajit Bohra</strong>, Lubus, released the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/blablablocks-formats/\"><strong>BlaBlaBlocks Formats</strong></a> plugin that adds custom RichText formats, like highlights and tooltips, to your WordPress site. You can review the <a href=\"https://github.com/lubusIN/blablablocks-formats/wiki\">documentation</a> on GitHub.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/blablablocks-formats/\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42037\" height=\"326\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/BlaBlaBlocksFormats.png?resize=652%2C326&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong>, developer advocate at Automattic, announced the release of a new <strong><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/x3p0-breadcrumbs/\">Breadcrumbs Block </a></strong>plugin version. It now supports the built-in Layout and Block Gap (Spacing) features, and developers can extend the block with custom code.  Checkout the <a href=\"https://github.com/x3p0-dev/x3p0-breadcrumbs/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md\">Changelog notes</a> for information on styling this block in your themes. </p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42046\" height=\"353\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-27-at-10.17.50.png?resize=652%2C353&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Troy Chaplin</strong> updated his <strong><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-accessibility-checks/\">Block Accessibility Checks plugin</a></strong>. Version 2.1 brings a mix of accessibility improvements, developer-focused enhancements, and a much cleaner user experience. Chaplin recorded a short demo video walking through the plugin in action, including validation of both core and custom blocks right in the editor, as well as a tour of the brand-new settings page. <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvunSl2j1CU\">A demo of version 2.1 of the Block Accessibility Checks plugin for WordPress</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled\">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mitch Canter</strong> just wrapped up an awesome online workshop for the WordPress training team on <a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/2025/09/26/mastering-the-query-loop-block-in-wordpress/\"><strong>Mastering the Query Loop block in WordPress.</strong></a> The recording is now up for you to check out! You&#8217;ll dive into how the Query Loop block works and turn it from something that seems super complicated into your new best friend for creating dynamic and eye-catching content. You’ll discover how to tell WordPress exactly what content to grab and how to make it look good… all without having to write a single line of code. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bud Kraus</strong> looked into <strong><a href=\"https://kinsta.com/blog/variable-fonts/\">variable fonts in WordPress themes</a></strong>, explaining how these fonts can hold different weights and styles all in one file, making them faster than regular web fonts. With the update in WordPress 6.1 that adds <code>theme.json</code> support, variable fonts can load quicker, offer more design options with custom weights, and adjust nicely for different screen sizes. Kraus shows how to use fonts like Vollkorn in child themes, create simple plugins for controlling weights, and add fonts through the Font Library, highlighting how variable fonts are both efficient and versatile in design.</p>\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-callout undefined not-color-set\" style=\"border-color: #f9f9e5; border-radius: 22px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: left; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: #f9f9e5;\">\n<p><strong> <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2025&#8221;</a> </strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test, and Meta team from Jan. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. The previous years are also available: <strong><strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/\">2020</a> | <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2021/\">2021</a></strong> | <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2022/\">2022</a></strong></strong> | <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2023\">2023</a></strong> | <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2024/\"><strong>2024</strong></a></p>\n</section>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press\">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><br />In his post, <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/09/23/telex-turns-everyone-into-a-wordpress-block-developer/\"><strong>Telex Turns Everyone into a WordPress Block Developer</strong></a>, <strong>Nick Diego</strong> explores Telex, Automattic&#8217;s experimental AI tool that converts natural language prompts into functional WordPress blocks. Unlike traditional block development requiring React, JavaScript, and PHP expertise, Telex democratizes the process for site owners, agencies, and developers. Users simply describe desired functionality, and Telex generates working blocks within minutes using WordPress Playground. The tool supports iterative refinement through follow-up prompts or direct code editing, making WordPress block creation accessible to everyone regardless of technical background.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>You can also review the discussion on Reddit r/WordPress space: <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/1nozn1k/did_you_try_wordpress_telex_its_awesome/\">Did you try WordPress Telex? it&#8217;s awesome!</a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ryan Welcher</strong> continues his Blockdevelopment Cook Book series on YouTube with <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIMbcHF-g3M\"><strong>Customizing the WordPress Build Process Made Easy!</strong></a> He explained how to customize the @wordpress/scripts build process to bundle a plugin with a single custom block, a JavaScript file that registers a block variation, and a CSS file to style it. &#8220;We’ll keep things neat by organizing the block code in a blocks directory and the JS/CSS in a resources directory—a clean and tasty setup for your project! &#8221; he wrote. </p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-callout undefined not-color-set\" style=\"border-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 26px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: left; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: #f3efe9;\">\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/\">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s master branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now also available via <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/playnightly.json\">WordPress Playground</a>. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? <a href=\"mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com\">Email me </a>with your experience</p>\n\n\n\n<p><img alt=\"GitHub all releases\" src=\"https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total?style=for-the-badge\" /></p>\n</section>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\"><em>Questions? Suggestions? Ideas? </em><br /><em>Don&#8217;t hesitate to send <a href=\"mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com\">them via email</a> or</em><br /><em> send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph</em>.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">For questions to be answered on the <a href=\"http://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast\">Gutenberg Changelog</a>, <br />send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-group\" style=\"padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\">\n<p>Featured Image: </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>Don&#8217;t want to miss the next Weekend Edition? </strong></p>\n\n\n<form action=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/\" autocomplete=\"on\" class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-form ngl-form ngl-portrait\" method=\"post\"><div class=\"ngl-form-container\"><div class=\"ngl-form-field\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><label class=\"ngl-form-label\" for=\"ngl_email\"><br />Type in your Email address to subscribe.</label><div class=\"ngl-form-input\"><input autocomplete=\"email\" class=\"ngl-form-input-text\" id=\"ngl_email\" name=\"ngl_email\" required=\"required\" style=\"border-radius: 21px;\" type=\"email\" /></div></div><button class=\"ngl-form-button\" style=\"background-color: #005075; border-color: #005075; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; color: #ffffff; border-radius: 21px;\" type=\"submit\">Subscribe</button><p class=\"ngl-form-text\">We hate spam, too, and won&#8217;t give your email address to anyone <br />except Mailchimp to send out our Weekend Edition</p></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay\"><div class=\"ngl-message-svg-wrap\"><svg fill=\"none\" height=\"24\" stroke=\"#fff\" stroke-width=\"2\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" width=\"24\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><polyline points=\"20 6 9 17 4 12\"></polyline></svg></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay-text\">Thanks for subscribing.</div></div><input id=\"ngl_list_id\" name=\"ngl_list_id\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"26f81bd8ae\" /><input id=\"ngl_double_optin\" name=\"ngl_double_optin\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"yes\" /></form>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n</section>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 27 Sep 2025 09:29:48 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:18:\"Birgit Pauli-Haack\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:47:\"Matt: Five Publications I’d Love on WordPress\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:22:\"https://ma.tt/?p=51331\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"https://ma.tt/2025/09/big-five/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1808:\"<p>When WordPress started in 2003, I never dreamed it would power over 40% of websites, nine times the number two CMS, but I wrote on a notecard a list of five publications I admired and respected so much I wanted them to run on WP someday. In the interest of sharing your dreams to help them come true, here they are:</p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/\">Atlantic</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.economist.com/\">Economist</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/\">New Yorker</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/\">New York Times</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/\">Wall Street Journal</a></li>\n</ol>\n\n\n\n<p>And one bonus: <a href=\"https://www.chron.com/\">Houston Chronicle</a>. (Gotta root for the hometown.)</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There has been uneven progress toward this over the years; we&#8217;ve gotten some of the NYT and all of the New Yorker at one point, only to have them revert under new CTOs. Also, there have been some unexpected huge wins, like when <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2023/07/chorus-and-wordpress/\">Vox Media retired its proprietary CMS Chorus and brought over amazing publications like The Verge and New York Magazine</a>. For any projects related to these publications, including trials or micro-sites, I&#8217;d be happy to provide my feedback on architecture, design, and opportunities, and contribute <a href=\"https://automattic.com/\">Automattic</a> and <a href=\"https://wpvip.com/\">VIP</a> resources wherever they could be helpful. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe the most crucial aspect to get right for these customers is real-time co-editing, which is on the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/\">Gutenberg</a> roadmap and shipping soon. If I were writing this list today I might choose some different targets.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Sat, 27 Sep 2025 03:28:52 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:16:\"Matt: Harry Mack\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=149863\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://ma.tt/2025/09/harry-mack/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:1480:\"<p>I love the culture of freestyle rap, it&#8217;s so inspiring to see how people can create such rich poetry riddled with allusions and puns on command. Last week <a href=\"https://matt.blog/2025/09/19/with-harry-mack/\">I got to meet Harry Mack</a> and see him improvise live and it totally makes sense that he has a jazz drums background. If you&#8217;re not familiar with <a href=\"https://www.harrymackofficial.com/\">Harry Mack</a>, this is a good example of him taking three words: Imported, Lurking, <a href=\"https://automatic.com/\">Automatic</a> and freestyling with them. (BTW, if you noticed, we finally got the domain spelled correctly.) </p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a video chat site called <a href=\"https://www.omegle.fun/\">Omegle</a> that paired you with random people, and Harry would record these encounters, such as <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mccIi2YOFgQ\">this cute one with girls from Sweden who gave him the words Cartoon, Titan, Death</a>. It&#8217;s awesome to <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4JxqES_Gzk\">see him meet Will Smith and Martin Lawrence</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For some fun WordPress rap history, check out when <a href=\"https://youtu.be/KG5vJKOwsjw?t=195\">Childish Gambino referenced me in a rap he performed on Tim Westwood back in 2012</a>.</p>\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 26 Sep 2025 06:38:37 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"Matt\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"child\";a:2:{s:0:\"\";a:5:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:91:\"Open Channels FM: 12 Tips for WordPress Businesses Navigating the WordPress Media Landscape\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:33:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=109514\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:4:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:98:\"https://openchannels.fm/12-tips-for-wordpress-businesses-navigating-the-wordpress-media-landscape/\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:211:\"To enhance your business visibility in the WordPress ecosystem, employ strategies like mapping channels, collaborating with influencers, sponsoring newsletters, and tailoring content to different audience needs.\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}s:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Thu, 25 Sep 2025 10:44:00 +0000\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}s:32:\"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/\";a:1:{s:7:\"creator\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"BobWP\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:0:{}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:\"type\";i:128;s:7:\"headers\";O:48:\"WpOrg\\Requests\\Utility\\CaseInsensitiveDictionary\":1:{s:7:\"\0*\0data\";a:9:{s:6:\"server\";s:5:\"nginx\";s:4:\"date\";s:29:\"Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:15:53 GMT\";s:12:\"content-type\";s:8:\"text/xml\";s:13:\"last-modified\";s:29:\"Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:00:21 GMT\";s:4:\"vary\";s:15:\"Accept-Encoding\";s:15:\"x-frame-options\";s:10:\"SAMEORIGIN\";s:16:\"content-encoding\";s:2:\"br\";s:7:\"alt-svc\";s:19:\"h3=\":443\"; ma=86400\";s:4:\"x-nc\";s:9:\"HIT ord 2\";}}s:5:\"build\";i:1745808582;s:21:\"cache_expiration_time\";i:1761149753;s:23:\"__cache_expiration_time\";i:1761149753;}', 'off');
