 Full Site Editing and Blocks</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Simon Cooke</strong>, business development director at <em>HumanMade</em>, discussed in his post <a href=\"https://humanmade.com/wordpress-for-enterprise/how-wordpress-full-site-editing-supports-global-scalability/\"><strong>How WordPress’ full site editing supports global scalability</strong></a>. In his view, WordPress Full Site Editing (FSE) helps large companies manage websites across different regions more easily. It allows businesses to create consistent design templates while giving local teams flexibility to adapt content. FSE makes it simpler to maintain a unified brand look, support multiple languages, and create websites that work smoothly in different markets. By providing centralized design tools and easy-to-use content blocks, companies can build more efficient and adaptable digital experiences globally.</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://developer.woocommerce.com/2025/01/13/office-hours-jan-25/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"></a><strong>Brent MacKinnon</strong>, invites you to WooCommerce&#8217;s January Developer Office Hours:<a href=\"https://developer.woocommerce.com/2025/01/13/office-hours-jan-25/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> <strong>The Future of WooCommerce Themes</strong></a> on <strong>January 22 at 22:00 UTC</strong>. <strong>Ellen Bauer,</strong> WooCommerce&#8217;s Product Lead for themes, blocks &amp; patterns, will share insights on theme development and block patterns. She will share the new starter block theme replacing Storefront, discus of block-based theming best practices and customization and answer your questions. The Developer hours will be held on the <a href=\"https://join.slack.com/t/woocommercecommunity/shared_invite/zt-2y1e6c6b4-X3_oILSeCmr4Dmhkhrx9tw\">WooCommerce Slack space</a> in the #developers channel.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>More updated from <strong><a href=\"https://developer.woocommerce.com/\">WooCommerce Developer Blog</a></strong></p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.woocommerce.com/2025/01/16/order-datastore-caching-a-new-approach-to-optimize-woocommerce-performance/\">Order DataStore Caching — A new approach to optimize WooCommerce performance</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.woocommerce.com/2025/01/16/new-woocommerce-blocks-cart-item-image-filter/\">New WooCommerce blocks cart item image filter</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.woocommerce.com/2025/01/16/developer-advisory-block-checkout-field-entities/\">Developer advisory: Block Checkout field entities</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.woocommerce.com/2025/01/13/feedback-request-adding-order-fulfillments-to-woocommerce/\">Feedback request: Adding order fulfillments to WooCommerce</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://woocommerce.com/\"><img width=\"652\" height=\"443\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-16-at-14.31.51.png?resize=652%2C443&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-37347\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Fränk Klein</strong> took a <a href=\"https://wpdevelopment.courses/articles/wp-development-mode/\"><strong>deep dive in how WP_DEVELOPMENT_MODE</strong></a> helps with developing Block themes, as it bypasses the theme.json cache. Learn how to enable it and how to use it. He also offers an array of code snippets for conditional handling in your wp_config.php file, and shares some pitfalls.</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://x.com/itsamoreh\"><strong>Amor Kumar</strong></a>, principal engineer at WebDev Studios, created the <a href=\"https://github.com/itsamoreh/block-theme-starter\"><strong>Block Starter Theme</strong></a>, so you can &#8220;craft your next WordPress block them with a simple foundation&#8221;. This project is targeted toward agencies or developers building tightly controlled themes for clients. To facilitate full control of the editing experience, the following WordPress core features have been disabled: Openverse integration, Core block patterns, Core block styles, and search in the Block directory. The readme file lists how to use it and suggests a particular workflow for building a block theme. It&#8217;s definitely a great way to get started.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In his post <a href=\"https://kinsta.com/blog/customize-command-palette/\"><strong>How your plugin can customize the WordPress Command Palette</strong></a>, <strong>Steve Bonisteel</strong>, technical editor at Kinsta, explains what the Command Palette is, and how its API can be used by plugin authors to provide a streamlined interaction with the block editor. </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.briancoords.com/wp-queries-in-php-and-javascript-building-a-custom-avatar-block/\"><strong>WP Queries in PHP and JavaScript </strong></a>– <strong>Brain Coords </strong>provided a tutorial on how to build a custom Avatar block. &#8220;I share how I built a custom solution for displaying guest speaker images on my podcast website using WordPress. I combined plugins like Seriously Simple Podcasting and the outdated WP Term Images, then created a custom Gutenberg block to dynamically display speaker headshots.&#8221; he wrote.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2024&#8221;</a>&nbsp;</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>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2021/\">2021</a></strong>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<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>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2023\">2023</a></strong></p>\n\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><a href=\"https://x.com/juanmaguitar\">JuanMa Garrido</a></strong> expanded the access to the <a href=\"https://wordpress.github.io/block-development-examples/\"><strong>Block Development Examples</strong></a> on the GitHub Repo. He built a TypeScript app using ReactJS and host it on the WordPress GitHub pages. Each example has its own card, that also shows the contributing author.  The list can be filtered by tags. The details view links back to the readme.md file for each individual examples with explanations, code snippets and related resources. </p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"652\" height=\"404\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-16-at-13.54.30.png?resize=652%2C404&ssl=1\" alt=\"Screenshot of the front page of the Block Development Examples. \" class=\"wp-image-37342\" />\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In his 404th episode of the WPbuilds podcast, <a href=\"https://wpbuilds.com/2025/01/09/404-alan-fuller-is-not-found-actually-he-is-and-hes-been-learning-to-develop-blocks/\"><strong>Nathan Wrigley interviewed Alan Fuller, of <em>Fullworks Plugins</em></strong></a>. They discussed Fuller&#8217;s journey from corporate life to WordPress plugin development. The conversation covers WordPress&#8217;s evolution from shortcodes to blocks, focusing on Alan&#8217;s &#8220;Display Eventbrite Events&#8221; plugin and its challenges, such as documentation gaps and API limitations. Alan also shares insights on developing for tools like Elementor, tackling support issues, and marketing struggles due to social anxiety. He highlights the role of AI in replacing part-time developers and reflects on pricing missteps. The episode explores WordPress development trends and Alan’s experiences with modern collaboration tools like Slack and GitHub.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\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\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\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 class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-form ngl-form ngl-portrait\" action=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/\" method=\"post\"><div class=\"ngl-form-container\"><div class=\"ngl-form-field\"><label class=\"ngl-form-label\" for=\"ngl_email\"><br />Type in your Email address to subscribe.</label><div class=\"ngl-form-input\"><input type=\"email\" class=\"ngl-form-input-text\" name=\"ngl_email\" id=\"ngl_email\" /></div></div><button type=\"submit\" class=\"ngl-form-button\">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\"></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay-text\">Thanks for subscribing.</div></div><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ngl_list_id\" id=\"ngl_list_id\" value=\"26f81bd8ae\" /><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ngl_double_optin\" id=\"ngl_double_optin\" value=\"yes\" /></form>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide\" />\";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, 18 Jan 2025 00:33:00 +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:19;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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:\"Do The Woo Community: Do the Woo Live Stream, 17/01/2025: Celebrating 7 Years\";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:43:\"https://dothewoo.io/?post_type=blog&p=89086\";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:61:\"https://dothewoo.io/blog/do-the-woo-live-celebrating-7-years/\";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:33:\"Celebrating 7 years of Do the Woo\";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, 17 Jan 2025 14:12:42 +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: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:20;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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:65:\"Gravatar: Boost Engagement with Advanced WordPress Comment Design\";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:32:\"http://blog.gravatar.com/?p=2689\";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:63:\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2025/01/16/wordpress-comments-design/\";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:15276:\"<p>Want to transform your basic WordPress comment section into something that pulls readers into the conversation? The default comments section can feel a bit uninspiring – it’s just text boxes and basic avatars that don&#8217;t encourage much interaction.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But with some smart design choices and modern tools, you can create comment sections that make readers want to join the discussion. A well-designed comment area shows visitors their thoughts matter, building a space where meaningful conversations happen naturally. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>This guide explores how to enhance your <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/\">WordPress</a> comments through <a href=\"https://gravatar.com/\">Gravatar integration</a>, which lets you display <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/02/21/securing-cyber-space-role-of-digital-identity-verification/\">verified user profiles</a> and avatars. You&#8217;ll learn how to use Gravatar&#8217;s features to boost trust and recognition among commenters. For those comfortable with code, we’ve also included tips on styling your comment section with CSS to match your site&#8217;s design perfectly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ready to build a more engaging community through better comment design? Let&#8217;s get started.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why modernize your WordPress comments? A quick overview</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Basic WordPress comment sections can make your site feel outdated compared to platforms where users interact through verified profiles. This affects more than just appearances – it impacts how visitors engage with your content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sites with basic comment sections often struggle with:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lower return visitor rates, as users don&#8217;t feel connected to the community.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reduced time spent on pages since there&#8217;s less incentive to read discussions.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>More spam comments due to lack of verification.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Limited user recognition between posts and discussions.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Adding modern comment features changes this dynamic. When commenters can display verified identities, discussions become more meaningful. Users take more care with their responses when their professional profiles are attached. They&#8217;re more likely to return to check responses and participate in new discussions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quick improvements through tools like Gravatar bring:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Automatic user recognition across WordPress sites.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Built-in spam reduction through email verification.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Professional-looking user profiles that build credibility.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Improving your WordPress comments form with Gravatar</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://gravatar.com/\">Gravatar</a> is a 3-in-1 solution that can help you create a truly engaging comment section. Let’s look at the different applications. But first – let’s look at what Gravatar truly is and explore <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/12/10/how-to-use-gravatar-in-wordpress/\">its relationship with WordPress</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>First and foremost, Gravatar is a free profile platform by Automattic (the people behind <a href=\"https://woocommerce.com/\">WooCommerce</a> and <a href=\"http://wordpress.com\">WordPress.com</a>) that lets users create dynamic online identities that follow them around the Internet. The profiles are connected to the email address, so whenever you use that to register on a Gravatar-integrated site, the user data is automatically pulled (more on that later).&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1421\" height=\"985\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/ronnie-gravatar-profile-1.png\" alt=\"Ronnie Burt Gravatar profile\" class=\"wp-image-2692\" />\n\n\n\n<p>For example, WordPress.com websites are integrated with Gravatar. When you create a profile with a website built on WordPress.com, your Gravatar information is imported, saving you time and effort throughout the registration process. If you don’t have a Gravatar profile and sign up for WordPress.com, you’ll get one automatically and have it linked to the email address that was used.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress.org also uses Gravatar but only to pull the profile pictures.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"275\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/default-user-information.png?w=660\" alt=\"Default user information in WordPress.org\" class=\"wp-image-2693\" />\n\n\n\n<p>If someone else writes a comment and doesn’t have a Gravatar profile, they’ll show up with this mystery profile picture or a different avatar that you can change from the settings. We recommend that you <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/07/11/enable-comments-in-wordpress/\">enable the Gravatar option</a> and not override the profile pictures – this ensures that Gravatar user who comments on your website will have their avatars show up in your comments section.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravatar is not just about avatars though – people with Gravatar profiles can create in-depth dynamic identities that can capture a wide range of information, from <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/11/11/how-to-list-social-media-handles/\">verified social media links</a>, photos, articles, featured articles, and even payment links. As a WordPress author, a Gravatar profile becomes a crucial tool, as showcasing that you are an actual person behind your blog posts boosts the authenticity and authority of the written content and encourages people to engage because they know it’s an actual human being on the other side.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Letting your commenters display similar levels of information about themselves is equally important – it encourages people interact and voice their opinions through a more legitimate looking profile. This is also something Gravatar can achieve through deeper integration.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Using the Gravatar Enhanced plugin&nbsp;</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay, so you have a Gravatar profile, but it still doesn’t fully show up in your blog posts and pages. This is where the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/\">Gravatar Enhanced plugin</a> comes in. It’s also completely free and lets you add customizable profile blocks to any post or page.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"426\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/gravatar-profile-block-customized.png?w=660\" alt=\"Gravatar customizable profile block\" class=\"wp-image-2694\" />\n\n\n\n<p>While you can’t add the profile block to the comments section, the Gravatar Enhanced plugin lets you send automated emails inviting commenters to create Gravatar profiles, boosting their presence on your site. You can customize your invitation message, making it clear why Gravatar boosts their credibility as a commenter.</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"198\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/gravatar-plugin-invitation.png?w=660\" alt=\"Gravatar invitation email for creating a profile\" class=\"wp-image-2695\" />\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/\"><img width=\"3243\" height=\"729\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gravatar_enhanced_cta.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2634\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Integrating the Gravatar REST API&nbsp;</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, the Gravatar API offers the most powerful way to integrate your WordPress website with Gravatar, letting you take full advantage of the platform’s comprehensive profile service. You can fully control what level of information you want to import from Gravatar profiles when they sign up with your website. By working with a developer, you can control what information is displayed for each user in a comment thread, and also create accessible and <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/06/05/user-profile-page-examples/\">verified user profiles</a> for each active member on your website, built on Gravatar data. This is ideal in many scenarios, such as a <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/12/12/create-a-forum/\">forum</a> or online community website.</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"366\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/gravatar-comment-section.png?w=660\" alt=\"Example of a comment section with Gravatar profiles\" class=\"wp-image-2696\" />\n\n\n\n<p>The integration offers several immediate benefits:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Users who already have Gravatar profiles see their avatars automatically appear when commenting.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Email verification happens automatically, reducing spam comments.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Profile information syncs across all WordPress sites, creating consistency.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Users can maintain separate personal and professional commenting profiles through multiple email addresses.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://docs.gravatar.com/getting-started/\"><img width=\"3242\" height=\"729\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gravatar_integration_cta.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2632\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<p>However, if you have a simpler WordPress blog and just want to optimize your comments section, you can use WordPress plugins to get simpler Gravatar functionality. Another essential tool here is <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/\">Jetpack</a>, which comes with <a href=\"https://jetpack.com/support/gravatar-hovercards/\">Gravatar Hovercards</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"362\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/hovercards-example.png?w=660\" alt=\"Gravatar hovercards example\" class=\"wp-image-2698\" />\n\n\n\n<p>These cards display additional information about the commenter without requiring readers to leave the page.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whichever option you choose, the technical benefits are substantial:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Reduced spam through email verification.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Better user recognition across comment threads.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Privacy controls that let users manage their identity display.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Automatic profile updates across all WordPress sites.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This integration turns basic comment sections into trust-building tools. When readers see verified profiles and consistent identities, they&#8217;re more likely to engage in meaningful discussions. Plus, linking Gravatar profiles with WordPress comments creates a natural bridge between casual readers and active community members.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Styling WordPress comment forms with CSS</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want more control over how the comment sections work, you could edit their style with CSS. So, here’s a short tutorial on how you can customize a comment form through the WordPress CSS editor.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>From your WordPress dashboard, go to <em>Appearance &gt; Editor &gt; Styles</em>. Click on the pencil icon on the right to start editing styles.</li>\n</ol>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"278\" height=\"387\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/how-to-edit-wordpress-styles.png?w=278\" alt=\"How to edit WordPress theme styles\" class=\"wp-image-2717\" />\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"2\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Click three dots on the top right, then <em>Additional CSS,</em> or scroll to the bottom of the panel on the right to access <em>Additional CSS.</em></li>\n</ol>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"489\" height=\"393\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/how-to-add-custom-css-in-gutenberg.png?w=489\" alt=\"Navigating to the Additional CSS options in WordPress editor\" class=\"wp-image-2718\" />\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"3\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Start by adding code for the actual form. You can target it using the class <strong>comment</strong>&#8211;<strong>form</strong>. We’ll change the background color and fonts, as well as add a rounded colored border. Let’s also style the labels while we’re at it.</li>\n</ol>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>.comment-form {\nbackground-color: #fefae0; <em>/* Soft pastel yellow */</em>\nborder: 1px solid #bc6c25; <em>/* Rich contrasting brown */</em>\nborder-radius: 8px;\npadding: 20px;\nfont-family: \'IBM Plex Mono\', monospace; <em>/* IBM Plex Mono font */</em>\nfont-size: 16px;\ncolor: #333;\n}\n\n<em>/* Style the form labels */</em>\n.comment-form <strong>label</strong> {\nfont-family: \'IBM Plex Mono\', monospace;\nfont-size: 14px;\nfont-weight: bold;\ncolor: #555;\nmargin-bottom: 5px;\ndisplay: block;\n}</code></pre>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"4\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Next, we’ll do the input fields, with a background color plus a colored, rounded border.</li>\n</ol>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>.comment-form <strong>input</strong>&#091;type=\"text\"],\n.comment-form <strong>input</strong>&#091;type=\"email\"],\n.comment-form <strong>input</strong>&#091;type=\"url\"],\n.comment-form <strong>textarea</strong> {\nbackground-color: #f8f9fa; <em>/* Light grey for contrast */</em>\nborder: 1px solid #bc6c25; <em>/* Same border color */</em>\npadding: 10px;\nborder-radius: 4px;\nfont-family: \'IBM Plex Mono\', monospace;\nfont-size: 14px;\ncolor: #333;\nmargin-bottom: 15px;\n}\n\n<em>/* Style the textarea (comment box) */</em>\n.comment-form <strong>textarea</strong> {\nmin-height: 120px;\nresize: vertical;\n}</code></pre>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"5\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Finally, the submit button, which we’ll give a different color, font, and rounded border.</li>\n</ol>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>.comment-form input&#091;type=\"submit\"] {\nbackground-color: #bc6c25; /* Rich brown */\ncolor: #ffffff; /* White text for contrast */\nfont-family: \'IBM Plex Mono\', monospace;\nfont-size: 16px;\nfont-weight: bold;\nborder: none;\nborder-radius: 4px;\npadding: 10px 20px;\ncursor: pointer;\n}</code></pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Put it all together, and here’s what you should expect:</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"447\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/a-css-styled-wordpress-comment-form.png?w=660\" alt=\"A custom WordPress comment form made using CSS\" class=\"wp-image-2720\" />\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Launch your engagement-focused comment section&nbsp;</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Transforming your WordPress comment section from basic to engaging doesn&#8217;t require massive changes. By implementing Gravatar profiles and thoughtful design choices, you can create an environment where readers naturally want to participate.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The combination of verified identities and user profiles shows visitors that their contributions matter. When commenters can display their professional information and verified social links, discussions become more meaningful and spam decreases naturally.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Start by checking that Gravatar is selected as the active avatar service in your WordPress settings. Then explore additional tools like <a href=\"https://jetpack.com/support/gravatar-hovercards/\">Jetpack for hovercards</a> or <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/\">Gravatar Enhanced</a> for easy profile integration. For more technical implementations, the <a href=\"https://docs.gravatar.com/\">Gravatar REST API documentation</a> provides everything needed to build custom solutions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember: A well-designed comment section isn&#8217;t just about aesthetics – it&#8217;s about creating a space where your community can thrive.</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, 16 Jan 2025 21:41:28 +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:11:\"Ronnie Burt\";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:13:\"\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:87:\"WPTavern: #152 – David Darke on Building a Successful Agency Through Strategic 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:4:\"guid\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:48:\"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=185452\";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://wptavern.com/podcast/152-david-darke-on-building-a-successful-agency-through-strategic-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:11:\"description\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:52041:\"Transcript<div>\n<p>[00:00:00] <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, building a successful agency through strategically planned growth.</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 David Darke.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>David is a Bristol based entrepreneur, and a longtime WordPress user. He is the co-founder of Atomic Smash, a digital agency specializing in WordPress and WooCommerce performance optimization.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since its founding in 2010, Atomic Smash has grown from a two person team into a thriving agency, known for helping businesses improve their digital platforms with WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The podcast today traces David&#8217;s experiences growing the agency, and the many highs and lows he&#8217;s been on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>David&#8217;s story begins in a business incubator, where the affordable desk space facilitated invaluable networking, and relationship building opportunities. Through perseverance and strategic networking, David has grown the agency from these small beginnings into a robust team of 20 professionals.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We talk about the myriad challenges he faced, from overcoming the initial skepticism due to his age, to the trials of managing business growth and client expectations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;ll hear about the critical role that external business coaches have played in guiding his agency through different stages of growth, and how strategic learning has been pivotal in expanding beyond core web development skills, to mastering business acumen, and operational strategies.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>David also discusses his current role, which involves less hands-on coding and more focus on technical oversight, sales, and strategic client interactions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He shares his insights into the importance of delegation, finding work-life balance, and ensuring his team operates efficiently without overextending themselves.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also get into the evolving web industry landscape, particularly the integration of AI and SEO into their service offerings, aiming to position his company as a strategic partner for client growth.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He emphasizes the importance of hiring the right talent, including freelancers, and the necessity of pausing business coaching to implement growth strategies effectively.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you&#8217;re an aspiring freelancer, an agency owner looking to grow, or simply passionate about WordPress, 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 David Darke.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am joined on the podcast by David Darke. Hello David.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:03:46] <strong>David Darke:</strong> Hi there. How&#8217;s it going?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:03:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, good. Nice to chat to you. David and I first met, well, we haven&#8217;t really met much because the role in which I met David is one where I&#8217;m typically quite busy. I help out with the WordPress London meetup, which happens each month in the city of London, and David was doing a talk there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the nature of my role is that I am face down in an iPad trying to make sure that the recording happens, and then as soon as the event is over, I busily tidy up with everybody else.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I never really got to meet David, but I did manage to catch his talk in great detail. Gave a presentation over there essentially about growing an agency, managing a successful agency. So we&#8217;re going to get into that conversation today, but before we do, David, would you just give us a potted bio? Tell us a little bit about what you do, the journey that you&#8217;ve been on with WordPress and your agency.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:38] <strong>David Darke:</strong> Yeah, yeah, great. And I&#8217;ll also say, you looked busy and not stressed, which is actually quite an impressive thing for all the equipment you were managing on the day, but yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So yeah, my name&#8217;s David Darke, started a WordPress based agency 14 years ago. We are based in Bristol in the UK. And I&#8217;ve definitely worn many hats in that time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So started off with myself and my business partner. I was the primary developer and only developer within the team.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ve grown the team now to just around 20, and my role has shifted in that time going from the only developer, to development lead, to operations management part of the actual business. And now I&#8217;m actually shifted away from operations, and more on the growth and sales side of the business. So definitely all inwardly focused, and then now outwardly focused.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Again, worn many hats and that&#8217;s been one of those challenges of owning and running an agency is the need to adapt and wear different hats.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:33] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> When you began with you and your business partner, did you have an intuition that you wished to grow? Was it more just, let&#8217;s start a business, let&#8217;s put food on the table and see where it goes? Or did you always have that light at the end of the tunnel, that thing that you were aiming for, growth, growth, growth, getting new business, grow the business, employ more people? How did that all work out?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:55] <strong>David Darke:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s really funny. In the first year it was that sort of approach of, we need to get clients. We had no money, we had no funding, we were all bootstrapped and self-manage. We literally worked for, it was about eight to nine months before, so in normal jobs, it&#8217;s basically the only job I&#8217;ve actually had.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was actually part of a photography team, a photo editing team for a sportswear company. It&#8217;s a random role, but it was basically just get some money behind us so we can actually live in the first year, really.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And initially it was just, let&#8217;s do it, let&#8217;s try it. It was the perfect opportunity. It was directly outside of after leaving university. There was no risk. I had no family, you know, it was just case of, if it didn&#8217;t work, we&#8217;ll just get a job.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the idea was, let&#8217;s try it, let&#8217;s get going. And as soon as we started moving the idea of, not necessarily, not aiming for massive growth, but the idea of having a team behind us was a real goal at that stage.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And we definitely took a long time to actually employ our first person, and that person&#8217;s actually still part of the team now. He just had his 10th anniversary. So from our side, we definitely took quite a while to actually get that first employee on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But after that is really a case of, let&#8217;s work out what team size we need to be to facilitate all the things we need to do. Make sure that myself and my business partner weren&#8217;t overloaded. You know, there&#8217;s definitely a period in the middle growth of the business where we&#8217;re just doing too much stuff and were spread very thin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So working out what sort of team size does it need to be to allow us to have the flexibility to give more responsibility to team members, and also give us the brain space to think about how the business should be shaped, grown, and how it should just maintain itself really, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So now we&#8217;re at the stage where myself and my business partner are definitely doing less on the tools jobs, I&#8217;m basically doing no production work at all, but we&#8217;re able to invest time in the business and the team.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:07:36] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you work exclusively with WordPress based projects, or are you more of a broader church than that? Do you do web development in other areas, maybe even software development, things like that, or is it just purely WordPress?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:07:49] <strong>David Darke:</strong> We have a couple of sites where they&#8217;ve got a primary WordPress platform and they use some like Shopify for their e-commerce. So we do support a bit of Shopify on the side. We basically do no real software development or anything outside of the WordPress ecosystem. Every single one of our clients has some form of WordPress installation at some level.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That does, when you&#8217;re talking about WooCommerce and big sort of CRM integrations, it does mean we have to have our fingers in a lot of pies. We integrate with things like Salesforce and the other big CRMs. So we do have to interact with some middleware sometimes, but 99% of our clients are WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:24] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> If you were to hang out in Facebook groups, and LinkedIn groups, and things like that, there&#8217;s always a lot of conversation around where you were at the beginning of your journey. You know, I&#8217;ve got this agency, I&#8217;m a one person team, I would like to grow and what have you. And it feels like you&#8217;ve probably gone through all of the things, you&#8217;ve tripped over all the trip wires, hit all the hurdles, got past them all in some way, shape or form.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And one of the things that came out was, the bit that you just mentioned about, maybe it&#8217;s regret in some way of not making the first hire sooner. And I never managed to scale an agency, I was always very happy to just operate myself, but that was one of the things that concerned me a lot, was making that first hire, committing myself to somebody else&#8217;s welfare.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Am I right in saying that you, looking back, you think you maybe should have jumped off that a little bit sooner and hired the first person sooner, to free yourselves up to do other things?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:21] <strong>David Darke:</strong> Oh yeah, definitely. And you are right, it&#8217;s more about, we didn&#8217;t want to necessarily employ someone and then have to let them go because there wasn&#8217;t enough money to fund their salary. It was really that simple. Making sure there&#8217;s enough security in the business to make sure that we just spent the time and effort in getting them on, getting them into the team, and then having to let them go.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s from our side, and also from their side. We hadn&#8217;t employed anyone before, we didn&#8217;t want to disappoint them. They want to be part of the team, they want to be part of the journey, we didn&#8217;t want to then have to say, well, you got to go now because we didn&#8217;t think this through properly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we definitely spent a lot of time and I would definitely say at the start there was definite, we were doing too much stuff, and then we had too many projects on, and by the time we needed to have someone on the team, it was almost like too late because the recruitment process does take. You need two weeks to basically start looking for people, you need another couple of weeks to basically do interviews and do that whole process properly and meet them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And this was obviously pre covid, so a lot of it was in person, it really was, interview process was getting people into our studio space to actually speak to them. And we really did it too late. We should have been doing it months before so they&#8217;re ready to join. So again, it&#8217;s just that sort of balancing, and it&#8217;s easy with hindsight, but actually the balancing of making sure that our capacity was right, and how we balance our capacity, we did it too late.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if we look back now, we did have the security even with the upcoming projects, but it&#8217;s just quite big thing to do on the first time. And even from a legal side, just not knowing exactly every box you need to tick when you employ someone, like what contracts you actually have to have. Actually getting the contract and you need to pay someone to do that, or you need to get, you know, there&#8217;s a lot of things to do. So the advice is, try and do it as early as possible if you want it to do it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:10:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, the interesting word that you used there was capacity. And so there must be, in your head, looking back, obviously now with hindsight, you recognise what that capacity was. Do you have any rule of thumb that you could bring to bear to this conversation? Let&#8217;s say that somebody is, like I was, a web agency owner, or maybe there&#8217;s two or three people who&#8217;ve joined and they&#8217;re just beginning to get the intuition that maybe they could take somebody on. Is there a rule of thumb? Maybe that&#8217;s around finances or the, I don&#8217;t know, the bottleneck in the pipeline of work you&#8217;ve got? Do you have any sort of wisdom about when that first hire might be suitable?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:33] <strong>David Darke:</strong> Yeah, I think at the start, it wasn&#8217;t like an intentional approach, but I was definitely working seven days week. And definitely got burnt out around year three or four in that sort of process. And that idea of actually being able to be at a position, obviously finances are one thing, you need the money to pay their salary, that&#8217;s like an underlying thing of security that side.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I would definitely say the idea of being able to deliver projects in a capacity where you are only working five days a week, and actually have a normal nine to five or whatever the timeframe is, in X number of hours, seven hours a day, without needing to work in the evenings, without needing to do all these things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Actually, even if you are a freelancer, or just trying to grow, or just the idea of being able to do the work in a sensible timeframe, and if you can&#8217;t do the work, then you need help.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that&#8217;s basically the rule of thumb. And that&#8217;s how we even work out our hiring capacity now, is we look at the team, we look at what needs to come up. Can we deliver this stuff with a team that we&#8217;ve got?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that&#8217;s the sort of tipping point of actually how we scale and grow, and in the areas we need to grow and scale. So even within the team now, we only have one designer. We don&#8217;t do huge number of projects, but if we were doing more and more design work, we&#8217;re literally looking at, how much capacity does that designer have? When do we need the second designer? Or do we just need freelance capacity? That&#8217;s really how we balance it. So just trying to make sure we&#8217;re not over-delivering and just not doing insane hours, just making sure everything&#8217;s sensible and you can actually start to look back and enjoy the actual process rather than it being this burden.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:02] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think obviously the finance is a given. If there&#8217;s not enough throughput of cash, then the business is not really a business, it&#8217;s something else. But the intuition around seven days a week being something that is unsustainable, I think everybody can grasp hold of that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if you wish your business to be five days a week, seven hours a day, and it&#8217;s seven days a week, 12 hours a day, then maybe there is extra capacity, and assuming that you&#8217;ve got the finances. I think that&#8217;s an interesting one that everybody can grab hold of. If the amount of free hours in your week don&#8217;t match what you wish to have, then maybe it&#8217;s time to start looking around for additional help.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:38] <strong>David Darke:</strong> I really, really, wholeheartedly agree that actually, someone working five hours a day in a productive and structured way is actually probably more effective than someone working 12 hours a day. It really is a case of actually having the brain space to think about what you&#8217;re doing, and less procrastination and more focused on just doing what you need to do in this timeframe. That limitation actually really helps to make sure that you&#8217;re not twiddling your thumbs, you&#8217;re not doing things that don&#8217;t need to be done and really gives focus.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think actually from our side, restricting our time, I now actually only work four days a week. So that&#8217;s brought another restriction around, every Thursday I&#8217;m not in the office, so I need to make sure what I need to do in the week is done, usually at the starts of the week, and then Friday, I&#8217;ve got the capacity to almost plan the next week, or do meetings, or do those other things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So those limitations sound like there are limitations, but actually it&#8217;s more of a guide rails of how you need to use your time. And then as soon as I leave the office I&#8217;m not interacting with the business. That clear definition really helps from a, the classic work, life balance, you know, really just having that definition. And most of our team, that is the case. It really is a case of, once the time&#8217;s over, you pick up the next day. But it does take quite a lot of management and organisation to do that, especially personally. That&#8217;s something I had to learn. That was one of the biggest of skills I had to learn is just how to organise your own time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:14:56] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I think everybody can identify with that thing where, it&#8217;s late at night, you&#8217;re trying to read a book or something like that, and you realise that for every 10 lines that you read, none of the information has gone in. And you could map the same thing to your work life. It&#8217;s so easy to fall into the trap that 12 hours a day, good, five hours day, less good, just because I&#8217;m doing more hours a day.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I think you&#8217;re right. There&#8217;s this sort of burnout which just builds up over time. It&#8217;s sort of compound interest, you just feel more and more burnt out, each hour becomes less productive. So taking that absolute time out, and in your case, four days a week, maybe it&#8217;s five hours in the office, something like that. Step out of the front door, you are back to social David, if you like, and normal life, and then walk back through the following morning and you&#8217;re back to work. I can really identify with that, and hopefully the people listening to that can as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:45] <strong>David Darke:</strong> Yeah, and also I&#8217;ve got a 2-year-old as well, so that really puts a clear definition of, when I&#8217;m at home, they&#8217;re the focus really, it can&#8217;t work both ways. You can&#8217;t work with a two odd running around basically, it&#8217;s almost impossible.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> A lot of people might be at this point saying, yeah, that&#8217;s all very well, David, but what about, where does the work materialise from? How do you get the work? And obviously now that you are more established and your name has been circulated many, many times, I imagine that&#8217;s a different jigsaw puzzle than it was in the beginning.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So let&#8217;s cast our mind back to when it was just the two of you at the beginning and you were presumably scrambling around for work. Do you have any advice there? I mean, was it just that you just happened to be in the right place at the right time, the internet was taking off and so on and so forth. Or were there things, looking back, that you thought, actually, do you know what, we did that really well, and we did that really poorly?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:16:35] <strong>David Darke:</strong> I definitely see that the conversations we have nowadays are very different to the ones we had in the past. I think client&#8217;s knowledge of even WordPress is a lot higher. So they&#8217;ve, again, it&#8217;s just maybe just the maturity of the internet and the idea of project managers and digital teams have probably been through two to three websites in the last 10 years. And people&#8217;s sort of growth with that, and experience with it has changed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I think when we were sort of pitching WordPress websites, and actually the whole web development projects, there&#8217;s a lot less emphasis on how much money needed to be spent on a website, everything was cheaper. I think their expectation now is there needs to be good investment in sites for them to be effective, and that was a lot harder sell 10 years ago, I think.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So there&#8217;s definitely been shift and change in people&#8217;s understanding of what it takes to build a website. And we talked to project managers, digital project managers now, they actually understand that when you create a new website, it&#8217;s actually quite difficult to do content migration. You need two months to like move all the content and do an SEO plan. 10 years ago, no one cared. Just do the website, just get out of there. But they&#8217;ve been through it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think the internet is at that sort of age and maturity where, and the teams that work in businesses and digital managers, they kind of understand the pitfalls of rushing those things, and there needs to be time and thought.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think when it comes to your question around how we find work. We started in a business incubator. That was more of a case of, there was some services tagged on, but it was basically the idea of, you join this incubator, it&#8217;s very, very cheap desk space. When you start, I think it&#8217;s every six months you are there, might of been like less than that. Every whatever time period you&#8217;re there, the desks get more expensive. So the idea is you start really cheap and it gives you the idea, within two to three years, it&#8217;s at the point where you should be sort of moving out of the incubator and thinking about other spaces or other options.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For us it was just cheap desk space. It was the ability for us to get out of the house, go to somewhere where we can work, and the idea is, well, we might meet some people while we&#8217;re there and, what actually happened is when we got dropped into this business incubator, we were pretty much the only web developers in this incubator. So actually being able to help and do favors for people have built to lasting relationships where we still talk to them now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of them are freelance or contract UX people. Some of them are data people. And they were just there because again, they just wanted desk space. But the people they&#8217;re working with now are bigger organisations, bigger corporates, and those relationships have tied together. But at that time we were basically doing really small work for them, but we&#8217;re around a group of people that needed help and needed advice. And again, expertise and knowledge in general was limited 10 years ago.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I think that really helped us in that initial stage of like, how do we just get these small bits of work? As the team grew, it was really about us being proactive with conversations with people we wanted to work with. That has been effective, very ineffective sometimes. But it&#8217;s finding, for us, our unique offering and the way we work, which is more of a maintenance basis and a recurring model, that we kind of really dialed into, and we found the benefits of that. And that&#8217;s, for us it&#8217;s our ability to sell that to clients.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know, the idea of you don&#8217;t necessarily need a brand new website every three years. If you just work on the one you&#8217;ve got, adapt and evolve it, you can actually save a lot of money without needing to build a brand new site every three years. So that&#8217;s taken us quite a while to find our model, and our sort of unique offering. But actually finding people and being able to sell that has definitely shifted and changed as the business has grown.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:20:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It sounds like there&#8217;s a fair degree, in your business at least, at the beginning of what you might describe as networking or socialising. It&#8217;s not all about, I don&#8217;t know, posting Google ads and paying in that way. This is meeting real people in this enclosed space or out in the wider community or what have you. So it sounds like you were getting local business possibly, at the beginning.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That kind of leads me in a curious direction that I didn&#8217;t anticipate. And that is, did you rely, you and your partner, on your gregarious nature? Are you outgoing? Was that some sort of superpower that you maybe have?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think it&#8217;s possible to say that a certain proportion of people who end up in the web development space are not that, they&#8217;re fairly introverted, and so the idea of mixing and socialising might be something that they&#8217;re feeling, yeah, a little bit uncomfortable about. So I just wondered if you wanted to speak to that, whether there was some element of your personality which enabled you to grow.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:20:57] <strong>David Darke:</strong> That might be a possibility. I would also say that at the time when we started the business, myself and a business partner looked quite young. When we&#8217;re talking to businesses and companies about how they want to be growing their website, we just generally looked like we just left university. So actually from a sales perspective, that wasn&#8217;t actually particularly a great thing. We didn&#8217;t look like we had the experience. We didn&#8217;t look like we&#8217;d done this process many times.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think from our side some of the networking side of things was beneficial, but then actually hiding behind some of that other communication and other ways speaking and reaching out to businesses was actually beneficial. Because you could actually show expertise and experience in other ways. So it&#8217;s kind of like twofold.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But definitely from a networking side, the thing we&#8217;ve definitely found with networking events and just general things, you have to be quite careful if you are trying to find new business. For example, most WordPress meetups, you&#8217;ll be talking with people that use WordPress, or develop WordPress, build sites, and not necessarily clients or potential clients. So you then have to find those particular networking events that would actually have potential clients in them. And that might mean that you are going to something that&#8217;s a bit more random. Even something that&#8217;s maybe based around accessibility or something that&#8217;s based around, I don&#8217;t know, even environmental impact or something like that, where you&#8217;ll be talking with other people that potentially would have those challenges, and then you can speak to them about their website and what have you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it is about a selection of what events you go to. But I think the networking side of things is super important because as soon as you come across a challenge, and if you&#8217;ve spoken to someone, a great branding person that you met two weeks ago, that person&#8217;s at the top of your brain. As soon as you see someone with that challenge or you try and help someone, or even a current client that might come to you with a branding challenge, we basically don&#8217;t do any sort of branding at all, we just do development work and design work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But as soon as we find someone has a challenge, you can just grab these people really easily because they&#8217;re just forefront of your brain. And that&#8217;s the power of networking more than just meeting people directly. It&#8217;s just getting people to know what you do, and when those challenges come up, they&#8217;re the front of people&#8217;s brains.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:05] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So you are now at 20 people, I think you said, or thereabouts. So you&#8217;ve gone from two and you&#8217;ve added 18 roughly. During that journey, was it always upwards? Did it always go from two, to three, to four, to six or did it ever sort of slide down again? What I&#8217;m trying to get at in this question is, has it always been growth or have there been moments when that growth has stalled? When the anxiety, looking at the financial spreadsheet, has been more than it was less, put it that way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:34] <strong>David Darke:</strong> Yeah, hundred percent. Definitely hasn&#8217;t always been up. There&#8217;s definitely times where we&#8217;ve had to go down. Some of that has been natural just churn of people leaving and then they have been replaced. Some of it has been from loss of projects or loss of clients and had to make difficult decisions. So it&#8217;s never as, well, for us, definitely wasn&#8217;t always an upward trajectory. I&#8217;d definitely, from my side, there was also points of stagnation and really from our side to actually work out how we get past those. We&#8217;ve needed external business coaches to really help us prioritise and work out how we utilise our superpowers and what we&#8217;re really, really good at, into better, more cohesive offering. And that will really help grow the team.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I think from our side, we were kind of quoted these numbers of, when you get to around sort of 10 people, that&#8217;s certain number of challenges. Growing from 10 to 20 is another set of challenges, and getting beyond 20 is basically another set of challenges. So it&#8217;s almost like these milestones in growth.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And we were definitely lingering around 10, 11 for a long time, just because their natural, even the process you have internally to scale to that number, just needed a lot of internal help, internal and external help to get beyond that. So yeah, there&#8217;s definitely been points of stagnation. There&#8217;s definitely been points of retraction. But if you look to the graph in general, it has been upward.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:24:52] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It sounds like you&#8217;ve put yourself in the path of people who you recognise to be good teachers of whatever it is that you need to know. So maybe that&#8217;s some aspect of, I don&#8217;t know, web design for those people in your business that do that. But it also sounded there, like you have deliberately gone out to find business coaches.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that maybe has nothing to do with web development, but you&#8217;ve got to balance the books and there are ways of doing that. Is that the case? Do you go out and find people who you think, okay, I need to learn this thing, rather than reading it in books, I&#8217;m just going to take the direct route and go and find a human being that can do that, or an agency that can do that? Because I guess that&#8217;s fairly important as a short circuit of trying to figure it all out yourself.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:34] <strong>David Darke:</strong> A hundred percent. Yeah, we were very active three, four years ago of finding a proper business coach. And business coach is like, that&#8217;s very much like a phrase that could cover a lot of things, like you&#8217;re saying, could cover financial, could cover operations or whatever. But actually when it boils down to what we needed, it was almost like a third party for myself and my business partner to be responsible too. To actually say, we&#8217;re going to be doing these things, we&#8217;re going to be doing this activity or whatever it might be, a task that needs to get done in the business or a KPI.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first thing that they basically said to us when they joined was, your accounting&#8217;s terrible, go and get it sorted, like basically just go and do that. Look at this and just give that sort of advice and experience to say what&#8217;s working well, what isn&#8217;t. And you now need to go and do this. You&#8217;ve got two weeks to go and do this or however long, and get it done.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And actually there&#8217;s not many people that myself and my business partner are responsible to. We&#8217;re responsible to our employees for employee led things, but when it comes to business level things, we&#8217;re just responsible to ourselves, you know, each other.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So actually having this third party to basically wag the finger and say, you need to get this done and you need to get it done now was really helpful to actually make sure things got done. Yeah, that level of experience and that third party to be responsible to was really, really beneficial. And the thing that we kind of got to, and the point we got to was they helped us form KPIs, so key performance indicators for the business, and metrics we can track, and they helped with our accounting processes, they helped with our general capacity processes and all those sort of things that helped the business.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We then stopped using them because we basically had a load of work that needed to happen, you know, months and years worth of work that needed to happen. And the idea is we&#8217;ll probably pick up that relationship again when we are at the next stage because we now need to work on, we now need to do the growth, we now need to do these things. And we were at the stage where we kind of knew what we needed to do, and we were just basically checking in at that stage. We weren&#8217;t getting anything new.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there are going to be set of challenges that we&#8217;re going to face in the next year, two years, where that relationship will be super beneficial again. So I genuinely think that having an external voice, an external ear as well, just to talk through problems, that whole classic rubber duck programming of just speaking your program out loud to someone, it really is super beneficial. And having a mentor, and actually being a mentor for other people is very, very important.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:50] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s almost like you&#8217;ve hired in a third partner or something like that. Somebody who&#8217;s got the right to tell you, you&#8217;re doing this wrong. There&#8217;s a better way to do this. And I think as a freelancer at the beginning, just you and your partner, it is easy to assume that everything needs to be done by the pair of you, and if it can&#8217;t be done by the pair of you, you&#8217;re failures. And of course, in the real world, nobody has the capacity to do all the tasks in every walk of life. We employ people to do almost anything that we come into contact with. So that&#8217;s really interesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you good at delegating? Because again, right back at the beginning when you are doing everything, and you&#8217;ve got to go from two to three, I think this is where probably I stumbled, and I&#8217;m sure a lot of people can share in my experience here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I just seem to find delegating quite difficult. I don&#8217;t know what that is, but there&#8217;s this thought maybe in the back of my head that, well, I know what I need to do, so I should be the one to begin it, and end it and, what have you. Are you a good delegator or was that a skill that you had to learn?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:28:50] <strong>David Darke:</strong> Yeah, definitely had to learn. And I&#8217;d definitely say I&#8217;m a very average delegator. So my approach to it now is trying to be a bit more hands off. So if I&#8217;m not involved from the start, it&#8217;s a lot easier for me to not be involved in the future. Having oversight and seeing how things work is definitely beneficial. As soon as I&#8217;m trying to get into the, I&#8217;m quite detail orientated, so as soon as I get to know the details and I feel myself wanting to be more involved in something. If I&#8217;m a bit more hands off, and allowing our employees to have responsibility for things, that&#8217;s easier for me to then not be involved in the future and just allowing those things to happen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was definitely a bad delegator at the start, and it&#8217;s definitely something I&#8217;ve worked on and improved on in the years. But it&#8217;s more about techniques rather than naturally just this becomes a thing you can do. It&#8217;s more just allowing people to have responsibility for those things. And myself, just making sure I&#8217;m only checking in when I need to check in or whatever&#8217;s needed for the task at hand. It&#8217;s definitely a challenging thing and it&#8217;s</p>\n\n\n\n<p>one of those tasks, that sort of soft skill which isn&#8217;t really something you can just do a course in or learn. That suite of soft skills is something that you don&#8217;t really get training for as a manager or a business owner, get trained for very meticulous or very particular things around accounting, or if you need to do a certain process, you can just get a course. But that soft skill stuff is super important, but it&#8217;s hard to get training in, and you kind of just have to learn as you go really.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:30:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you ever have to pull yourself back from the opposite of delegating, just getting in too deep into the tasks that your employees are tasked with doing? You sort of find yourself looking over their shoulder and thinking, oh, that&#8217;s curious, let&#8217;s have a chat about that. When really your job now is divorced from that, you are one step back, one step higher if you like, and you&#8217;ve got to just pull yourself back from that precipice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:30:34] <strong>David Darke:</strong> Yeah, I mean, not necessarily in the way, my role now within the business, because I&#8217;m more to do with the sales side and the growth aspect and less about the internal workings, I definitely find that&#8217;s a lot less. From my side, the things I&#8217;d be checking in now and making sure happens is once a client joins, making sure they&#8217;re happy and checking in from that perspective.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Definitely from my business partners side, who&#8217;s now more internally focused, it&#8217;s basically their role as a director to direct, actually steer the ship. So there definitely needs to be a certain level of oversight and seeing what is happening. But I think our personalities and characters, he&#8217;s very, very good at having a lot of different things, and having oversight of a lot of different things without needing the granular detail.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whereas I&#8217;m, because I&#8217;m more detail orientated, I kind of need everything to help make decisions. But I think for my new role I&#8217;m definitely less involved and less overseeing and that side of things. But it&#8217;s almost important that it does happen to some degree, that people have oversight of stuff, just to make sure things are done in the right way and make sure that things are profitable, for example. And we have a set of business values, make sure things are being delivered with those values in mind. It definitely needs that in place. It&#8217;s never just about wagging fingers, just watching, making sure people are working or anything like that. It&#8217;s really the case of making sure the business is doing what it&#8217;s meant to be doing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:31:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, it sounds like you have to have trust on a fairly profound level, that the people that you have invested your time into, and they&#8217;ve invested their time into your business, you can trust them. You delegate a task, and the anticipation therefore is that that task will be done and they&#8217;re going to tackle it in the same way that hopefully you will have done, and the processes are there to make sure that happens.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So now that you are, I&#8217;m going to use the word manager, maybe you have a different word for yourself. I&#8217;m guessing, again, if we rewind the clock, I&#8217;m guessing that you probably weren&#8217;t able to look forward and think, yeah, this is what I&#8217;ll be doing in 10 or 15 years time, this is what my day will look like, because you generally concentrate on the next six months.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you enjoy the work that you are doing? I&#8217;m not meaning to back you into a corner there. What I&#8217;m sort of angling after is, there&#8217;s bound to be bits of this new role that are satisfying, but there&#8217;s probably bits that, oh boy, I just wish I could hand that over. And again, that&#8217;s part of growing the business.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because it feels, sometimes I have conversations with people who are in similar positions to you, and in some cases they&#8217;re stepping back from the more managerial role and they&#8217;re going back to the, I want to be in front of a computer and I want to be doing coding again, and it&#8217;s still my business but I&#8217;m going to employ somebody else to do the managing part, and I&#8217;m going to go back to being a developer because that&#8217;s what I enjoy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it&#8217;s questions around that really. Do you find the same satisfaction in the work that you&#8217;re doing now, or do you find sometimes you look over at your employees and think, oh, wish I was doing that again?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:33:10] <strong>David Darke:</strong> I think from my side, the things I really enjoy doing, I really enjoy experimenting and having sort of technical oversight over things. My needs to be doing coding and delivering is slightly less. But again, a lot of satisfaction, enjoyment even just from the sales process of really delving into a client&#8217;s challenge and communicating with them about how we can solve those things. That actually requires me to actually have a lot of technical oversight, understanding, not necessarily prototyping, but actually being able to articulate to them how our work will improve their site.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that does require, that does sort of scratch that itch from a technical side of me being able to work with clients, and talk with them, and do technical audits, and actual solution architecture and stuff for new potential clients and existing clients. So I definitely feel that my need to be on the tools is covered by that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>My real, I guess purpose within the business is to make sure the business is growing, that&#8217;s the key thing. That&#8217;s where I get real satisfaction from is seeing the team working, from seeing the business grow. And that&#8217;s almost like at a different level from my own personal need to do coding or those sort of things. So I get a bit of an itch, scratch from that side of things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The definite story that we have when we employ people, and we really do look to try and grab freelancers to be part of the team, because they&#8217;ve had to deal with, I don&#8217;t know, some of the minutia of sending invoices, getting new clients, having to tackle all these things of being a freelancer. And when they have the opportunity to just do the work they want to be doing, you get really good results from people, and you get a really satisfied employee because they just get to worry about what they&#8217;re doing, rather than worrying about the work upcoming, and having to worry about were the invoices sent. Do they have to do their tax return? You know, all this other stuff that they just don&#8217;t get to do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I think from my side, it&#8217;s really like a character thing. And you do have to ask yourself what you want to be doing within your business. And there&#8217;s no reason why someone couldn&#8217;t run a business and be any sort of business. It could be a design business, branding, it could be developments, that they can&#8217;t build themself into the business in a way where they are still on the tools. They could be a solutions architect, they could be lead developer, but it&#8217;s about building the business around it so there&#8217;s still opportunity of growth and they still have ability to concentrate on other things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s nothing against someone actually doing the work and running a business. Just you need to have that character to be able to handle that, and also want to be able to it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I think what we want to be doing within the business is something we worked on a lot with our business coach, because we have worn so many hats along the way, just actually picking those things that we did really enjoy and trying to build them into a role that we wanted to move forward with was a key part of the work we did with them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:35:41] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think every industry, no matter what you&#8217;re in, you&#8217;re always staring over the horizon. You&#8217;re always trying to figure out where the next piece of work is coming from, or what the next big wave is. But I think particularly the web, technology, but the web specifically, that moves at a really incredible rate. You take your eye off for six months and you&#8217;ve lost sight of what&#8217;s going on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I&#8217;m just sort of wondering about that really, if there&#8217;s anything in the near term that you are thinking about. I don&#8217;t know, that may be AI, it may be something that you&#8217;ve seen in the WordPress space that you really like. So that&#8217;s an open-ended question really. Where does the business feel like it&#8217;s going to you? What pivots are you thinking about over the very short, near term?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:36:19] <strong>David Darke:</strong> AI is super interesting, it&#8217;s something we&#8217;re definitely keeping an eye on. And the understanding that AI is going to be part of everything, every app in the next 10 years. It&#8217;s going to be here, it&#8217;s here to stay, it&#8217;s not going anywhere, it&#8217;s going to grow. And the idea of how we utilise it. Most of the time, the way we deliver stuff to clients is understanding what is in the marketplace and making the good recommendations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So you might have a particular brief that says, we want to be using AI as part of this project, you know, really delving down to what actually means. Is it a chat bot for sales process? Is it chat bot for support? Is it something around content creation? It could be anything.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I think from our side, the things you want to actually be focusing on, again, it&#8217;s really delving into our, the way we work and trying to work with clients and find clients that really want to be digging in and helping them grow, not just helping them keep their website online, help them, support them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea of us or anyone being able to produce a website that looks pretty good, either using page builders, or AI generator websites, or anything is becoming more and more easy. So the human connection there and the ability to actually be a strategic partner and help growth is going to be the key to businesses in the future. It&#8217;s more about the strategy and the consultation that happens around these things is going to be where the profit is, where the actual need for businesses is going to be really focused.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The way we&#8217;re adapting is basically bringing in bigger strategic brains, not just delivery, it&#8217;s about businesses and growth. That&#8217;d be business insight people. It could be even just SEO specialists, we don&#8217;t do much in the way of SEO, but that&#8217;s quite a simple thing. But actually having a specialist on the team for growth rather than just for building a website. We&#8217;re part of your team, your digital arm of your team, how does your website grow? That&#8217;s going to be our offering more and more in the future. So we&#8217;re not just delivery partners.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:38:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Fascinting. Honestly, it&#8217;s been a really interesting chat. I&#8217;ve enjoyed very much hearing about your journey. If anybody else has shared my intuition and would like to contact you, maybe they&#8217;re interested in the way that you&#8217;ve grown, or maybe they&#8217;re going through some struggle that you have perhaps overcome already, where would be the best place to find you? Be that on social media or your website. What&#8217;s the handle that you would drop?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:38:34] <strong>David Darke:</strong> Yeah, probably the best place would be LinkedIn. I&#8217;ll give you a link. Yeah, I don&#8217;t actually have it off the top my head, but it should be just LinkedIn, David Darke. But, yeah, that&#8217;s probably the best place. I&#8217;m trying to be on social media less in general so, yeah, that&#8217;s definitely a good place.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:38:46] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well, in which case, I will put that into the show notes. So if you go to wptavern.com/podcast, search for the episode with David Darke, D A R K E, you will find it in the show notes there. So all that it remains for me to do is to say, David Darke, thank you so much for chatting to me today. I really appreciate it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:39:02] <strong>David Darke:</strong> Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>On the podcast today we have <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddarke/\">David Darke</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>David is a Bristol-based entrepreneur and long time WordPress user. He is the co-founder of Atomic Smash, a digital agency specialising in WordPress and WooCommerce performance optimisation. Since its founding in 2010, Atomic Smash has grown from a two-person team into a thriving agency known for helping businesses improve their digital platforms with WordPress. The podcast today traces David’s experiences growing the agency and the many highs and lows that he’s been on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>David&#8217;s story begins in a business incubator where the affordable desk space facilitated invaluable networking and relationship-building opportunities. Through perseverance and strategic networking, David has grown the agency from these small beginnings to a robust team of twenty professionals.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We talk about the myriad challenges he faced, from overcoming the initial skepticism due to his age, to the trials of managing business growth and client expectations. You&#8217;ll hear about the critical role that external business coaches have played in guiding his agency through different stages of growth, and how strategic learning has been pivotal in expanding beyond core web development skills to mastering business acumen and operational strategies.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>David also discusses his current role, which involves less hands-on coding and more focus on technical oversight, sales, and strategic client interactions. He shares his insights into the importance of delegation, finding work-life balance, and ensuring his team operates efficiently without overextending themselves.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also get into the evolving web industry landscape, particularly the integration of AI and SEO into their service offerings, aiming to position his company as a strategic partner for client growth. He emphasises the importance of hiring the right talent, including freelancers, and the necessity of pausing business coaching to implement growth strategies effectively.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you&#8217;re an aspiring freelancer, an agency owner looking to grow, or simply passionate about WordPress, 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://www.atomicsmash.co.uk/\">Atomic Smash website</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddarke/\">David on LinkedIn</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 Jan 2025 15:00:00 +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:22;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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:68:\"Do The Woo Community: New Hosts, New Shows and 7 Years of Do the Woo\";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:28:\"https://dothewoo.io/?p=89023\";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://dothewoo.io/new-hosts-new-shows-and-7-years-of-do-the-woo/\";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:107:\"Version 4.2 is coming your way with new hosts and new shows. Plus we are celebrating 7 years of Do the Woo.\";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 Jan 2025 11:32:40 +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: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:13:\"\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:14:\"Matt: Matt 4.1\";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=134653\";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/2025/01/forty-one/\";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:4535:\"<p>Forty-one is a nice birthday because it doesn&#8217;t feel like too much pressure. For forty I did a big eclipse thing that ended up amazing, this year I&#8217;m replicating what I did a few years ago and celebrating in New York, Houston, and San Francisco.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>My birthday today has already been lovely. Saw the amazing Broadway show <a href=\"https://www.maybehappyending.com/\">Maybe Happy Ending</a> (powered by WordPress!) thanks to a suggestion from my colleague Susan Hobbs who&#8217;s a connoisseur of musicals. Then did some fun karaoke in K-town. I didn&#8217;t realize how much I missed New York! Tonight will celebrate with one of my favorite DJs, <a href=\"https://soundcloud.com/lemuriansounds\">Lemurian</a>, who flew up from Tulum. In the spirit of <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2024/01/birthday-gift/\">a blog post for my birthday,</a> I&#8217;d like to share with you all a blog post I&#8217;ve been working on a while inspired by one of Lemurian&#8217;s mixes. In 2018 Max (aka Lemurian) played at someplace called Concept and opened with a very interesting track.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, the thing that caught my ear was the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassoon\">bassoon</a>. A double-reed instrument that you don&#8217;t often hear in the front of things, much less house music. Here is the original track on Spotify:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>This lead me down a rabbit hole to <a href=\"https://lyricalbrazil.com/2014/01/17/coisas-banais-and-preciso-me-encontrar/\">an amazing (WordPress-powered) site called Lyrical Brazil that takes the Brazilian Portuguese lyrics and translates them</a>. Please read that entire blog post. It turns out this song was written by a police officer who was shot and then paralyzed from the waist down, then started a Brazilian music school Candeia which was a fixture of Portela samba school. Here&#8217;s the lyrics of the song, translated:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Let me go, I need to wander<br />I’ll go around, seeking<br />To laugh, so as not to cry (repeat)<br />I want to watch the sun rise, to see the rivers’ waters flow<br />To hear the birds sing<br />I want to be born, I want to live<br />Let me go, I need to wander<br />I’ll go around, seeking<br />To laugh, so as not to cry<br />If anyone asks after me, tell them I’ll only come back after I find myself<br />I want to watch the sun rise, to see the rivers’ waters flow<br />To hear the birds sing<br />I want to be born, I want to live… (repeat)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Stunning poetry. Made all the better when you understand the context in which is was written.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the things I say to my friends is that in lieu of birthday gifts I just want them to publish, whether it&#8217;s words, photos, music, or anything. I leave you all with that. Each of us has an incredible story, a unique life experience that is yours and no one else&#8217;s. Find a way to express that creatively, and put that on the open web. It&#8217;s scary! Vulnerable. But you&#8217;ll find once you do that the rewards are better than you ever imagined. 2025 is going to be a weird year, let&#8217;s blog through it. Mazel tov!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>All birthday posts: <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2003/01/bday/\">19</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2004/01/so-im-20/\">20</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2005/01/hot-barely-legal-matt/\">21</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2006/01/matt-22/\">22</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2007/01/twenty-three/\">23</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2008/01/twenty-four/\">24</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2009/01/twenty-five/\">25</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2010/01/twenty-six/\">26</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2011/01/twenty-seven/\">27</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2012/01/twenty-eight/\">28</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2013/01/twenty-nine/\">29</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2014/01/matt-3-0/\">30</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2015/01/thirty-one/\">31</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2016/01/thirty-two/\">32</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2017/01/thirty-three/\">33</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2018/01/thirty-four/\">34</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2019/01/thirty-five/\">35</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2020/01/thirty-six/\">36</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2021/01/thirty-seven/\">37</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2022/01/thirty-eight/\">38</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2023/01/thirty-nine/\">39</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2024/01/forty/\">40</a>, <a href=\"https://ma.tt/2025/01/forty-one/\">41</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, 12 Jan 2025 01:55:07 +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:13:\"\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:121:\"Gutenberg Times: State of the Word, Gutenberg 19.9 and 20.0, Block editor for books, Studio Sync – Weekend Edition #315\";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=31490\";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/state-of-the-word-gutenberg-19-9-and-20-0-block-editor-for-books-studio-sync-weekend-edition-315/\";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:24429:\"<p><strong>Happy New Year!&nbsp;</strong>🎆 🙌 🎉🥂</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope you had some wonderful time with your family or friends over the holidays, and you started re-energized and excited into 2025. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Gutenberg Times, we, that&#8217;s you and me, are now celebrating our seventh anniversary! Although, I started curating Gutenberg updates right after WordCamp Europe in June 2017, I registered the domain Gutenbergtimes.com and started the newsletter on January 14, 2018.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>My dear friend, Bob Dunn aka BobWP started the <a href=\"https://dothewoo.io/\">DoTheWoo </a>network around the same time, and we are planning a joined anniversary podcast episode to chat about our journey in the WordPress community. Stay Tuned!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I just returned from vacation, I am pretty sure I haven&#8217;t caught up with all the great things that happened around the block editor. The updates here are pretty cool, though! </p>\n\n\n\n<p>More again next week 🤗 </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yours, 💕<br /><em>Birgit</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>PS: We are not only four weeks away from WordCamp Asia. If you want to meet there, use my public calendar to self-schedule a meeting<a href=\"https://bit.ly/bph-wcasia\">: <strong>bit.ly/bph-wcasia</strong></a>. </p>\n\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-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p>\n\n\n<ol><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/state-of-the-word-gutenberg-19-9-and-20-0-block-editor-for-books-studio-sync-weekend-edition-315/#0-word-press-release-information\">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</a><ol><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/state-of-the-word-gutenberg-19-9-and-20-0-block-editor-for-books-studio-sync-weekend-edition-315/#state-of-the-word\">State of the Word</a></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/state-of-the-word-gutenberg-19-9-and-20-0-block-editor-for-books-studio-sync-weekend-edition-315/#gutenberg-plugin\">Gutenberg plugin</a></li></ol></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/state-of-the-word-gutenberg-19-9-and-20-0-block-editor-for-books-studio-sync-weekend-edition-315/#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/state-of-the-word-gutenberg-19-9-and-20-0-block-editor-for-books-studio-sync-weekend-edition-315/#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/state-of-the-word-gutenberg-19-9-and-20-0-block-editor-for-books-studio-sync-weekend-edition-315/#3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press\">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor. </a></li><li><a class=\"wp-block-table-of-contents__entry\" href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/state-of-the-word-gutenberg-19-9-and-20-0-block-editor-for-books-studio-sync-weekend-edition-315/#playground-updates\">Playground updates</a></li></ol>\n\n</div></div>\n\n\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 Derosiers</strong> has published the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/01/11/wordpress-6-8-release-squad-timeline-and-focus/\"><strong>final planning information for WordPress 6.8.</strong></a> The 10-person release squad consist of long-time contributors with a ton of experience. Desrosiers also confirmed the schedule, which was earlier proposed by Hector Prieto,:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>March 4, 2025, for Beta 1 </li>\n\n\n\n<li>March 25, 2025, for RC 1 and  </li>\n\n\n\n<li>April 15, 2025, the general release. </li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress &#8220;6.8 will focus primarily on being a polish and bug fix release. New features will be considered if deemed reasonably ready.&#8221; Derosiers wrote. </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> published the monthly roundup post on the WordPress Developer Blog <strong><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/01/whats-new-for-developers-january-2025/\">What’s new for developers? (January 2025)</a></strong>. You learn about the new Query total block, updates to styling blocks in themes, Playground updates as wells important update for Plugin developers. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"state-of-the-word\"><strong>State of the Word</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"652\" height=\"489\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SOTW-2024-Tokyp-Stage-by-Hiromi-Ohta.jpeg?resize=652%2C489&ssl=1\" alt=\"Stage of State of the Word, photo by Hiromi-Ohta @nikosun\" class=\"wp-image-31562\" />\n\n\n\n<p>On December 16, 2024, Matt Mullenweg, Matias Ventura, Junko Fukui, and Mary Hubbard delivered the <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLybH5YvIPQ\"><strong>State of the Word 2024</strong></a> from Tokyo. The WordPress YouTube channel has all three videos for those of us, who could not be in Japan.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLybH5YvIPQ\">State of the Word 2024</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPhQFSAvKVw\">Q &amp; A with Matt Mullenweg</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt5FOQYX1nE\">STOW Panel Discussions</a> on publishing in the open and the future of WordPress in Japan and beyond. </li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nicholas Garofalo</strong> published a recap on the WordPress news site: <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/12/state-of-the-word-2024-legacy-innovation-and-community/\"><strong>State of the Word 2024: Legacy, Innovation, and Community</strong></a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jyolsna J E</strong> posted her recap on the WPTavern. <strong><a href=\"https://wptavern.com/recap-of-the-state-of-the-word-2024\">Recap of the State of the Word 2024&nbsp;</a></strong></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"gutenberg-plugin\">Gutenberg plugin</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Gutenberg 19.9 was released on December 19th. In his post <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/12/18/whats-new-in-gutenberg-19-9-19-december/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 19.9? (19 December)</a> </strong>manager <strong>Ramon Dodd</strong> highlighted: </p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/12/18/whats-new-in-gutenberg-19-9-19-december/#style-book-in-classic-themes\">Style Book in classic themes</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/12/18/whats-new-in-gutenberg-19-9-19-december/#introducing-the-query-total-block\">Introducing the Query Total block</a></li>\n</ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Jyolsna JE has the skinny for you via WPTavern:  <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-19-9-introduces-style-book-to-classic-themes\"><strong>Gutenberg 19.9 Introduces Style Book to Classic Themes</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>Gutenberg 20.0 </strong>was also released. It&#8217;s the 200th release of the Gutenberg plugin. The release post is still in the works but you can read the <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v20.0.0\">changelog on GitHub. </a></p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Next week, <strong>Tammie Lister </strong>and I will talk through the two Gutenberg releases on the next episode of the Gutenberg Changelog. It&#8217;s going to be great fun as Tammie was one of the original designers/developers on the Gutenberg team, so the 200th release is a great occasion to talk about the journey in WordPress. Tammie Lister is also the design release lead for WordPress 6.8. </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>🎙️ Latest episode: <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-113-wordpress-6-8-gutenberg-19-9-20-0-and-20-1-plugin-releases/\">Gutenberg Changelog 113 – WordPress 6.8, Gutenberg 19.9, 20.0 and 20.1 Plugin Releases</a> with special guest Tammie Lister 💕</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"652\" height=\"183\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-17-at-18.13.07.png?resize=652%2C183&ssl=1\" alt=\"Tammie Lister and Birgit Pauli-Haack recording Gutenberg Changelog episode 113\" class=\"wp-image-37366\" />\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><strong>Ella van Durpe</strong> created an early prototype to  <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/12/write-books-with-the-block-editor/\"><strong>Write Books With the Block Editor</strong></a>. The nascent project outside of WordPress is used to create e-books and documents using the Block Editor, even offline. You can export your work in EPUB format for e-book readers like Kindle or as DOCX files. Its features include chapter navigation, cover design, and a demo editor available as a Progressive Web App (PWA). It&#8217;s still evolving, with planned improvements like revision history and better file support. Feedback is welcome to shape its development. You can try it out by going to the <a href=\"https://block-editors.github.io/blockdocs/\">demo editor</a> and install it as a PWA locally via the installation icon in your browser bar: <img width=\"300\" height=\"34\" class=\"wp-image-31511\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-07-at-16.58.57.png?resize=300%2C34&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" /></p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"652\" height=\"453\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2024-12-10-at-09.35.01.webp?resize=652%2C453&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-31512\" />\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https://github.com/krstivoja\">Marko Krstic</a></strong> released his <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/dblocks-finder/\"><strong>DBlocks Finder</strong></a> plugin for blocks &amp; synced patterns and helps users find and manage Gutenberg blocks and synced patterns within their WordPress sites. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Anne Katzeff</strong> shared in her blog post <a href=\"https://www.askdesign.biz/blog/2024/12/convert-content-from-the-classic-editor-to-blocks/\"><strong>Convert Content from the Classic Editor to Blocks</strong></a>, the few easy steps to converting content from the Classic to the Block editor. Katzeff also <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xwcec4SLMU\">created a video</a> with the steps you can follow along which covers converting blocks one post at a time or Global conversation using the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/convert-to-blocks/\"><strong>Convert to Blocks</strong></a> plugin by 10up</p>\n\n\n<div width=\"100%\" class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\">\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"toolbelt-video-wrapper\"></div>\n</div>\n\n</div>\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 class=\"has-small-font-size\"><strong>Nick Diego</strong> published a code snippet on the Developer blog on <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/snippets/how-to-filter-the-output-of-a-block-binding/\"><strong>How to filter the output of a block binding</strong></a>, using using the&nbsp;<code>block_bindings_source_value</code>&nbsp;filter. He provides a practical example of modifying the display of book prices in different currencies based on a URL query parameter. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In his post <strong><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/01/wordpress-themes-need-more-weird-a-call-for-creative-digital-homes/\">WordPress Themes Need More Weird: A Call for Creative Digital Homes</a></strong>, <strong>Nick Hamze</strong>  advocates  bringing back creativity and uniqueness in website design, especially when it comes to WordPress themes. He points out how everyone’s designs are starting to look the same, which kinda kills the vibe of real self-expression. Hamze is urging theme designers to ditch the boring old layouts and go for bold looks that show off strong opinions and suit specific needs. Think of themes like album covers—it&#8217;s all about having personality and making that instant visual impact. Overall, it’s a shout-out to designers to try out those unconventional ideas to jazz up WordPress themes and make the whole web scene way more fun and varied!</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"652\" height=\"489\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/psychedeli.webp?resize=652%2C489&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-31575\" /><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/psychedeli/\"><em>Theme: Psychedeli by Automattic</em></a>\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/12/mastering-light-and-dark-mode-styling-in-block-themes/\"><strong>Mastering light and dark mode styling in block themes</strong></a>, Justin Tadlock shows you how you can implement a light or dark mode depending on the visitors system settings. &#8220;The&nbsp;<code>color-scheme</code>&nbsp;property and&nbsp;<code>light-dark()</code>&nbsp;function are the foundation of the method used in this tutorial. They are both baseline CSS standards in 2024, so the challenge is making them work with WordPress standards.&#8221; Tadlock wrote. <br /></p>\n\n\n\n\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2025&#8221;</a>&nbsp;</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>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2021/\">2021</a></strong>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<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>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2023\">2023</a></strong> | &nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2024\">2024</a></strong></p>\n\n\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>Eric Karkovack</strong> posted on the Kinsta blog on how to <a href=\"https://kinsta.com/blog/block-bindings-api/\"><strong>Use the WordPress Block Bindings API to power your blocks</strong></a>. The Block Bindings API, introduced in WordPress 6.5, is a significant advancement for WordPress developers. It allows binding data sources to core WordPress blocks, enabling the creation of dynamic websites more efficiently. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more use cases and more in-depth insights, you can also peruse the <em>WordPress Developer Blog</em>. <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/?s=Block+Bindings&post_type=post\">This page lists all articles on Block Bindings</a>. </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=q8EgRPwHoRQ\"><strong>Create an AMAZING WordPress Carousel with the Interactivity API!</strong></a>, <strong>Elliott Richmond</strong> takes you along on to build a Slider with the create-block scaffolding tool, using the interactivity api template. You&#8217;ll learn in this video:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Setting up a carousel container and managing context variables. </li>\n\n\n\n<li>Calculating offsets and indices dynamically for smooth navigation. </li>\n\n\n\n<li>Adding seamless transitions with CSS for a polished user experience. </li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reverse-engineering forwards and backwards navigation with ease. </li>\n\n\n\n<li>How to prepare your slider for integration with WordPress settings or database values.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Sounds like a fun programming adventure! Richmond also shared <a href=\"https://github.com/eirichmond/demo-carousel\"><strong>his code on GitHub</strong></a></p>\n\n\n<div width=\"100%\" class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\">\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"toolbelt-video-wrapper\"></div>\n</div>\n\n</div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Ryan Welcher also shared a snippet on the WordPress Developer Blog: <br /><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/snippets/snippet-how-to-register-a-block-variation-but-hide-it-from-the-inserter/\"><strong>How to register a block variation but hide it from the inserter</strong></a>. &#8220;In some cases, a custom block is overkill, and a block variation is a better solution. For example, a&nbsp;user in the outreach channel&nbsp;wanted to add an attribute to a block that was only used in a template and, based on the existence of that attribute, add some custom functionality.&#8221; Welcher wrote. </p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"playground-updates\">Playground updates</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This week, and new version of Studio, the WordPress.com local development environment based on Playground, was released. The post <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/01/06/studio-sync/\"><strong>Build Locally, Deploy Globally: Meet Studio Sync for&nbsp;WordPress.com</strong></a> has all the details of the new Sync features. You can use it to </p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Synchronize local sites with WordPress.com hosted sites</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Take a local site live with a WordPress.com hosting plan.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sync feature is available to users with a Business or eCommerce plan. </p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"652\" height=\"466\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/connect-site-studio-wordpress-com-edited.webp?resize=652%2C466&ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-31571\" />\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p>In the online workshop, an online workshop on <a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/2024/12/16/wordpress-playground-for-developers/\"><strong>WordPress Playground for developers</strong></a>,, Core WordPress Playground developer, <strong>Berislav Brgiacak</strong> joined developer educator <strong>Jonathan Bossenger</strong> to share insights into how developers can leverage WordPress Playground. <a href=\"https://gist.github.com/bgrgicak/481009de258e3c0e58c6be48564b4e30\">Their notes are available on GitHub</a>. You&#8217;ll learn </p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>how to configure a playground instance with your custom plugin and theme, and store that in GitHub. </li>\n\n\n\n<li>how to create a blueprint version of the above configuration  to share with clients and coworkers. </li>\n\n\n\n<li>about possible use cases to use Playground. </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>Nick Diego </strong>and <strong>Ryan Welcher</strong> also tackled Playground in their latest Developer Hours: <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTKMfM4tEqk\"><strong>Everything you need to know about WordPress Playground</strong></a>. WordPress Playground allows users to create fully functional WordPress instances directly in their browser, with no installation or setup required. Beyond spinning up WordPress sites, Playground offered powerful capabilities, from testing plugins and themes to running demos and even supporting app development. No matter how you engage with WordPress, Playground has something valuable to offer. In the session, Welcher and Diego explored tools and workflows for plugin and theme development, demonstrated how to use Playground for testing and support, highlighted key improvements introduced in 2024, and offered a preview of exciting new features planned for 2025.</p>\n\n\n<div width=\"100%\" class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\">\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"toolbelt-video-wrapper\"></div>\n</div>\n\n</div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Adam Zieliński</strong> did some experimentation over the holidays, and has been using <a href=\"https://adamadam.blog/2025/01/08/wordpress-as-a-git-repo/\"><strong>WordPress as a git repo</strong></a>, using Playground. As to answer the WHY he wrote:  &#8220;I want Notion that’s free, offline first, and where I own my data. I also want to collaborate with my wife and my improve group. WordPress is the perfect foundation, the hosted version solves many of my problems, but I&nbsp;<em>really</em>&nbsp;want to version my data as static files.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n\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<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<p><img alt=\"GitHub all releases\" src=\"https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total?style=for-the-badge\" /></p>\n\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\n\n<p>Featured Image: Exhibition: <a href=\"https://lastsupper.live/munich/\">The Last Supper Motor world Munich</a> Photo by Birgit Pauli-Haack</p>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong>Don&#8217;t want to miss the next Weekend Edition? </strong></p>\n\n<form class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-form ngl-form ngl-portrait\" action=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/\" method=\"post\"><div class=\"ngl-form-container\"><div class=\"ngl-form-field\"><label class=\"ngl-form-label\" for=\"ngl_email\"><br />Type in your Email address to subscribe.</label><div class=\"ngl-form-input\"><input type=\"email\" class=\"ngl-form-input-text\" name=\"ngl_email\" id=\"ngl_email\" /></div></div><button type=\"submit\" class=\"ngl-form-button\">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\"></div><div class=\"ngl-message-overlay-text\">Thanks for subscribing.</div></div><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ngl_list_id\" id=\"ngl_list_id\" value=\"26f81bd8ae\" /><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ngl_double_optin\" id=\"ngl_double_optin\" value=\"yes\" /></form>\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\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:\"Sat, 11 Jan 2025 11:45:29 +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:25;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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: Status Quo\";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=134651\";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/2025/01/status-quo/\";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:355:\"<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/01/jkpress/\">I wrote over on WordPress.org about breaking the status quo with a Joost/Karim fork</a>. It&#8217;s a perfect time as <a href=\"https://automattic.com/2025/01/09/aligning-automattics-sponsored-contributions-to-wordpress/\">Automattic is re-focusing its work while the legal stuff is going on</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 Jan 2025 02:38:47 +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:26;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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:36:\"WordPress.org blog: Joost/Karim Fork\";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=18394\";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:43:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/01/jkpress/\";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:9256:\"<p>Making great software, great product that stands the test of time and not just survives but thrives through monumental technological shifts is <em>incredibly hard</em>. That challenge is part of the reason I love doing it. There is never a dull day, and the reward of seeing the code you wrote used by the most amazing creators in the world is an indescribable pleasure. <strong>When I see what people create with WordPress, some days I feel like I’m grinding pigment for Leonardo da Vinci or slitting a quill for Beethoven.</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p>In open source, one thing that makes it even harder to ship great software is bringing together disparate groups of contributors who may have entirely different incentives or missions or philosophies about how to make great work. Working together on a team is such a delicate balance, and even one person rowing in the wrong direction can throw everyone else off.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>That’s why periodically I think it is very healthy for open source projects to fork, it allows for people to try out and experiment with different forms of governance, leadership, decision-making, and technical approaches. As I&#8217;ve said, forking is beautiful, and <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/10/spoon/\">forks have my full support and we&#8217;ll even link and promote them</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://joost.blog/\">Joost</a> is a self-proclaimed leader in the SEO space, an industry known for making the web better. He asked for and <a href=\"https://joost.blog/leading-marketing-communication-for-wordpress/\">I gave him WordPress marketing leadership responsibility</a> in January 2019 and <a href=\"https://joost.blog/why-im-stepping-down-from-my-wordpress-marketing-role/\">he stepped down in June of 2019</a>, I think we would both agree in those 5 months he was not effective at leading the marketing team or doing the work himself.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://marucchi.com/\">Karim</a> leads a small WordPress agency called <a href=\"https://crowdfavorite.com/\">Crowd Favorite</a> which counts clients such as Lexus and ABC and employs ~50 people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both are men I have shared meals with and consider of the highest integrity. I would trust them to watch any of my 15 godchildren for a day. These are good humans. Now go do the work. It probably won&#8217;t happen on day one, but Joost and Karim&#8217;s fork, which I&#8217;ll call JKPress until they come up with a better name, has a number of ideas they want to try out around governance and architecture. While Joost and Karim will be unilaterally in charge in the beginning, it sounds <a href=\"https://joost.blog/wordpress-leadership/\">like they want to set up</a>:</p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A non-profit foundation, with a broad board to control their new project.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>A website owned by that foundation which hosts community resources like a plugin directory, forums, etc.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>No more centralized and moderated plugin and theme directories with security guidelines or restrictions are what plugins are allowed to do like putting banners in your admin or gathering data, everything done in a federated/distributed manner.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The trademarks for their new project will either be public domain or held by their foundation.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;Modernization&#8221; of the technology stack, perhaps going a Laravel-like approach or changing how WordPress&#8217; architecture works.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Teams and committees to make decisions for everything, so no single person has too much power or authority.</li>\n</ol>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://marucchi.com/wordpress-leadership-continued/\">Karim has a similar post</a>. Joost says he has the time and energy to lead:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So <a href=\"https://twitter.com/photomatt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@photomatt</a> &#8211; I saw the post by <a href=\"https://twitter.com/automattic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@automattic</a>.<br /><br />I\'m ready to lead the next releases. I am sure plenty of people and companies are willing to help me and we\'ve got plenty of ideas on what we should be doing.<a href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordPress?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WordPress</a></p>&mdash; Joost de Valk (@jdevalk) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jdevalk/status/1877731220135538728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 10, 2025</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, as core committer Jb Audras (not employed by me or Automattic) points out, within WordPress we have a process in which people earn the right to lead a release:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Before leading any major release of WordPress, please start with leading a minor one <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jdevalk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@jdevalk</a>. Then, apply to be Triage Lead or Coordination Lead Deputy for a major release. These are the steps everyone in our community should follow before claiming to run « the next releases ».</p>&mdash; Jb Audras (@AudrasJb) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/AudrasJb/status/1877833087473565785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 10, 2025</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>However in Joost and Karim&#8217;s new project, they don&#8217;t need to follow our process or put in the hours to prove their worth within the WordPress.org ecosystem, they can just lead by example by shipping code and product to people that they can use, evaluate, and test out for themselves. If they need financial or hosting support is sounds like WP Engine wants to support their fork:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We appreciate <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jdevalk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@jdevalk</a> and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/karimmarucchi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@karimmarucchi</a> thoughtful call for constructive conversation, change and evolved leadership within the WordPress community. Moments of disruption challenge all of us to reflect and to act.<br /><br />WordPress’s success as the most widely used CMS is not the…</p>&mdash; WP Engine (@wpengine) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/wpengine/status/1870242287218790849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 20, 2024</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>Awesome! (Maybe it&#8217;s so successful they rebrand as JK Engine in the future.) WP Engine, with its half a billion in revenue and 1,000+ employees, has more than enough resources to support and maintain a legitimate fork of WordPress. And they are welcome to use all the GPL code myself and others have created to do so, including many parts of WordPress.org that are open source released under the GPL, and Gutenberg which is GPL + MPL. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joost also is a major investor (owner?) in <a href=\"https://poststatus.com/\">Post Status</a> (which he tried to sell to me a few months ago, and I declined to buy, perhaps kicking off his consternation with me), so they have a news media site and Slack instance already ready to go. He also is an investor in <a href=\"https://patchstack.com/\">PatchStack</a> and appears to be trying to create a new business around something called <a href=\"https://progressplanner.com/\">Progress Planner</a>, both of which could be incorporated into the new non-profit project to give them some competitive distinctions from WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To make this easy and hopefully give this project the push it needs to get off the ground, I&#8217;m deactivating the .org accounts of <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/joostdevalk/\">Joost</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/pirazo/\">Karim</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/sereedmedia/\">Se Reed</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/idea15/\">Heather Burns</a>, and <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mor10/\">Morten Rand-Hendriksen</a>. I strongly encourage anyone who wants to try different leadership models or align with WP Engine to join up with their new effort.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the meantime, on top of my <a href=\"https://automattic.com/\">day job running a 1,700+ person company with 25+ products</a>, which I typically work 60-80 hours a week on, I&#8217;ll find time on nights and weekends to work on WordPress 6.8 and beyond. Myself and other &#8220;non-sponsored&#8221; contributors have been doing this a long time and while we may need to reduce scope a bit I think we can put out a solid release in March.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joost and Karim have a number of bold and interesting ideas, and I&#8217;m genuinely curious to see how they work out. The beauty of open source is they can take all of the GPL code in WordPress and ship their vision. You don&#8217;t need permission, you can just do things. If they create something that&#8217;s awesome, we may even merge it back into WordPress, that ability for code and ideas to freely flow between projects is part of what makes open source such an engine for innovation. I propose that in a year we do a WordPress + JKPress summit, look at what we&#8217;ve shipped and learned in the process, which I&#8217;d be happy to host and sponsor in NYC next January 2026. The broader community will benefit greatly from this effort, as it&#8217;s giving us a true chance to try something different and see how it goes.</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 Jan 2025 02:06:06 +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:\"Matt Mullenweg\";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:13:\"\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:\"Gravatar: Designing a Unique Digital Persona: A Social Media Branding Strategy\";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:32:\"http://blog.gravatar.com/?p=2384\";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:68:\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2025/01/10/personal-branding-social-media/\";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:19428:\"<p>Social media has become one of the most effective places for building and shaping personal brands, especially on sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, which allow you to demonstrate expertise, connect with industry peers, gain knowledge, and grow a following. Besides all of this, your social media presence also often serves as a first impression for potential employers, clients, or collaborators, so it’s very important to have a strategy at hand.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, you’ll need to recognize that social media can quickly amplify both positive and negative aspects of your brand. Consistent, thoughtful posting can establish credibility and authority, while missteps can rapidly damage your reputation. Your &#8220;digital footprint&#8221; – the trail of data you leave online – has a lasting impact on your <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/04/10/personal-branding-tools/\">personal brand</a>.  </p>\n\n\n\n<p>To help you on this journey, we’ll go through all the aspects of a successful online persona and what you can do to make the most out of your digital presence. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let’s begin!&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why consistency across platforms is so important&nbsp;</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Building a strong personal brand relies on maintaining a consistent image across social media platforms. This uniformity helps people recognize and remember you more easily. When your profiles look and feel similar on different sites, you&#8217;re reinforcing your brand with each interaction.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of it like a jigsaw puzzle. Each social media profile is a piece, and when they fit together, they create a clear picture of who you are and what you stand for. Inconsistencies can muddy the waters and weaken your brand&#8217;s impact.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://gravatar.com/\">Gravatar</a> is a tool that offers a solution to this challenge. It acts as a central hub for managing your profile information and avatar across multiple platforms. With its &#8220;Update Once, Sync Everywhere&#8221; feature, you save time and ensure a uniform online presence.</p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://gravatar.com/connect/?gravatar_from=blog\"><img width=\"3243\" height=\"729\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/free_profile_cta.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2616\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravatar integrates with many platforms, including <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/\">WordPress</a>, <a href=\"https://github.com/\">GitHub</a>, and <a href=\"https://slack.com/\">Slack</a>. Beyond profile pictures, it syncs your bio, social links, and other profile elements, creating a cohesive online identity that strengthens your personal brand.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to strategically separate personal and professional profiles&nbsp;</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Keeping your personal and professional online identities separate is a smart move. It helps protect your privacy, maintains professionalism, and allows for more targeted networking. But how do you do this effectively while still maintaining a cohesive personal brand?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravatar offers a unique solution by linking identities to email addresses rather than names. This allows you to create and manage multiple profiles easily – one for work, one for personal life, and even one for anonymous use if needed. To set this up, simply use different email addresses for each profile you want to create.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are some tips for maintaining consistency between different profiles while catering to different audiences:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Use similar color schemes or design elements across profiles to maintain brand recognition.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Adapt your language and content to suit the audience of each profile. Your professional profile might be more formal, while your personal one could be more casual.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consider using different profile pictures across your profiles, depending on their intent. For example, a suit for your professional profile, and casual attire for your personal one.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravatar&#8217;s privacy settings allow you to control what information is visible on each profile. This gives you full control over your data and what you share in different contexts.</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"331\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/privacy-settings-gravatar-1.png?w=660\" alt=\"Privacy settings for verified links on a Gravatar profile\" class=\"wp-image-2401\" />\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to choose the right platforms for your personal brand</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Picking the right social media platforms for your personal brand is like choosing the stage for your performance. You want a venue where your audience gathers and where your talents shine brightest.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Start by understanding what a personal brand really is. It&#8217;s the unique mix of skills, experience, and personality you want the world to see. With that in mind, here&#8217;s how to choose your platforms:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Find your audience: </strong>Where do the people you want to reach hang out online? If you&#8217;re targeting professionals, <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/\">LinkedIn</a> might be your go-to. For a younger, more visual audience, <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/\">Instagram</a> or <a href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/\">TikTok</a> could be better bets.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Match your content style: </strong>What kind of content do you enjoy creating? If you love writing, <a href=\"https://x.com/\">X (formerly Twitter)</a> or LinkedIn might suit you. For visual storytellers, Instagram or <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/\">YouTube</a> could be ideal.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Align with your goals: </strong>What are you trying to achieve? If it&#8217;s professional networking, focus on LinkedIn. For thought leadership, X or <a href=\"https://bsky.app/\">Bluesky</a> might work well. To showcase your work visually, consider Instagram or <a href=\"https://www.behance.net/search/projects\">Behance</a>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Popular platforms and their strengths:</p>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Platform</strong></td><td><strong>Best for</strong></td></tr><tr><td>LinkedIn</td><td>Professional networking and B2B connections</td></tr><tr><td>X/Twitter</td><td>Quick insights and industry conversations</td></tr><tr><td>Bluesky</td><td>Similar to Twitter, but decentralized</td></tr><tr><td>Instagram</td><td>Visual content and lifestyle branding</td></tr><tr><td>YouTube</td><td>In-depth tutorials and vlogs</td></tr><tr><td>TikTok</td><td>Short-form, entertaining videos</td></tr></tbody></table>\n\n\n\n<p><br />Start with one or two platforms where you can consistently create high-quality content. As you grow more comfortable, you can expand to others. Think quality over quantity: It&#8217;s better to excel on fewer platforms than to spread yourself thin across many.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When setting up your profiles, ensure your bio, profile picture, and overall aesthetic align with your personal brand. Use similar usernames and social media handles across platforms when possible to make it easy for people to find you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And don&#8217;t forget to review and update your profiles regularly. Your skills, achievements, and brand messaging will evolve over time, and your online presence should reflect that.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Understand what success looks like on social media&nbsp;</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Success on social media isn&#8217;t just about racking up followers. It&#8217;s about achieving your specific goals. Are you aiming to become an influencer, or are you trying to drive conversions for your business? Your strategy should align with these objectives.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re after conversions, focus on engagement rates, click-throughs, and lead generation. For brand awareness, keep an eye on reach, impressions, and share of voice. Remember, vanity metrics like follower count can be misleading.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quality trumps quantity when it comes to followers. This aligns with <a href=\"https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/\">Kevin Kelly&#8217;s &#8220;1,000 True Fans&#8221; principle</a>, which suggests that to be successful, you don&#8217;t need millions of followers but rather 1,000 true fans who deeply value your work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>These dedicated followers are more likely to engage with your content, share it, and convert into customers or clients. They provide a stable foundation for your personal brand and can be more valuable than a larger group of passive followers.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Deciding on posting frequency and sticking to a schedule</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Consistency is key when building your personal brand on social media, and it can only be achieved if you’re realistic about your schedule and the posting frequency that you can maintain long-term without sacrificing content quality. This could range from daily posts to a few times a week, depending on your capacity and the platforms you&#8217;re using.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Create a content calendar to plan your posts in advance. This helps ensure a balanced mix of content types and topics. Use scheduling tools to automate your posts, saving time and maintaining consistency.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Experiment with different posting times to find when your audience is most active and engaged. Many social platforms offer insights on optimal posting times for your specific followers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep in mind that it&#8217;s better to post high-quality content less frequently than to publish subpar content just to meet a quota. Your followers will appreciate thoughtful, valuable posts more than a constant stream of mediocre updates.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Studying people with similar personal brands</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Analyzing successful personal brands in your niche can provide valuable insights. Focus on extracting unique elements from their content strategies, audience engagement tactics, and cross-platform synergies. Use social listening tools and AI-powered analytics to conduct in-depth competitor analysis.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Look for emerging trends and untapped opportunities within your niche by studying patterns across multiple successful brands. The goal isn&#8217;t to imitate, but to innovate and adapt these insights to your unique voice and style.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravatar&#8217;s consolidated profile view can streamline your research process. It allows you to quickly assess an influencer&#8217;s digital footprint across various platforms, revealing valuable insights into their overall brand consistency and platform-specific strategies.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>An interesting approach is to explore “<a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/carl-jungs-12-archetypes-strong-brand-identity-niels-kramer/\">brand archetypes</a>”. These archetypes, first identified by psychologist Carl Jung, include personas like the Sage (sharing wisdom), the Creator (driving innovation), and the Hero (overcoming challenges). For example, <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/\">Apple</a> embodies the Creator archetype through innovative design and creative empowerment, while <a href=\"https://www.google.com/\">Google</a> represents the Sage through its focus on knowledge and information sharing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Analyze profiles of successful people in your field to identify which archetype they embody. Look at their content style, messaging patterns, and how they engage with their audience. Don&#8217;t just copy them – use these insights to refine your unique voice while staying true to your chosen archetype. Your Gravatar profile can help reinforce this archetype through consistent visual and written elements across platforms.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Mastering the art of collaborations</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When thinking about collaborations, many people imagine regular guest posts or social media shoutouts. However, you can go way beyond those. Experiment with innovative formats like multi-platform storytelling campaigns, collaborative product launches, or industry-specific challenges.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When approaching potential collaborators, spend some time on the partnership proposals. Clearly outline mutual benefits and set realistic expectations. After a few tries, start analyzing metrics of successful collaborations to understand their full impact on brand growth and audience engagement.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravatar&#8217;s verified links feature can help establish credibility when reaching out to potential collaborators. An up-to-date Gravatar profile ensures that collaborators always have access to your latest work and achievements, facilitating more meaningful partnerships.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider forming a &#8220;collaboration ring&#8221; – a strategic alliance of complementary personal brands that regularly support and amplify each other&#8217;s content. This approach can create a network effect, expanding your reach and influence exponentially.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Understanding how to use AI strategically in social posting</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>With time, more and more social media strategies use AI to increase productivity and generate ideas.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider using AI-driven sentiment analysis to fine-tune your messaging. These tools can help you understand how your audience perceives your content, allowing you to adjust your tone and style for maximum impact.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, Natural Language Processing (NLP) analyzes audience comments, helping you tailor your content to their interests and concerns. Meanwhile, computer vision AI can optimize your visual content for better engagement.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>AI-powered chatbots are also a staple for handling routine follower interactions, freeing up your time for more strategic tasks. And predictive analytics can identify optimal content themes and formats for different platforms and audience segments.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it&#8217;s crucial to maintain authenticity. Use AI as a tool to augment your creativity, not replace it. The most effective personal brands blend AI-driven insights with a genuine human touch.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When using AI, be transparent with your audience. They&#8217;ll appreciate your honesty, and it can even position you as a forward-thinking brand embracing cutting-edge technology.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The importance of a digital footprint management strategy&nbsp;</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Your digital footprint – the trail of data you leave online – is very important in shaping your personal brand. Every post, comment, and like contributes to the digital persona you&#8217;re creating. Managing this footprint is essential for maintaining a positive professional image and seizing career opportunities.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Start by regularly reviewing your online presence across all platforms. Set up <a href=\"https://www.google.com/alerts\">Google Alerts</a> for your name to stay informed about what&#8217;s being said about you online.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Be mindful of what you post and comment on, ensuring it aligns with your personal brand values.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create and share content that reinforces your expertise and professional interests. This proactive approach helps shape your digital footprint positively.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Utilize privacy settings on social media platforms to control what information is publicly visible.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember, your digital footprint has long-term implications. Today&#8217;s casual post could impact future opportunities. Strive for a balance between authenticity and professionalism in your online interactions.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to use social media analytics to your advantage&nbsp;</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Social media analytics are powerful tools that provide insights into your content performance and audience behavior.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Key metrics to track include:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Engagement: </strong>Likes, comments, shares</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Reach:</strong> How many people see your content</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Follower growth: </strong>Track growth over time, and take note of anything you post that’s cause a sudden burst in followers.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Click-through rates on shared links: </strong>Which links are getting the most engagement?</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Audience demographics:</strong> Age, location, interests</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Use these metrics to improve your content strategy. If posts about a certain topic get more engagement, consider creating more content in that area. Most major social media platforms offer built-in analytics tools – familiarize yourself with these.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Set specific goals for your social media presence and use analytics to track progress. This data-driven approach allows you to make informed decisions about your content and posting strategy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We recommend that you experiment with posting at different times and use analytics to find your audience&#8217;s most active hours.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>While numbers are important, they&#8217;re not everything. Use analytics as a guide, but don&#8217;t let them stifle your creativity or authenticity. The most successful personal brands balance data-driven decisions with genuine, value-driven content.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Elevate your personal brand with Gravatar&nbsp;</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"343\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/gravatar-new-homepage-1.png?w=660\" alt=\"Gravatar homepage\" class=\"wp-image-2398\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout this guide, we&#8217;ve explored numerous strategies to elevate your personal brand on social media. From maintaining consistency across platforms to leveraging AI and analytics, each approach contributes to a stronger, more impactful online presence.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravatar is a powerful tool that can be invaluable in building a strong online presence and reinforcing your personal brand. Its most important features include:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A consistent avatar across thousands of websites</li>\n\n\n\n<li>A centralized profile with your bio and links</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Easy updating: change your Gravatar once, and it updates everywhere</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>With Gravatar, you save time and ensure consistency in your online presence. It&#8217;s particularly useful if you&#8217;re active on multiple platforms or managing different online identities.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Taking control of your online image starts with simple steps, and setting up a Gravatar profile is an excellent place to begin. It forms the foundation of a cohesive personal brand across the web, allowing you to present a unified, professional image wherever you engage online.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like any worthwhile endeavor, your personal brand is an ongoing project. Regularly revisit your strategy, stay open to new tools and trends, and always prioritize providing value to your audience. With persistence and the right tools like Gravatar, you can build a personal brand that truly stands out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://gravatar.com/profile\">Create your free Gravatar profile today.</a></p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://gravatar.com/connect/?gravatar_from=blog\"><img width=\"3243\" height=\"729\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/free_profile_cta.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2616\" /></a>\";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 Jan 2025 15:07:33 +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:11:\"Ronnie Burt\";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:13:\"\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:17:\"Matt: Studio Sync\";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=134649\";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:34:\"https://ma.tt/2025/01/studio-sync/\";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:1908:\"<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://wordpress.com/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WordPress.com</a>&nbsp;launched&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/01/06/studio-sync/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a new update to Studio this week</a>, and we’re&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-com-launches-studio-sync-local-development/536927/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">already seeing some buzz</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://developer.wordpress.com/studio/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Studio</a>&nbsp;is our free and open source app for local WordPress development, enabling you to spin up unlimited WordPress sites on your personal computer.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through its newest feature, Studio Sync, you have complete freedom to:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Connect your Studio site to and from a <a href=\"http://wordpress.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WordPress.com</a> production or staging site, included for free in <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/hosting/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Business and Commerce hosting plans</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Push and pull changes as a team by connecting a local Studio site to a shared <a href=\"http://wordpress.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WordPress.com</a> site.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Synchronize your local and hosted sites at any time with one click.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Studio is an excellent tool to have in your development arsenal, and you can&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://developer.wordpress.com/studio/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">download it for free</a>, explore the&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://developer.wordpress.com/docs/developer-tools/studio/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">docs</a>, and become a contributor on&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https://github.com/Automattic/studio/issues\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GitHub</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 Jan 2025 18:30:01 +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:13:\"\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:118:\"WPTavern: Patchstack Rejected as WordCamp Europe 2025 Sponsor Due to Lack of ‘Significant’ WordPress Contributions\";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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=185079\";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:123:\"https://wptavern.com/patchstack-rejected-as-wordcamp-europe-2025-sponsor-due-to-lack-of-significant-wordpress-contributions\";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:10879:\"<p>Oliver Sild, CEO of Patchstack, <a href=\"https://x.com/OliverSild/status/1876916364994019526\">shared on X</a>&nbsp; an email he received from WordCamp Central explaining why Patchstack&#8217;s application to sponsor WordCamp Europe 2025 was rejected.</p>\n\n\n\n<img src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfL4aIgbciGnlDFKqlKZwZlNOMEiy30zHz6RZmugC7jZ0z1YXc6UEqPyKvGzjMGKLPHDPnjJ-e8TYBdN_FJTnapK_GGOp6oQ-RHWzsICDUSwz3FfODgKSDP8an-9vWDWolWvuLmHA?key=ZgBlIz0kaMWTnVmfm77jMpxV\" alt=\"Screenshot of the email from WordCamp Central.\" />\n\n\n\n<p>The email, written by <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/foosantos/\">Felipe Santos</a>, detailed a shift in the sponsorship process. It stated that “the Community team is transitioning from a first-come, first-served model to a new approach. While the sponsorship process will remain familiar, we are placing greater emphasis on contributions and the relationships companies maintain with the WordPress project. We recognize that this shift may feel frustrating, but <strong>sponsoring WordCamps is a privilege</strong>, and we aim to increase expectations in this area moving forward.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Santos suggested that Patchstack pledge to <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/\">Five for the Future</a> as it “would be an excellent way to demonstrate commitment and build trust within the community.” He added that they will re-evaluate Patchstack’s eligibility “once <strong>significant contributions</strong> have been established.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sild countered that “the tier we applied to still has 6 spots open. I know companies who were accepted for sponsorship after we were rejected who also don&#8217;t have five for the future.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Patchstack is a leading name in WordPress security with a mission to make open-source safer and raised $5 million in its <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/patchstack-secures-5m-in-series-a-funding\">Series A funding round</a> last year. &nbsp;They published 76% of all known WordPress-related security vulnerabilities and became the largest CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) Naming Authority by volume in 2023. Their Zero-Day Bug Bounty Program awarded the highest bounty in WordPress history – $14,400- to John Blackbourn, who exposed a critical vulnerability in the LiteSpeed Cache plugin last month.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sild also shared that Patchstack contributed to Five for the Future till the person who pledged the hours via Patchstack left the company. Sild also highlighted Patchstack’s other contributions &#8211; reporting vulnerabilities in plugins and ensuring the security of the ecosystem, and running a <a href=\"https://patchstack.com/for-plugins/\">managed VDP platform</a> built in collaboration with the European Union.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He continued, “Over 50% of all new security vulnerability disclosures in the WordPress ecosystem were found &amp; reported by our community of security researchers. All of the validating, triaging and coordination was done by our team for the WordPress ecosystem for free. That&#8217;s 4566 individual vulnerabilities in 2024 alone.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, there is nothing about contributing to the Five for the Future mentioned in the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/planning-details/fundraising/local-wordcamp-sponsorship/\">WordCamp Sponsorship Handbook</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/files/2017/08/2017-WordCamp-Sponsorship-Agreement.pdf\">WordCamp Sponsorship Agreement</a> or <a href=\"https://europe.wordcamp.org/2025/call-for-sponsors/\">WordCamp Europe&#8217;s Call for Sponsors</a> page. Sponsorship packages are still open for the 2025 event at the time of publishing this article. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sild’s post sparked widespread criticism about the rejection and the community soon came out to support Sild. Simon Harper, owner of SRH Design <a href=\"https://x.com/SRHDesign/status/1876935002811756792\">shared</a>, “It is ridiculous to think that Oliver, the Patchstack team and volunteers have &#8220;not contributed enough&#8221; to WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Taco Verdo of Emilia Capital was <a href=\"https://x.com/TacoVerdo/status/1876922111341543474\">disappointed</a>, “Sometimes I really don&#8217;t understand what we&#8217;re doing in the WordPress community team&#8230; :(“</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Francesca Marano, &nbsp;Head of Partnership at Patchstack, <a href=\"https://x.com/FrancescaMarano/status/1876927137912926297\">dubbed</a> it “Another sad day open source”. She shared, “As someone who was active for a long time in the community team and was around when the Five for the Future program was created, I am surprised and saddened by a few things: 1. Not having the change publicly discussed in the community make blog. 2. Not having the criteria added to the sponsorship page (Still shows only GPL) 3. Relying on FFtF data, which has been unreliable since the beginning. I was still active in the team when we started discussing how to improve the program,”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Todd E Jones, founder of Copyflight, <a href=\"https://x.com/tejones/status/1876999042149868013\">tweeted</a>, “Right now I fail to see how A8 has real concerns for security or accessibility. Dismissive of experts in both areas.”&nbsp; Web developer Robert DeVore also shared his <a href=\"https://x.com/deviorobert/status/1876996387100917823\">thoughts</a>, “Without programs like Patchstack, the WordPress ecosystem would be a wasteland (worse than it is now). Anybody who doesn&#8217;t see that is a blind idiot.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co-founder of Nevma, Takis Bouyouris, had this to <a href=\"https://x.com/takisbig/status/1876948123437674802\">say</a>: “The #WordPress Community needs to stop being ridiculed like this. Once we had hard and fair rules in @WCEurope. Observe the GPL, observe the CoC. Now contributing to the community becomes some convoluted madness where you cannot contribute unless you contribute enough based on a vague and untrustworthy metrics.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WPTuts <a href=\"https://x.com/WPTutz/status/1876961046675571166\">tweeted</a>, “Sadly, this seems indicative of WordPress (as a project/company) at the moment: hell-bent on alienating the community and contributors who have made WordPress what it is today and are a significant reason for its success and popularity. Unless you tick those boxes, you&#8217;re out!”</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Matt Mullenweg</strong> termed the email “crappy” and promised to look into it. He <a href=\"https://x.com/photomatt/status/1877030025574191570\">commented</a>, “I agree that&#8217;s a crappy email to get, and it&#8217;s also not 100% accurate. Thanks for raising this issue, I&#8217;ll look into it. Thank you for all you and your colleagues do trying to make WordPress and its plugins and themes better.”</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"2066\" height=\"712\" src=\"https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/image.png\" alt=\"Matt Mullenweg\'s comment\" class=\"wp-image-185097\" />\n\n\n\n<p>WordCamp Europe has faced criticism in the past for <a href=\"https://europe.wordcamp.org/2022/diversity-at-wceu/\">diversity issues</a> in speaker lineups and organizing teams, but this marks the first major controversy regarding sponsorships. The WordCamp Europe Organizing Team shared that they have no information on this as WordCamp Central handles the sponsorship application processing. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>(I’m waiting to hear from the Patchstack team and WordCamp Central and will update their responses).</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Update</strong>: Oliver Sild expressed disappointment, stating: &#8220;Right now, the last thing we’ve been told is that we’re not eligible to sponsor any WordPress events. Honestly, it’s a pity, because for us WordCamp EU has been our “home base” and it has been a our annual tradition for years to bring the entire team together. We had 20 people in Torino for a full week. We had to change the plans for this year and we’ll organise this year gathering elsewhere &#8211; so our presence at WCEU will definitely be smaller. Our team is involved with organising WordCamps in Poland, Lithuania, and across Europe &#8211; I’m sure they’ll continue to contribute. We have been also reached out by so many people who hope we’ll organise a side-event for WCEU or even start a new developer focused conference. We are seriously thinking about both.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oliver also mentioned learning that some companies were selected to sponsor WordCamps despite not contributing to the Five for the Future initiative. Despite Patchstack&#8217;s direct inquiries, they received no further clarification or explanation about the decision to reject them or the comment from <a href=\"https://x.com/photomatt/status/1877030025574191570\">Matt</a> about the email not being “100% accurate.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Patchstack also signed up for <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/pledge/patchstack-2/\">Five for the Future</a>. They will  sponsor 3 contributors for a total of 4 hours per week across Community, Documentation, Meta and Training teams.</p>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Full Text of the Email Received by Oliver Sild &amp; Team</strong>:<br /><br />&#8220;Hi Francesca and Oliver,<br /><br />Thank you for your patience as we continue to refine our approach to WordPress event sponsorships. I understand your interest in learning more about the process and what steps might strengthen future sponsorship opportunities.<br /><br />To provide some context, the Community team is transitioning from a first-come, first-served model to a new approach.<br /><br />While the sponsorship process will remain familiar, we are placing greater emphasis on contributions and the relationships companies maintain with the WordPress project.<br /><br />We recognize that this shift may feel frustrating, but sponsoring WordCamps is a privilege, and we aim to increase expectations in this area moving forward.<br /><br />For instance, I noticed that Patchstack has not yet made a pledge to Five for the Future, a program that enables companies to contribute to the WordPress project through dedicated volunteer hours. Taking this step would be an excellent way to demonstrate commitment and build trust within the community. WordPress thrives because of its contributors and your participation would make a meaningful impact.<br /><br />Once significant contributions have been established, we are happy to re-evaluate your eligibility for financial sponsorship of WordPress events.<br /><br />Thank you for your continued interest in supporting the WordPress community. If you have any further questions or need assistance with the next steps, please don&#8217;t hesitate to reach out.<br /><br />I hope that helps and Happy New Year!<br />&#8212;<br />Felipe Santos<br />support@wordcamp.org&#8221;</td></tr></tbody></table>\";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 Jan 2025 03:48:02 +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:7:\"Jyolsna\";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:13:\"\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:46:\"WPTavern: WordPress.com Launches Studio Sync \";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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=185061\";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:55:\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-launches-studio-sync\";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:1261:\"<p>WordPress.com has introduced <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/01/06/studio-sync/\">Studio Sync</a>, a new feature for its local development app, Studio. Launched last year as a free, open-source tool for Mac and Windows users, <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.com/studio/\">Studio</a> now integrates seamlessly with WordPress.com through this update.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Studio Sync allows developers to effortlessly synchronize local, staging, and live environments with just a few clicks, bridging the gap between local development and live site hosting. The feature also supports team collaboration, enabling multiple developers to connect their local Studio sites to a shared WordPress.com site.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Currently Studio Sync is available only to users with WordPress.com Business or Commerce plan. </strong>Interested users can check the <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.com/docs/developer-tools/studio/sync/\">documentation</a> to learn more about this feature. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>After releasing Studio, WordPress.com had released the <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2024/10/29/studio-assistant/\">Studio Assistant</a> &#8211; a multilingual, AI-powered chatbot that simplifies development tasks through an intuitive chat interface.</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 Jan 2025 03:12:40 +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:7:\"Jyolsna\";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:13:\"\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: #151 – Elena Brescacin on Accessibility Challenges and Solutions\";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=185040\";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/151-elena-brescacin-on-accessibility-challenges-and-solutions\";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:44389:\"Transcript<div>\n<p>[00:00:00] <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 the challenges of creating accessible websites with WordPress.</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 Elena Brescacin. Elena is an accessibility consultant from Italy who has been blind since birth, and working online since 2000 with Tangity Design a part of NTT Data Company.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her journey with WordPress began in 2021, but she has been aware of it since 2003. A computer geek, Elena enjoys finding solutions to everyday challenges through technology.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elena is here to discuss the significant accessibility advancements and challenges within WordPress, especially with the transition from the Classic Editor to the Block Editor. She shares how full site editing has empowered her to manage most of her site content and structure without needing constant visual assistance, despite some areas needing further improvement.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We talk about her experiences navigating the internet using screen reader software, the importance of adhering to HTML semantics for accessibility, and her involvement in the WordPress community, including her contributions to the Italian Polyglots, and speaking at WordPress events.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elena also reflects on the evolution of the internet, personal experiences with various web accessibility tools, and her advocacy work in digital spaces. We get into real world challenges, such as inaccessible event venues, and the advantages of online events for better accessibility.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elena shares her frustrations and triumphs in web accessibility, her insights on the impact of proper semantic web design, and her continued efforts to raise awareness and support a more inclusive internet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re curious about web accessibility, particularly how WordPress is used to create content, 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 Elena Brescacin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Elena Brescacin. Hello, Elena.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:03:28] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Hello. Thank you for having me as a guest.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:03:32] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You are so welcome. I have to say, massive apologies to Elena, and we&#8217;ll get onto this in a moment. Elena has been more gracious than you can imagine.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have tried multiple times to get this podcast recorded. And apart from this one time, more or less everything that we&#8217;ve tried has failed. And as I said, we&#8217;ll discover why that is in a moment. But firstly, my sincere thanks for sticking with me, despite the frustrating nature of it, seemingly being happy to carry on the endeavor. So I&#8217;m very grateful. Thank you so much.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay, so the endeavor today is to talk about your journey with WordPress, we&#8217;re going to land there in the end. But before we get into that, would you just give us a little bit of your potted bio, and hopefully that&#8217;ll paint a picture of what we&#8217;re going to talk about today. But just tell us a little bit about yourself, what you have done in the past. Maybe go back right to the beginning of all that. And then, yeah, just let us know what it is that you&#8217;re doing currently.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:04:29] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> I am an accessibility consultant. I am blind, I have been blind since birth. I&#8217;m from Italy. I work online since 2000. 2002 I started working officially, and I work for the same company. It has changed names many times, but now it&#8217;s called Tangity Design. It&#8217;s part of NTT Data Company. It&#8217;s a Japanese multi-country company.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently I am working so much time with AI and with accessibility of websites and mobile apps. And of course, I&#8217;m involved into the Fediverse because I find that it&#8217;s the future of communication right now. I have no WordPress in 2003, but I started using it in 2021.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you very much. So earlier in your bio just then, you said that you had been blind from birth. Now I&#8217;m not entirely sure what the spectrum of that word means, but my understanding is that the word blind can be different things to different people. But in your case, is it fair to say that you are entirely blind, you have no sight at all, or do you have impaired vision?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:49] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> No, no, no, I am totally blind. I don&#8217;t see anything.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:05:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> And clearly on a podcast like this, where we&#8217;re talking about WordPress, this is going to play into the conversation a lot. Is it the sort of blind nature of things that you are doing your accessibility work in? Are you helping people online, particularly WordPress website builders and app builders and things like that? Do they come to you with a requirement to understand how their interface, how their website is working, and you give them kind of an appraisal of, this works, this doesn&#8217;t work, you need to look at this and so on?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:06:22] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Yes, it happens. This is part of my job. I also teach to some customers when they have no idea of what accessibility is.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have had many speeches for accessibility. I participated to TEDx in 2015. I did not use WordPress then. And I had the WordPress Accessibility Day in 2024. I have spoken in two WordCamps. Italy, WordCamp 2021, and Verona WordCamp 2023. Unfortunately, the speeches are in Italian. Accessibility is in English, WordPress Accessibility Day is in English. The speech is called the Same Editor, Same Language. It talks about Gutenberg. And I also participated to Core Days, WordPress Core Days in 2024, last November in Rome. And I presented my experience with multilingual website based on Gutenberg.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:07:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you very much. Now, it feels to me that if you&#8217;ve been working online, and I think you mentioned 2003 possibly as one of the earlier dates that you mentioned in your biography. Would it be true to say that at the beginning of the internet, so when we were all just getting online, and it was dial up modems and what have you. I was using the internet from a fairly early date, and it feels to me as if the internet might have been a more hospitable place for somebody who is blind back then.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because my recollection of the internet back then was that really it was just text. There was text and there were underlying text links. There was very little in the way of imagery, but it was primarily text. We certainly didn&#8217;t have video, we didn&#8217;t have complicated platforms to publish things online.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Has the internet basically become more challenging over the previous two decades for somebody like you to navigate around? I&#8217;m not talking there about the ability to create content, I&#8217;m just talking about the ability to consume content. Is the internet more noisy, more difficult to navigate around now than it used to be, let&#8217;s say 20 years ago?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:08:42] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Oh, well, it depends on what you want to see, because you had much text-based content then, it&#8217;s true. But obstacles began into 1999 with the first visual captcha, the anti-spam, anti-bot control based on visual text. Copy this text into a box. If you are a human you can see, otherwise you are cut off.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:15] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I know exactly what you mean. So it was those early captchas where you had to be able to see a particular thing. And if you could see it, it was fairly straightforward to carry on. And we all know what captchas are. We see them still, often it&#8217;s click on pictures of, I don&#8217;t know, cars or something like that. And without that pass, if you like, you are stifled, aren&#8217;t you? You can&#8217;t then go on to do whatever it is. It may be log into a platform, what have you. So that was your first experience, was it? Captchas was the first time the internet became something which you could no longer do. Suddenly there was a barrier which hadn&#8217;t existed before.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:09:49] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> It has started to become common after 1999. The first to implement was Yahoo, Yahoo Groups. Then it came on Google, it came everywhere.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I have also another platform that concerns money. Some benefits of a service I have joined, they give a benefit, yearly benefit. And they have a captcha, a visual captcha on login, a visual captcha to change the password, a visual captcha for if you forget the password. I must ask for help every time I have to access that service.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:10:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So the internet in that regard is an entirely frustrating experience. I&#8217;m sure that we&#8217;ll get into slightly more positive things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I want to spend a moment just discussing what it is that you do when you browse the internet. I mean, clearly it&#8217;s obvious to you what you do, but it may be that the listeners to this podcast, because we have a very wide listenership, and some of them are very experienced, they no doubt think about accessibility for their websites all the time. But there&#8217;s bound to be other people who really don&#8217;t know what it is that somebody like you is doing on a day-to-day basis to navigate the internet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So can we just describe what it is that you are doing. When you are sat at your computer now, and we could talk about different devices like phones or whatever as well, but let&#8217;s just begin with a computer, a desktop computer. How is it that you are able to navigate the internet without being able to see what&#8217;s on a screen, how does it work?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:11:25] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> So I do not have a mouse, I do not use a mouse. I have a keyboard, standard keyboard every person has at home. I used the computer since 1989. I was less than 10 years old, and I was nine, almost 10 years old. And I learned to use the keyboard to get confident with the keyboard. But computers now have some software. Some are expensive, some are free. They are called the screen readers. I currently use the paid one. It&#8217;s called Jaws for Windows, acronym for Job Access With Speech.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:06] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> We will add that into the show notes so that everybody can find that, thank you. Yeah, sorry, keep going, I interrupted.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:12:11] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> It&#8217;s a software that renders by voice, or by braille device. There is a hardware device called Braille Display, which is for braillists like me, otherwise they use speech. I use, of course, I use a Windows machine.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another open source software is called NVDA. It&#8217;s for Windows, Non-visual Desktop Access. I use those softwares on the computer, on Windows.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Macintosh, I have also a Macintosh, but I use it rarely because it&#8217;s old, it&#8217;s about 10 years old. The screen reader there is called Voiceover, the same that is in my main mobile device, my iPhone.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And unfortunately the open source field, I&#8217;ve talked about Linux, it&#8217;s less careful to accessibility. There are some users, brave users that use that kind of system, but I find it less immediate, less straight forward. Let&#8217;s say I have to work, I have to have smooth work, not to go and check if everything works before working. Do you understand me?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:13:27] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I fully understand. I think most people who have had experience with Windows, Mac, and Linux, I think there&#8217;s a certain level of dedication, shall we say, which is required to keep going with Linux. Some people have it, and other people don&#8217;t. But it sounds like it&#8217;s the same for you as it would be for somebody who has sight, only a different set of problems no doubt.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, when I go to a website, let&#8217;s say for example I visit, I don&#8217;t know, in my case the BBC website, which is a news organisation in the UK. And they present lots of written content, and lots of video content, and lots of images and so on. When I&#8217;m looking at that, I navigate my way around by capturing what comes into my eyes, and I decide what I want to look at based upon the prompts, text or what have you. And then I find the link and what have you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It would occur to me that many people would imagine that you, as a screen reader user, are browsing the same way that I am. In other words, you are looking somehow at the same screen that I am.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But that&#8217;s not true, is it? Because you are kind of in a way navigating the HTML. And the way that the website has been constructed on the backend is much more important than it would be for me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So for example, a font size of something enormous screams title just because it&#8217;s big. But in your case, the bigness of the text doesn&#8217;t say anything about its titleness if you like. And this same thing maps out in every single part of the website.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So can you just give us an idea of what it is that you have to go through, let&#8217;s say when you end up at a website like the BBC. What are you actually doing with the keyboard, and how are you getting information about what it is that you want to get to? Or how are you not getting information about what it is that you want to get to? So the frustrations as well as how it ought to be done.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:15:21] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Oh, well, you said about the big text saying title. I look for, if I have to read a piece of news, not the list of news, but the single article of news to search for the news. I look for the heading level one. It&#8217;s an HTML code called heading.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are six levels of headings. Heading level one is the most important, the most evident, it&#8217;s the title. If I have to search for a new site, a brand new site, I usually search for the main menu, a navigation menu. HTML has a semantic, it&#8217;s called semantic. The layout is associated to specific code.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know that if it has four legs, a tail, it can be an animal. The website, the concept is very, very restricted because navigation menu is a type of code. And often developers and designers create visually with graphics what should be created by code. So screen readers do not detect information correctly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So with the example of before, the animal, it has four legs, a tail, but it&#8217;s a cylindrical chair. Sighted people always protest when I say your product is not tested for accessibility, and a website rather than mobile app, or a physical product and so on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then if I create some content, an article, a text, a word document, whatever else, they always protest. Sighted people protest because I have not checked the formatting, the text is too small, or too big, or I have no color, and I say, why should you protest? If I have no sighted person testing my product before I deploy it publicly, why should you protest if a sighted people have not tested my product, and why should I not protest being blind if your product is not tested by blind? It&#8217;s the same, the same frustration, but they don&#8217;t understand.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:17:59] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, so with your screen reader you are going through and you are hoping to find cues inside the code of the website, for want of a better word. Let&#8217;s just say it like that. You&#8217;re hoping to find the H1s, which will indicate, this is a title, you&#8217;re hoping to find the H2s, which indicate this is a subheading if you like. And then, you know, H3 is under that, and H4 is under that, and all of that working out in a logical structure. So this semantic nature of everything.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:24] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Sequential.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:18:25] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, sequential. And my guess is that when you are browsing the web, this is very rarely the case. I&#8217;m going to ask you a question, it&#8217;s putting you on the spot a little bit. But if you had to put a percentage, so one through to a hundred, a percentage on how frequently you encounter a website which you can completely use without a great deal of effort. So it&#8217;s built exactly how you would expect it to be, how you would wish it to be. As a percentage, how often does that happen? If you were to visit a hundred websites, how many of them would satisfy you from an accessibility point of view?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:19:02] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Oh my god. Could I say 20, 30%? But the percentage would increase if, for example, some news websites, many of them are even based on WordPress, but the problem itself is not WordPress or the CMS, it&#8217;s the many, many, many advertising that they put inside. Moving advertising, moving sliders. Images without labels, or buttons without labels.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had a very, very high frustration last week because Nathan was trying to interview me with a platform called SquadCast, but it did not give me the control for the microphone, the speakers, the headphones. It was labeled related to chat, help leave the call and so on, but not the setting of microphone. So no one could hear each other.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:20:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It was a profoundly moving experience actually. And I say that in all of the wrong senses of the word, moving for all the wrong reasons. Because I have interviewed hundreds, possibly thousands of people at this point, but I don&#8217;t believe that I&#8217;ve ever interviewed anybody who has no sight. And so you are a first. And so honestly the guilt I&#8217;m feeling is fairly profound.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I sent you the link in order to open up the platform in the same way that I do every single time, and then there was just this wave of one frustration after another. And it never stopped, did it? It was just one problem, then another, then another.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s things that we were trying to set up like selecting the headphones to use, which is typically a one second exercise, and selecting the microphone that you wish to use. Again, it&#8217;s another fairly straightforward exercise if you use it in the way that I do. But we must have spent, what, half an hour, something like that, just hitting obstacle after obstacle. And it really did give me a profound sense of, well, this is just wrong.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here we are trying to carry out a normal thing, I&#8217;m eating up your time, and you are eating into my time, and so there&#8217;s this sense of guilt in both directions that, well, we&#8217;re wasting each other&#8217;s time and what have you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>All the while the frustration is building for you because literally nothing that you were hoping to achieve was possible. And so that was the sort of apology at the beginning. We are recording it on another platform today, which thankfully has proven to be an awful lot easier. I&#8217;m sure in many respects it&#8217;s not perfect as well, but we seem to be having a little bit more luck but, again, describe that, this isn&#8217;t perfect either.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:21:41] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Yeah, not to speak about the calendar. When I talk about semantic, another good example should be table. The calendar Nathan has to book the podcasts has no table structure and no keyboard commands to select the dates. Overall you have no semantic, it&#8217;s just a visual. The time zone, which date can be selected. So for example, I was trying the 16th of December for the new reschedule of the interview, and it just gave me, sent me a calendar, the calendar invitation on 11th of December.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:22:27] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> The thing that I&#8217;m getting out of it is that the internet for me basically is a, how to describe this? The internet for me has usually been a place of joy. I go to it and everything, given the nature of what I have available to me, you know, my eyes function, my ears function, my arms and legs are all functioning, and I have a screen which is just at the right height for me and everything. Essentially everything in my scenario is working in the way that I would hope. And so the internet is this thing of joy. I go there and I can consume film, I can consume audio, I can write blog posts, I can take part in podcast interviews. It&#8217;s wonderful.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I&#8217;m getting the impression that for somebody such as you, the internet is possibly anything other than joyful. I mean, maybe it is in some regards joyful, and that there&#8217;s no doubt moments where you&#8217;re profoundly moved by it, and it is wonderful. But I&#8217;m guessing also that it is also seriously annoying. It&#8217;s almost like you have to go the extra mile again, and again, and again, and again to do basic things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And as we move more of ordinary life online, banking goes online. Booking things that you want to be delivered to your house goes online. The government, paying tax goes online. If it&#8217;s not set up for you, you are really being penalised for the way that the world is moving. And that must be frustrating and let all of that out if you want to, you know, is it a frustrating experience, the internet for you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:23:55] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> I think that internet was given the wrong dimension, make it more utopia than it really is. Because let&#8217;s remember that internet is made by humans. So if humans do not pay attention to other humans, the issue is the same you can find in the street outside. It&#8217;s not something worse than real world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>It can be amplified if you have, for example, social networks hate speech. I sometimes ask people to describe photos for me because they don&#8217;t. They publish a screenshot on their posts on social networks, a screenshot regarding conversation, regarding even politics and so on. But then I do not read the line because it&#8217;s a screenshot.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if I asked, can you describe the photo for me? They just say something to me. What, are you stupid? Did you not understand? People like you should not come to the social network. If you are blind, how can you read, and can you write? They doubt my identity. And so not to talk about voting, voting elections. I have a person helping me. They come to the cabin with me, the room where we have to vote. They take a pencil and trace the sign to the right politician or whatever I say, but I have no proof. I have no proof if they have actually voted what I asked for.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:39] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Gosh.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:40] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Yes, this is the reality.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:25:42] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You sound much more buoyant about it. I was maybe anticipating the wrong thing in a sense there, but it sounds like you, rather than being, I don&#8217;t know, miserable about the failings of the internet for people who are blind, but it feels like you&#8217;ve gone in the other direction. That you&#8217;ve gone more in the, I want to make people aware that this is going on. So you are advising people when they don&#8217;t put alt tags on their social media posts. You&#8217;ve done that to me, which was really helpful, because I then know that that&#8217;s a requirement. And also, you&#8217;ve got yourself in the WordPress space and are educating people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I&#8217;m just keen to know what your posture is there. Is it going to be your mission in the future basically to be helpful and to fight the good fight about accessibility?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:28] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> I try to help people and to help myself because just the frustration brings nowhere. If you just go on with frustration, it&#8217;s over. Online services give me a lot, for example, digital books, e-commerce and so on, online banking and so on. But if you do nothing for accessibility, you cannot expect others to do anything.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, good point.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:26:58] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Overall, you cannot expect politician to do anything.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> In terms of WordPress, let&#8217;s just shift the conversation to WordPress now. We have the new, well, it&#8217;s not new anymore, we have the Block Editor, the Site Editor and what have you. And I&#8217;m going to link to a few bits and pieces in the show notes. So if you go to wptavern.com and you search for this episode, and it will be on the page there, we&#8217;ll add the links to all of the bits and pieces we&#8217;re about to discuss. You&#8217;ve written a few articles where you say that WordPress has basically made leaps and bounds, and it&#8217;s become an interface which is much better for you to use.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, let&#8217;s just rewind the clock like 10 years or more, when we had what is now the classic editor. What was it like as a content writer, a story writer, a blogger who was blind? What was it like back then, and how has it improved with the block editor?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:27:55] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> So I have worked into the WordPress system. I knew it in 2003. My profile on wordpress.org is from 2005. And my activity in WordPress was very frustrating at the beginning, because I didn&#8217;t find very easily the controls on the classic editor. Strange, because many blind users I know are happy with the classic editor. For me, it&#8217;s different. Maybe it&#8217;s me, I don&#8217;t know. But when classic editor was the only one to use, I was using it in code mode. So I wrote HTML by hand. And in the end I abandoned the WordPress because it wasn&#8217;t so good.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But at that time, I was talking to the first Italian community manager, let&#8217;s say. He was called Paolo Valenti. And this guy was the first translator of WordPress. And he just said, remember you cannot leave WordPress totally, sooner or later you&#8217;ll come back. And he was right. This man, unfortunately, is no longer here. He died by cancer in 2022.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:29:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So in the day when you were using the Classic Editor, and for many people listening to this podcast, that will be entirely familiar. But for those people who&#8217;ve joined in the last five, six years or so, it may be something that you haven&#8217;t dabbled with.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, you really did have to, in order to make the full use of it and to add things onto the page, it was possible to write some text and then highlight it, and then potentially, I don&#8217;t know, select that you wanted it to be a paragraph or what have you. In many ways it was more straightforward to write the HTML itself, wasn&#8217;t it? So you would write the P tag and what have you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And this became an incredibly frustrating experience, which probably that kind of experience was the thing which promoted the idea of using a block-based approach where you drop the block in and you begin writing, and you can do the forward slash and select the kind of block that you want, and you&#8217;re off to the races.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So how is the block editor better than the classic editor? And obviously we know that some of your friends would disagree with that sentiment, but for you, why do you find it better? What does it do differently and better in your experience?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:30:23] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Because the block is an interface, basically it&#8217;s an interface, and it&#8217;s from the rules from WordPress Core, they say it&#8217;s accessible, second level accessibility guidelines. I do not enter into technical details now. But my opinion on Block Editor is because you can rapidly move blocks up and down with a key combination. You can even check the style, the colours and so on. That&#8217;s not my task.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But having to select a single block and work on that block without harming the other content. The possibility to add a block manually with the add block function or by markdown. I use markdown syntax for titles, for headings. Not links, but many other functions because I do not take my hands away from the keyboard, the letters.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:31:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It hadn&#8217;t really occurred to me that the Block Editor kind of locks you into the block that you are currently working on in a way, doesn&#8217;t it? So you just said that you can&#8217;t kind of interfere with the other bits and pieces on a page unless you are editing within the confines of that block.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if I&#8217;m in a paragraph block and I am writing, I&#8217;m in that paragraph. Whereas with the old Classic Editor, I was in all of the content, unless there was some plugin or something like that, that was going to inject something.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So an accidental keystroke could delete tons of content, including the markup that would&#8217;ve given that portion of the content some context. So, you know, it might have been the H1 tag. You could accidentally interfere with that, delete that somehow. Whereas all of that is then abstracted away inside the Block Editor, and it&#8217;s a selection you make, not a heading that you type. Although I suppose you could choose to do it that way. So that&#8217;s interesting. I hadn&#8217;t really thought about it like that. So it creates less mistakes, it&#8217;s easier to get started. And if you were to drop into somebody else&#8217;s piece of content, you&#8217;d be able to navigate your way around it more easily, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:32:31] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> And even the templating system, the Full Site Editing has changed my point of view on templating, because before I had to hire someone for coding and so on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, I have also hired a person for helping me with the styling, with graphics and so on. But this woman who has helped me, who spoke to the WordPress Accessibility Day with me, she has helped me with the styles, but was just teaching me the interface for what&#8217;s about the content and the structure of the site. It&#8217;s mine. Gloria just did the colours, and the size, and what visual, and what I cannot verify in person.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:33:20] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, so you were able to do the lion&#8217;s share as we describe it, the lion&#8217;s share of the work. And really the bit that, I think you said Gloria was doing there, Gloria was helping you just to have that appeal for somebody with sight. So she was sizing the text so that it looked appropriate on the page, but the majority of it you were able to do inside the Site Editor. Interacting with, what is what you get templates, as opposed to having to employ somebody to fiddle with template.php files and things like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:33:46] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Yes, she just helped me because she is a freelance web designer and WordPress trainer, and she has trained me on Full Site Editing. The good thing is that she has believed in me from the beginning.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I supported another person in a Facebook group, she contacted me, and then we started the journey to WordCamps. I have spoken to a couple of WordCamps in Verona, and one is online. Those ones are in Italian. And I have also participated with Gloria in the WordPress Accessibility Day 2024.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:34:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> What does WordPress still have to get right? So although it sounds like you personally are very happy with the Block Editor and it&#8217;s brought a lot of benefits that you can make use of. I&#8217;m guessing that there&#8217;s an awful lot frustration still. What would be the things for the year 2025 that you would hope would be addressed? What are still some of the things which are frustrating about being, well, not just the Block Editor, being inside a WordPress site in general? But maybe the Block Editor is a good target to begin.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:35:00] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Oh, for example, a more targeted search block. Because now the search block, you have just the search field and button, it could be like that. But when you place that block in a navigation or somewhere, you should be able to choose where it can search. Because if you are, for example, I have my site talking about a real world and a fantasy world, I should be able to say, search for content just in the real world and just in the fantasy world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So when they click in the menu, in the search box on the main fantasy world page, they just got content from that category or from that post type. In fact, I have created a multilingual, experimental, and very basic site by using just Gutenberg and template.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>They should also give the possibility to duplicate a template. Because now, Gutenberg, you can duplicate post, duplicate page. But if you have, for example, I have Italian header and English header, I would like to be able to clone the Italian header and then translate the content inside.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:36:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> There&#8217;s always going to be things, isn&#8217;t there? Edge cases. It really hadn&#8217;t occurred to me that search being a front end thing was something that needed addressing. But it sounds like it does. But what about the sort of backend of things, if you like?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:36:36] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> The search block I mean is a backend thing that you can set up from the template. You can set up the block, the interface of the block in the block settings. That I mean.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:36:49] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> How do you feel about the importance that&#8217;s given to the direction the project in terms of accessibility? Do you feel it gets the attention it deserves?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an ideal world it would obviously, every single thing about the WordPress project, the community, the code, everything would have accessibility front and centre. But we don&#8217;t live in that perfect world. We live in the world where we have the constraints on time, and the project has to move in certain directions, and maybe accessibility falls off for one of the releases and what have you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But how do you feel, as a whole, WordPress does? Do you feel it is at the forefront? Do you think it&#8217;s lagging behind other platforms that you may have played with?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:37:28] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> WordPress for now is the best CMS for accessibility in backend with its Full Site Editing. But I think it has to become more consistent. Accessibility team should get more people inside I think for testing, for coders, skilled coders. Because I feel that it&#8217;s, not being neglected willingly, but because few people are working in that. This is my feeling.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:38:02] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you involve yourself in those communities? And if you do, are you able to tell us where you might go if having listened to this podcast, you think, actually, do you know what, that would be something I&#8217;d like to spend some of my time on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So just drop some of the names of the, I don&#8217;t know, Slack channels or other places online that you go when you want to discuss WordPress accessibility.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:38:25] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> I mostly go to the GitHub platform of specific project. Let&#8217;s talk about ActivityPub, let&#8217;s talk about single plugins accessibility.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is the Slack channel in Make WordPress Slack. But I do not participate often into Slack because unfortunately at work I have not that time. So it happens that I miss discussions. Sometimes I have helped the Polyglots in the Italian community, Polyglot, to translate WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:39:04] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It also sounds like you&#8217;ve been involved in real world events, plus some online events as well. I think you mentioned WordCamps that you&#8217;d attended as well, and I was wondering from an accessibility point how they have been.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But also you mentioned the WP Accessibility Day as well. Do you just want to mention your participation in those? Let&#8217;s start with WordPress events. How have they been from your perspective?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:39:27] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Accessibility, unfortunately it&#8217;s very difficult. Real world events are very difficult for accessibility because I need a person helping me to move through location, the WordCamp locations. It&#8217;s quite difficult without help.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many information that are conveyed by colours. The black signal is the track one, the white is track two, for example, and so on, or you have the locations. There are no, not many explanation. I must ask for help to move across tables on the contributor days. Now I am trying to apply to WordCamp Europe 2025. I don&#8217;t know how it goes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I went to the WordCamp 2023 and to WordPress Core Day 2024. I got help from people there, but I had a person assisting me because otherwise I could not manage to go to the WordCamp alone. But the WordPress Accessibility Day was online.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:40:38] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So that was a more straightforward undertaking.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:40:40] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Yes. But let me say that in-person events are more useful for networking. You get to know people, you get to talk to people, you get to confront. In few words, you get to exist, because otherwise you are a voice, you&#8217;re a face, you&#8217;re nothing else.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:40:59] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Who are some of the people online in the WordPress space that you hang out with, who you communicate with? Do you want to just name drop a few people that it might be interesting for me to add into the show notes, so that people can follow them as well as you on maybe social media or something.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:41:14] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> I think you know Michelle Frechette. Matthias Pfefferle from ActivityPub. Yes, you know him because you just interviewed him. I knew about your event because I was following him and I got you to the Mastodon network.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:41:31] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Excellent. I&#8217;ll put some of those links into the show notes so people can follow them as well. But more importantly, Elena, where would people, if people have been listening to this and thought that they&#8217;d like to communicate with you and get your thoughts on the state of WordPress in terms of accessibility, where would we find you? Where&#8217;s the place where you hang out most frequently? I think you said Mastodon.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:41:50] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> On Mastodon and on LinkedIn.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:41:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Perfect. I will find the links for both of those and I will add them to the show notes. Anything else that we have mentioned today will also be in the show notes. Head to wptavern.com. Search for the podcast section, and within that search for Elena&#8217;s podcast. And from there you&#8217;ll be able to delve inside the show notes, and get a faithful transcription of everything that we said today as well, I hope.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So all that it remains for me to do is to say, Elena Brescacin, thank you so much for chatting to me today. I really appreciate it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>[00:42:23] <strong>Elena Brescacin:</strong> Okay.</p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>On the podcast today we have <a href=\"https://mastodon.uno/@talksina\">Elena Brescacin</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elena is an accessibility consultant from Italy who has been blind since birth, and working online since 2000 with Tangity Design, a part of NTT Data Company. Her journey with WordPress began in 2021, but she has been aware of it since 2003. A computer geek, Elena enjoys finding solutions to everyday challenges through technology.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elena is here to discuss the significant accessibility advancements and challenges within WordPress, especially with the transition from the Classic Editor to the Block Editor. She shares how Full Site Editing has empowered her to manage most of her site content and structure without needing constant visual assistance, despite some areas needing further improvement.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We talk about her experiences navigating the internet using screen reader software, the importance of adhering to HTML semantics for accessibility, and her involvement in the WordPress community, including her contributions to the Italian Polyglots and speaking at WordPress events.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elena also reflects on the evolution of the internet, personal experiences with various web accessibility tools, and her advocacy work in digital spaces. We get into real-world challenges, such as inaccessible event venues, and the advantages of online events for better accessibility.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elena shares her frustrations and triumphs in web accessibility, her insights on the impact of proper semantic website design, and her continued efforts to raise awareness and support a more inclusive internet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you’re curious about web accessibility, particularly how WordPress is used to create content, 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://mastodon.uno/@talksina\">Elena&#8217;s Mastodon</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/talksina/\">Elena on LinkedIn</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://tangity.global/\"> Tangity Design</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b89FIDsI3SY\">Share to fight prejudice</a>, Elena on TEDxAssisi</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://2024.wpaccessibility.day/sessions/same-editor-same-language/\">Same Editor, Same Language: How Gutenberg’s Accessibility Enhances Creativity and Inclusion</a> at WordPress Accessibility Day 2024</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://verona.wordcamp.org/2023/session/blind-blogging-e-indipendenza-wordpress-senza-vedere/\">BlIND – Blogging e indipendenza: WordPress senza vedere</a> at WordCamp Verona 2023</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://italia.wordcamp.org/2021/session/wordpress-a-dieci-dita-creare-un-sito-con-la-sola-tastiera/\">WordPress a dieci dita: creare un sito con la sola tastiera</a> at WordCamp Italia 2021</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://events.wordpress.org/rome/2024/coredays/interview-with-elena-brescacin/\">Interview with Elena Brescacin</a> at WordPress Core Days, Roma 2024</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAWS_(screen_reader)\">JAWS (screen reader)</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_braille_display\"> Braille Display</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NonVisual_Desktop_Access\">NonVisual Desktop Access</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/voiceover/welcome/mac\">Voiceover for Mac</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elena&#8217;s <a href=\"https://plusbrothers.net/english/about/\">Plus Brothers</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://heropress.com/essays/defeating-silence-and-stigma-with-wordpress/\">Defeating silence and stigma with WordPress / Sconfiggere silenzio e stigma con WordPress</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.letsenvision.com/blog/ally-ai-hiv-stigma\">How Elena Brescacin Uses ally to Break HIV Stigma and Champion Accessibility</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, 08 Jan 2025 15:00:00 +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:32;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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:68:\"WPTavern: Hosting and Themes Teams Announce Representatives for 2025\";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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=184991\";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:79:\"https://wptavern.com/hosting-and-themes-teams-announce-representatives-for-2025\";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:2941:\"<p>The Themes and Hosting teams has unveiled their representatives for 2025. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Themes Team Reps&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In November, the Themes Team <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2024/11/13/nominations-call-for-the-themes-team-representatives-2025-edition/\">announced</a> their search for community members familiar with WordPress theme development to serve as representatives for 2025. The call for nominations was open to everyone, allowing individuals to nominate themselves or others.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interestingly, several comments on the announcement post suggested re-nominating the 2024 representatives. After consulting with current and former team representatives, the Themes Team decided to retain the existing team reps for another term:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/acosmin/\">Alexandru Cosmin</a> from Romania is sponsored by <a href=\"https://extendthemes.com/\">Extend Themes</a> as a part-time reviewer. He released his first WordPress theme in 2008, and since then, has played diverse roles—serving as a reviewer, developer, and team representative.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/kafleg/\">Ganga Kafle</a> from Nepal is a full-time WordPress contributor sponsored by <a href=\"https://rankmath.com/\">Rank Math</a>. Active in the community since 2012, he is an organizer for WordCamp Asia 2025 and a moderator for WordPress-related podcasts like <a href=\"https://gowithwp.com/\">Go With WP</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/shivashankerbhatta/\">Shiva Shanker Bhatta</a> from Nepal is the founder/CEO of AF Themes. With over a decade of experience in WordPress, he focuses on themes, plugins, and community contributions.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2024/12/30/a-year-in-themes-team-2024/\">2024</a>, the Themes Team closed a total of 39,796 tickets, with Alexandru Cosmin, Ganga Kafle, and Shiva Shanker Bhatta collectively handling 1,708 reviews. Ganga Kafle and Alexandru Cosmin were the top reviewers last year.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hosting Team Reps</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>After a <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2024/11/29/voting-for-hosting-team-reps-2023-2/\">Call for Nominations</a>, four candidates were proposed for the Hosting Team Rep positions: Matthias Pfefferle, Javier Casares, Zunaid Amin, and Lucas Radke. However, Matthias and Javier declined the opportunity. Following an anonymous survey, the team announced the following representatives for 2025:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/zunaid321/\">Zunaid Amin</a> from Bangladesh is joining as a new Hosting Team Rep. He is a WordPress Engineer at Rocket.Net.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/crixu/\">Lucas Radke</a> from Germany is the Product Manager at WordPress VIP. He is continuing as Hosting Team Rep.</li>\n</ul>\";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 Jan 2025 20:14:20 +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:7:\"Jyolsna\";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:13:\"\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:52:\"Gravatar: How to Customize Your WordPress Author Box\";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:32:\"http://blog.gravatar.com/?p=2702\";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:58:\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2025/01/07/wordpress-author-box/\";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:12263:\"<p>An author box in WordPress might seem like a simple addition to any blog, but it’s actually one of the most important elements. Showing author credentials builds content authority – something that&#8217;s becoming increasingly vital in an era of AI-generated content and information overload. When readers can verify the expertise and background of the person behind an article, they&#8217;re more likely to trust and engage with the content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress includes basic author bio functionality, but the default options often fall short when trying to showcase author credentials and links effectively. If you want to connect with your audience, you need something that does more than just display a name and photo.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To help you with that, we’ll show how to create dynamic, professionally styled author boxes using the free <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/\">Gravatar Enhanced plugin</a>, helping you transform basic author information into compelling author profiles that update automatically.</p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/\"><img width=\"3243\" height=\"729\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gravatar_enhanced_cta.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2634\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why would you want to customize your WordPress author box?</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The internet is a place where literally anyone and anything can post content, humans and bots alike. But that doesn’t mean that they are experts in their field or that the posted piece is something users can trust.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A well-designed author box with verified links does just that – it shows the face behind the words and puts your content above the millions of spammers and bots, <strong>building trust and showcasing expertise</strong>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides that, <a href=\"https://www.google.com/\">Google</a> and other <strong>search engines look for signals that demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T)</strong> when ranking content. An author box with verified credentials, professional links, and relevant expertise helps strengthen these signals. For example, if you&#8217;re writing about medical topics, displaying your medical credentials and links to professional profiles helps validate your authority on the subject.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Okay, but what if you have a site with multiple authors?</strong> Well, it becomes even more complicated. Without additional tools, you’d have to create separate WordPress profiles for each author and add their credentials to the post. A better alternative is to find a profile management tool that lets you pull author information from a central database and updates automatically as their profiles update (hint: It’s <a href=\"https://gravatar.com/\">Gravatar</a>!)</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Finally, author boxes also improve reader engagement.</strong> When readers can verify who&#8217;s writing the content and see the author&#8217;s expertise, they&#8217;re more likely to trust and engage with the material. Plus, social proof through professional network links and credentials helps establish a stronger connection with your audience.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Default customization options for author boxes in WordPress</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress comes with basic author box functionality, but its default options can feel limiting. By default, each author gets two main elements: a Gravatar-powered profile picture and a biographical text field found in the <em>Users</em> section of the WordPress dashboard.</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"892\" height=\"372\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/default-user-information-1.png\" alt=\"Default user information in WordPress\" class=\"wp-image-2705\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Getting your author box to look exactly how you want proves challenging with these basic tools. The visual styling depends entirely on your active WordPress theme, which means changing how it looks often requires diving into template files and custom CSS. You can change the background color and the padding of the box, but that’s pretty much it,&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1449\" height=\"966\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/bio-default-wordpress-settings.png\" alt=\"Default settings for the author biography box in WordPress\" class=\"wp-image-2706\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Any customizations made through template files must be implemented through a child theme to prevent them from disappearing during theme updates. This creates an ongoing maintenance burden, especially for multi-author sites that need consistent styling across different contributors.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The biographical text field also has limitations. Authors can&#8217;t easily add social media links, credentials, or other dynamic content that might change over time. Each update requires logging into WordPress and manually editing the bio text – a time-consuming process when managing multiple authors.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>These restrictions often push site owners to look for better solutions that don&#8217;t require constant maintenance or coding knowledge. The need for more flexibility in design and easier profile management has led to the development of tools that expand on WordPress&#8217;s built-in author box capabilities.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Gravatar Enhanced: The best way to customize your author box in WordPress</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1217\" height=\"530\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/gravatar-enhanced-plugin.png\" alt=\"Gravatar Enhanced plugin download page\" class=\"wp-image-2707\" />\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/\">The Gravatar Enhanced plugin</a> rethinks how author boxes work in WordPress. At its core, the plugin&#8217;s Profile Block pulls information directly from Gravatar profiles, offering a fresh approach to displaying author information that&#8217;s both dynamic and easy to manage.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Profile Block stands out by eliminating the need for manual updates. Authors can modify their profiles once at <a href=\"http://gravatar.com\">Gravatar.com</a>, and these changes automatically appear across every site using the block. This centralized management saves significant time, especially for authors who contribute to multiple WordPress sites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For guest authors, the process becomes remarkably simple. Instead of creating WordPress user accounts, site owners just add the Profile Block and enter the author&#8217;s email address.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The block automatically fetches and displays their Gravatar <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/11/18/create-online-profile/\">profile information</a>, including professional credentials, <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/11/11/how-to-list-social-media-handles/\">social media links</a>, and biographical details.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Customization options are extensive but user-friendly. Through the block settings panel, you can:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Adjust the background color to match your site&#8217;s design.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Modify padding and spacing for better visual balance.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Choose which profile elements to display.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Customize border styles and box shadows.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Set the width and alignment.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1226\" height=\"793\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/gravatar-profile-block-customized-1.png\" alt=\"Customization options for the Gravatar profile block\" class=\"wp-image-2708\" />\n\n\n\n<p>All these features integrate smoothly with WordPress&#8217;s block editor, making it simple to add author boxes to any post, page, or custom post type. The block inherits your theme&#8217;s typography settings by default, ensuring a consistent look across your site. If you want, you could also further customize it through CSS, giving you even more flexibility in how they look on the front end. For example, you could add border animations on hover or put semi-transparent overlays for a more interesting design.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you can see, unlike traditional author boxes that display basic information, the Profile Block acts as a verified digital <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/11/08/creating-a-digital-business-card/\">business card</a> – readers know they&#8217;re seeing authentic, current author information pulled directly from the author&#8217;s Gravatar profile.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to set up your customized author box with Gravatar Enhanced&nbsp;</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Getting started with a more powerful author box takes just a few simple steps. First, <a href=\"https://gravatar.com/connect/?gravatar_from=signup\">create a Gravatar account</a> using your WordPress email address – this forms the foundation of your enhanced author profiles.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Setting up your Gravatar profile is straightforward:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Upload a professional photo for your avatar.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1471\" height=\"529\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/uploading-profile-pic-to-gravatar.png\" alt=\"Uploading a profile picture to Gravatar\" class=\"wp-image-2709\" />\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Add a detailed bio highlighting your expertise.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1452\" height=\"1123\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/gravatar-about-section.png\" alt=\"Adding a bio section to your Gravatar profile\" class=\"wp-image-2710\" />\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Include relevant social media profiles and professional links.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"334\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/verified-accounts-gravatar-new.png?w=660\" alt=\" Linking verified accounts to a Gravatar profile\" class=\"wp-image-2711\" />\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Add any certifications or credentials that build trust – either through custom links or photos.&nbsp;</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, install the Gravatar Enhanced plugin on your WordPress site.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1515\" height=\"723\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/search-gravatar-plugin.png\" alt=\"Installing the Gravatar Enhanced plugin to WordPress \" class=\"wp-image-2712\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Once activated, you&#8217;ll find the Profile Block ready to use in the block editor. Add it to your single post template or anywhere you want author information to appear, input the author&#8217;s email connected to their Gravatar profile, and the plugin will automatically generate the profile block using their profile information.</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1526\" height=\"521\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/gravatar-profile-block-in-editor.png\" alt=\"Adding a profile block in WordPress\" class=\"wp-image-2713\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Because the Gravatar profile is dynamic, every single change will be immediately updated on the block as well. No need to juggle multiple author bios or worry about outdated information.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For multi-author sites, simply repeat the process for each contributor. They&#8217;ll control their own profiles through Gravatar.com while you maintain a consistent, professional look across all author boxes on your site.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Transform your WordPress author boxes with Gravatar Enhanced</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Moving beyond WordPress&#8217;s basic author box functionality opens up new possibilities for showcasing writer expertise and building trust. The Gravatar Enhanced plugin replaces manual profile management with automatic, real-time updates while adding excellent customization options and privacy protections.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of wrestling with template files or juggling multiple author accounts, you get a streamlined system where authors manage their own profiles.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ready to upgrade your author boxes? <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/\">Get started with Gravatar Enhanced toda</a>y and give your content the professional polish it deserves. </p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/\"><img width=\"3243\" height=\"729\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gravatar_enhanced_cta.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2634\" /></a>\";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 Jan 2025 19:01:48 +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:11:\"Ronnie Burt\";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:13:\"\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:54:\"Do The Woo Community: Kicking Off 2025 with Do the Woo\";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:28:\"https://dothewoo.io/?p=88714\";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:53:\"https://dothewoo.io/kicking-off-2025-with-do-the-woo/\";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:91:\"As we kick off 2025, we are on the cusp of Do the Woo, version 5.0 and our 7th Anniversary.\";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 Jan 2025 10:46:00 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LinkedIn\";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:43:\"https://dothewoo.io/?post_type=blog&p=88438\";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://dothewoo.io/blog/strategies-to-elevate-your-personal-brand-and-agency-on-linkedin/\";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:147:\"LinkedIn empowers agencies and founders to connect and grow by sharing authentic content, engaging actively, and building meaningful relationships.\";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 Jan 2025 00:15:00 +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:36;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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:\"WPTavern: WordPress.org Services Resume After Holiday Break\";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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=184826\";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:70:\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-services-resume-after-holiday-break\";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:1980:\"<p>Automattician Alex Shiels of the Meta team has <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2025/01/03/welcome-back-everyone-the-holiday/\">announced</a> the resumption of WordPress.org services after the holiday break of two weeks. Users can now register new accounts, submit plugins, themes, and photos, and review plugins once again.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last month, Matt Mullenweg declared WordPress.org&#8217;s <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-declares-holiday-break-for-wordpress-org-services\">first-ever holiday break</a>. He said, “In order to give myself and the many tired volunteers around WordPress.org a break for the holidays, we’re going to be pausing a few of the free services currently offered.”&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Initially, WP Engine was the sole exception, retaining full access to WordPress.org. Later, user registrations were reopened to support WordCamps following a ticket raised by Joost de Valk of Emilia Capital on <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/wordcamp.org/issues/1450\">WordPress GitHub</a>. The ticket highlighted that a WP.org account is required to purchase WordCamp tickets.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matt did not share a specific date for resuming the services, stating, “I hope to find the time, energy, and money to reopen all of this sometime in the new year.”</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1174\" height=\"1866\" src=\"https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Create-WordPress-account.png\" alt=\"WordPress.org new account registration page.\" class=\"wp-image-184827\" />\n\n\n\n<p>To create a <a href=\"https://login.wordpress.org/register\">new account</a>, users must provide their email address and a username. The registration form includes three checkboxes: confirming acceptance of the Privacy Policy (mandatory), subscribing to the WordPress Announcements mailing list, and the infamous <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-makes-pineapple-pizza-checkbox-optional\">pineapple pizza</a>. Only accepting the Privacy Policy is required to proceed.</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 Jan 2025 21:52:58 +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:7:\"Jyolsna\";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:13:\"\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:105:\"WPTavern: Nick Hamze’s Call to Make WordPress Themes Weird and Exciting Sparks Accessibility Discussion\";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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=184802\";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:113:\"https://wptavern.com/nick-hamzes-call-to-make-wordpress-themes-weird-and-exciting-sparks-accessibility-discussion\";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:9329:\"<p>Nick Hamze has <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/01/wordpress-themes-need-more-weird-a-call-for-creative-digital-homes/\">called</a> for making WordPress themes exciting and the web weird again. “WordPress desperately needs your creativity, your weird ideas, your willingness to break the visual rules. The future of the web shouldn’t be a monochrome landscape of identical layouts.”, he said.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He believes there are plenty of good themes in the Repository but no great themes with “designs that break the mold and spark excitement.”&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>We need more themes that make people say “Wow!” or “That’s different!” rather than “That’s clean and professional.” The web needs more personality, more risk-taking, more fun.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>According to him, great themes should:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Have a distinct point of view</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Embrace specific aesthetics boldly</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Design for specific use cases</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Break some rules thoughtfully</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Hamze&#8217;s call comes amid growing uncertainty about the future of WordPress themes. While the repository now hosts over 13,000 free themes, recent community discussions have often cast a grim outlook.Some of the discussions/articles published on the fate of themes include:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://www.wpwatercooler.com/wpwatercooler/ep421-the-theme-is-dead-long-live-the-theme/\">The Theme Is Dead, Long Live the Theme</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://wickydesign.com/wordpress-themes-are-dead/\">WordPress Themes Are Dead</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.binarymoon.co.uk/2019/09/the-end-of-wordpress-themes-is-in-sight/\">The End of WordPress Themes is in Sight</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://freemius.com/blog/full-site-editing-death-wordpress-themes/\">Will Page Builders &amp; Full Site Editing Be the Death of WordPress Themes?</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/gxon74/is_wordpress_theme_business_dead/\">Is WordPress Theme Business Dead?</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://infinum.com/blog/gutenberg-wordpress-themes/\">WordPress Themes Are Dead. Long Live WordPress Themes!</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Vova Feldman of Freemius too <a href=\"https://x.com/vovafeldman/status/1874755673051046316\">recently</a> highlighted the stagnation in the WordPress theme market: “The WordPress Theme Market is in big trouble! Over the past six years, the annual single-site pricing for themes has shown little to no growth. In fact, the average price has decreased by 9%, dropping from $55.78 in 2019 to $50.75 in 2024.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many will remember the excitement generated by the <a href=\"https://olliewp.com/\">Ollie theme</a>, but it <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/ollie-theme-faces-pushback-from-wordpress-theme-review-team\">faced pushback</a> from the Theme Review team. Though Matt Mullenweg, Josepha Haden Chomphosy and Justin Tadlock supported the theme, in the end, it was featured on the repository only after dropping its <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/contentious-review-process-leads-ollie-theme-to-remove-innovative-onboarding-features-amid-stagnating-block-theme-adoption\">innovative onboarding features</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Accessibility Challenges</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Amber Hinds, CEO of Equalize Digital (the team behind the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/accessibility-checker/\">Equalize Digital  Accessibility Checker plugin</a>) noticed some accessibility issues with Hamze&#8217;s post and she <a href=\"https://x.com/heyamberhinds/status/1875008828963459458\">drew attention</a> to them. She said, “WordPress themes need more #a11y and expected interfaces that convert. Not &#8220;weird&#8221; designs that confuse people or kill time on site.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matt Mullenweg joined the conversation and <a href=\"https://x.com/photomatt/status/1875185846204444871\">replied</a>, “You’re tipping into net negative contribution territory. Like at what point do you say a Rothko painting isn’t high contrast enough?”</p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://x.com/heyamberhinds/status/1875008828963459458\"><img src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdeHt8-2pgs_pe3wTiEqhq4Kx8XmJe16Qqw37VixJ7x9bvDcxo6SAMkwHhBJdEoSPlqPWb5rIR7t3gDR5qJs4FuKDNktDuSwdhRXCPGswaWvUqVEGlzwJ-XydZ9WeZEzVScaNIRCw?key=DI5V1CDAajrWF-CBcBeB8lsn\" alt=\"Tweet from Amber Hinds about accessibility issues with Hamze\'s post  and replies from Matt Mullenweg.\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<p>However, this sparked backlash. Katie Keith of Barn2Plugins <a href=\"https://x.com/KatieKeithBarn2/status/1875459920713429205\">questioned</a>, “Why would the leader of the WordPress project say something so disrespectful to one of the community’s top accessibility experts simply for highlighting some accessibility issues? THAT is tipping into net negative contribution territory.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress developer Earle Davies also shared his <a href=\"https://x.com/EarleDavies_/status/1875201740301365454\">thoughts</a>, “Wonder why accessibility in WordPress sucks? When experts highlight accessibility flaws, it’s considered a net negative contribution by the leader of the project. No surprise a8c employees argue why they choose design &gt;accessibility. WP/GB accessibility sucks. Indisputable fact.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Accessibility Expert Alex Stine <a href=\"https://x.com/alexleestine303/status/1875552325760381230\">tweeted</a>, “Matt has always taken this stand-offish approach to accessibility and I quit trying to figure out why.” He also <a href=\"https://x.com/alexleestine303/status/1875252730241093729\">said</a>, “Accessibility and inclusion are important. Sure, themes should be eye popping fun. That doesn&#8217;t mean they shouldn&#8217;t be accessible too.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Accessibility Advocate Anne Bovelett <a href=\"https://x.com/Bovelett/status/1875199415335432657\">added</a>, “If a theme is not accessible by contrast, it may look like a Porsche Carrera to the site owner and a good part of the visitors, but it will be a Porsche with windows that can’t be seen through from inside nor outside with doorknobs that won’t budge, to a large percentage of visitors.” She also shared her <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HS0tDxkotI\">YouTube video</a> showing examples of how many people experience the web and suggested organizing Design Days like Core Days.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Designer Brian Gardner had this to <a href=\"https://x.com/bgardner/status/1875617016599761153\">say</a>: &#8221; I’m all for creative WordPress themes—whether bold and quirky or plain but practical. As far as I’m concerned, they should ALL be accessible. At a bare minimum, every theme should pass basic color contrast requirements.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>“Rothko should be fine as long as no one needs to access the painting to order medical supplies or pay their water bills. Although, a text/audio alternative to the painting is very beneficial for those with low or no vision.”, <a href=\"https://x.com/stevejonesdev/status/1875220751076487668\">tweeted</a> Steve Jones, Co-Owner and CTO at Equalize Digital.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jenni McKinnon, CEO of WP Pros(e) <a href=\"https://x.com/iamjennialways/status/1875501922356285500\">asked</a>, “If the Rothko painting was on a website, then wouldn&#8217;t the WCAG point to what is (or isn&#8217;t) &#8220;high contrast enough?&#8221;” while Courtney Robertson of GoDaddy <a href=\"https://x.com/courtneyr_dev/status/1875191954918773021\">emphasised</a>: “Democratizing publishing is for all. 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You just have to decide that is what you want to build.” And for WordPress developer <a href=\"https://x.com/briancoords/status/1875577961736499471\">Brian Coords</a>, “True creativity often thrives within constraints. Weird for weirdness sake is not art or self-expression. Creating something meaningful that inspires a shared experience between people (regardless of how they navigate the web) should be the ideal.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Discussions are still going on about accessibility. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined AI accessibility startup <a href=\"https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/ftc-orders-ai-accessibility-startup-accessibe-to-pay-1m-for-misleading-advertising/ar-AA1wVcNt\">accessiBe</a> to pay $1M for misleading advertising. </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 Jan 2025 20:07:13 +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:7:\"Jyolsna\";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:13:\"\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:87:\"WordPress.org blog: WordPress Themes Need More Weird: A Call for Creative Digital Homes\";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=18358\";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:102:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/01/wordpress-themes-need-more-weird-a-call-for-creative-digital-homes/\";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:4728:\"<p>The modern web has gradually shifted from a vibrant tapestry of personal expression to a landscape of identical designs, where millions of websites share not just similar structures, but identical visual language, spacing, and interaction patterns. As we collectively gravitate toward the same “proven” layouts and “conversion-optimized” designs, we’re not just losing visual diversity – we’re ceding control over how we present ourselves to the world. This matters because genuine self-expression online isn’t just about aesthetics – it’s about maintaining spaces where authentic voices can flourish.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When every blog has the same hero section, when every portfolio follows the same grid, when every restaurant site looks interchangeable, we create an echo chamber of sameness. The cost isn’t just visual monotony – it’s the slow erosion of the web’s ability to surprise, delight, and showcase truly individual perspectives. WordPress, with its emphasis on complete ownership and control, offers an opportunity to break free from this convergence of design, allowing creators to build digital spaces that truly reflect their unique voice and vision.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of WordPress themes like album covers. They should have personality and create an immediate visual impact. The web has become too sanitized, with everyone chasing the same minimal, “professional” look.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Great themes should:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Have a strong point of view – like how Kubrick (the classic WordPress theme) defined an era with its distinctive header gradient. Don&#8217;t try to be everything to everyone.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Embrace specific aesthetics boldly – whether that’s brutalist design, pixel art, hand-drawn elements, or distinctive typography. Create themes that excite people rather than just working for everyone.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Design for specific use cases – like a theme for photographers that’s all about full-bleed images or a theme for writers that treats typography as art or a theme for musicians that feels like an album cover.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Break some rules thoughtfully – because not every theme needs a hamburger menu. Not every theme needs to be mobile-first. Sometimes constraints create character.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We need more themes that make people say “Wow!” or “That’s different!” rather than “That’s clean and professional.” The web needs more personality, more risk-taking, more fun.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>After spending countless hours digging through the WordPress theme repository, searching for designs that break the mold and spark excitement, I came up nearly empty-handed. Don’t get me wrong – there are plenty of well-built themes out there. But where’s the daring? The personality? The unexpected?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve got a wild theme idea burning in your mind – that portfolio theme that looks like a vintage trading card collection, that blog theme inspired by zine culture, that restaurant theme that feels like a hand-drawn menu – now&#8217;s the time to build it. WordPress desperately needs your creativity, your weird ideas, your willingness to break the visual rules. The future of the web shouldn&#8217;t be a monochrome landscape of identical layouts. Let&#8217;s make WordPress themes exciting again. Let&#8217;s make the web weird again.</p>\n\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/psychedeli\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2024/12/psychedeli.webp?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1\" alt=\"Psychedeli theme\" class=\"wp-image-18360\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/kawaii-chan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2024/12/kawaii.webp?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1\" alt=\"Kawaii-Chan theme\" class=\"wp-image-18362\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/lowfi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2024/12/lofi.webp?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1\" alt=\"LowFi theme\" class=\"wp-image-18361\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/bedrock\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2024/12/bedrock.webp?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1\" alt=\"Bedrock theme\" class=\"wp-image-18364\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/themes/feelingood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2024/12/feeling.webp?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1\" alt=\"Feelin’Good theme\" class=\"wp-image-18363\" /></a>\";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 Jan 2025 18:53:06 +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:10:\"Nick Hamze\";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:13:\"\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:55:\"WPTavern: India to Host Three WordCamps in January 2025\";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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=184532\";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://wptavern.com/india-to-host-three-wordcamps-in-january-2025\";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:3418:\"<p>The Indian WordPress community is set for an exciting start to 2025, with three WordCamps scheduled for January, as per <a href=\"https://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/\">WordCamp Central</a>. India has a thriving WordPress community&nbsp;and&nbsp; according to the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2024/07/18/wordpress-meetup-trends/\">WordPress Meetup global trends report</a> (January 2023 to June 2024), published by the Community Team, Indian cities Ahmedabad and Mumbai recorded the highest engagement for in-person events.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WordCamp Ahmedabad </h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The fifth edition of <a href=\"https://ahmedabad.wordcamp.org/2025/\">WordCamp Ahmedabad</a> will take place on January 3 and 4, 2025, at the AUDA Auditorium in Shela, Gujarat. The first day is dedicated to WordPress contribution and Showcase while the <a href=\"https://ahmedabad.wordcamp.org/2025/schedule/\">schedule</a> for the second day features a single track of sessions, covering topics such as WordPress contributions, digital marketing, accessibility, and AI.</p>\n\n\n\n<img src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdWNtdIQjRA_C-nsvmH3vWVVOeGKRgfvts1Nxn3fmz1-eiV8ZJx63tpBugRLtLWM4j8kUvMEoGXVhtidwJXB6LBWXvNKgb5Da3PLrBaNfEw42sWsT9CBR1qiWMhfZW7m4ny-LuO0A?key=lJ1ZD8aYOQDoIBUAS0AGGSDs\" alt=\"WordCamp Ahmedabad Wapuu inspired by Gujarat’s International Kite Festival—Uttarayan\" />\n\n\n\n<p>The event’s mascot, <a href=\"https://ahmedabad.wordcamp.org/2025/meet-our-wapuu/\">Wapuu</a>, is inspired by Gujarat’s International Kite Festival—Uttarayan—symbolizing the limitless possibilities of WordPress. Adding to the excitement, the organizers have announced a <a href=\"https://ahmedabad.wordcamp.org/2025/get-ready-for-the-wcahmedabad-social-media-contest/\">Social Media Contest</a> with prizes for the best photo, reel, and group selfie, encouraging attendees to share their experience creatively.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WordCamp Kolhapur </h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The first edition of <a href=\"https://kolhapur.wordcamp.org/2025/\">WordCamp Kolhapur</a> is scheduled for January 11 and 12, 2025, at D.Y. Patil School of Engineering and Management, Kasaba Bawada, Maharashtra. As a debut event, it has generated significant interest.</p>\n\n\n\n<p> A few <a href=\"https://kolhapur.wordcamp.org/2025/call-for-sponsors/\">sponsorship slots</a>, including Silver, Bronze, and Micro levels, are still open, and limited no-swag <a href=\"https://kolhapur.wordcamp.org/2025/tickets/\">tickets </a>are available for those interested in attending.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WordCamp Kolkata</h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://kolkata.wordcamp.org/2025/\">WordCamp Kolkata</a> will return for its third edition on January 18, 2025, at Viveka Tirtha, West Bengal. Previously held in 2019 and 2022, this edition promises an enriching experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event will feature sessions on eCommerce, translation, accessibility, and design, along with workshops on Gutenberg, WP-CLI, headless WordPress, and core contributions, conducted across two tracks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event is still accepting <a href=\"https://kolkata.wordcamp.org/2025/call-for-sponsors/\">Sponsors</a> and <a href=\"https://kolkata.wordcamp.org/2025/call-for-media-partners/\">Media Partners</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>With these three events on the calendar, January 2025 promises to be a remarkable month for the WordPress community in India.</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 Jan 2025 19:30:52 +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:7:\"Jyolsna\";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:13:\"\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:34:\"HeroPress: Growing Up 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:56:\"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=7713\";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:120:\"https://heropress.com/essays/growing-up-in-wordpress/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=growing-up-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:9353:\"<img width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3024/12/121724-min.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pull Quote: WordPress is the fertile soil in which I got to grow.\" /><h3 class=\"kt-adv-heading7713_ca85c7-49 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\">Coming from the girl with the bag: Not here to code.&nbsp;</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The growth and success I have found in my 15 years as a marketing professional has absolutely been impacted by WordPress, more specifically, the WordPress community.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>10 years ago I was working in a corporate marketing environment and I was really coming into myself as a professional. I was figuring out how to batch work and align strategic planning with task blocking while collaborating with sales teams in the field.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was operating a $750k budget in addition to the $1.5M budget that I co-operated with sales and product dev, and it was <em>amazing</em> what I could do with those resources. Our regional division was leading the company in pre-sales, lead conversion rates, engagement across our digital platforms and I was setting a new bar for marketing divisions across the country. I was helping to drive tens of millions of dollars into our pipeline.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then I got fired.</p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"kt-adv-heading7713_fd7d38-67 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\">Dealing With The Yuck</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Why? I became a whistleblower against some good-ol-boy business practices which interfered with&nbsp; my ability to be *absolutely* amazing instead of regular amazing. The VP of Sales had a suspicious relationship with one of our marketing vendors, and despite me finding a better solution for more than half the price, I was asked to “drop it” and to leave the vendor securely in our budget (full story available over wine any time if I see you irl).&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Long story short, I was eventually dismissed on the spot, I received a severance package, and I resolved to never let others’ lack of integrity compromise my work again. I used those funds as fuel and started MKConsulting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does this have to do with WordPress or the WordPress community?</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nothing, yet.</p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"kt-adv-heading7713_1a49f0-78 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\">Finding Something New</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Honestly at this point in my marketing career I had actively worked to remove websites from WordPress in a number of jobs I had because it was clunky and ugly, and I didn’t get it.&nbsp; I had spent 6 years dealing with WP off and on and never even knew the community existed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I spent the next two years learning how to be a business owner and how to run a marketing agency. Or was I just freelancing? I wasn’t really sure. I got my MBA so I could learn more about entire business operating systems and to break up the exclusive sales/marketing/user lens I had leveraged to date. I spoke at local events, I joined clubs, the hustle was real.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I found my way into start-ups, as they were a great place for me to really showcase my market research abilities, strategic go to market positioning skills, and love for brand building.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One particular startup led me to a connection that brought me my first long term retainer customer &#8211; a WordPress hosting company. That startup, and the connections that came from it, are still driving major work, joy, and passion for me, bittersweetly and tragically fracturing into different aspects of my life.</p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"kt-adv-heading7713_1908c0-b0 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\">Finding WordPress</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>I followed one of those fellow executives for work, as he was now the CEO of my new client, and he invited me to this thing called a Word Camp.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I got to travel to Seattle for my first time &#8211; and my life changed forever. Bridget Willard took me on an introduction tour at the speaker/sponsor pre dinner and it was so different from anything else I had experienced in my corporate marketing career.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the initial shock to my system wore off caused by the sheer number of t-shirts, and the utmost display of casual community I had ever witnessed at a conference (by then I had attended dozens of tech conferences and other corporate industry events), there was something special about it &#8211; it was real. These were real humans that cared about being successful in more than one way. And honestly, it really took me getting to my first WCUS before it all really clicked for me.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the first time in my career I found an intersection of desire for business growth AND ethical display of integrity and sustainable values, seamlessly co-existing.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The people were warm and welcoming and cared about my human plight more than my value as a productive professional.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was confusing for me. As a people pleasing perfectionist that adorned my self worth with my ability to make money for others and “do a good job” was inherently all I had ever known as an adult, and in many ways as a kid too.</p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"kt-adv-heading7713_6c80b5-8b wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\">A Time Of Growth</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>This community opened my eyes to ask questions like, who is my whole person, beyond being good at marketing and business growth strategies?&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The authentic and raw relationships I encountered within the WordPress community showed me that choosing between good business and being a good human could sustainably co habitate. There are good people doing good business, and my corporate experience had not really shown me that side of what is economically sustainable. There was a thirst to do things the right way.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I began aligning with clients and teams who shared my values, opening doors to remote work and global collaboration.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The access to remote work, remote culture, and the discovery of a global community that shared these values, promoting work life balance as well as viable technology products and services became key skills beyond marketing that I was able to foster and that would help me propel myself for years to come.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The combination of being good at my job within the reliable ecosystem of web tech provided stability to continue to work in the remote world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately this safety gave me the freedom to begin to reconciling my own growth as a person and my growth as a professional, beyond the growth in pipelines for my clients.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When COVID-19 hit, my experience in remote work positioned me uniquely. I was able to niche myself as one of few marketers in the world operating in the US that could go beyond successfully executing smart marketing campaigns in a remote environment &#8211; but I could build remote culture, manage global asynchronous teams and empower dozens of others to be successful at marketing, sales, customer support, account management and talent acquisition too.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I leveraged this to diversify beyond web tech clients and found bio tech, climate tech, and ag tech companies to even further align my passions with my skills and my conscience as an ethical, sustainable marketer.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>My underlying passions for teaching and sharing my expertise continued to serve me as I became a Fractional CMO. I was an early adopter of this framework of employment and the balance it gave me pushed me more and more into my own personal growth.</p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"kt-adv-heading7713_5341e7-36 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\">The Future</h4>\n\n\n\n<p>About 3 years ago the work-life balance lines blurred further as I got better at managing my time, my passions, my teams, expertise and work product. I was finally ready to grow up as a marketing agency owner. I sunset MKConsulting, and Frameworks MKTG entered the market. We broker marketing, sales, and growth talent off and on as needed for one person marketing departments around the world.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through it all, I&#8217;ve had my heart broken while working with climate tech and bio tech clients. But web tech has been a great home to grow in, and that is largely because the WordPress community connecting me to amazing humans, all around the world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I’m more confident than ever that showing up as my fully authentic self is what keeps me happy. When I can keep my family, friends, clients, teammates, and investors happy we all stay much more aligned to thrive. Thriving is a natural byproduct when I get to be real, and to maintain my stress levels and just do what I do.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coming to this clear view of what my professional timeline can be is once again, life changing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will not waste the opportunities afforded to me, I am determined to become the best version of my whole human self. I&#8217;m determined to continue being a part of proving how sustainable business growth is possible and reliable.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>So thank you, WordPress community.&nbsp; You are the fertile soil in which I got to grow.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Love yall. See ya in Slack.<br />Or maybe another WC somewhere.<br />Or maybe come visit me in Texas.&nbsp;</p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https://heropress.com/essays/growing-up-in-wordpress/\">Growing Up in WordPress</a> appeared first on <a href=\"https://heropress.com\">HeroPress</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 Jan 2025 15:33:06 +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:9:\"MK Keefer\";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:13:\"\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:96:\"WPTavern: Community Team Proposes Women-Centric WordPress Events for International Women’s 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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=184491\";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:104:\"https://wptavern.com/community-team-proposes-women-centric-wordpress-events-for-international-womens-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:1804:\"<p>The WordPress Community Team has <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2024/12/19/hosting-wordpress-events-for-women-on-international-womens-day/\">proposed</a> hosting women-centric events on International Women&#8217;s Day through local WordPress communities to celebrate, empower, and inspire women. These events are envisioned as platforms where women can connect, share experiences, and enhance their skills in an inclusive and supportive environment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>These events could take various forms, such as networking sessions, workshops, talks, learning activities, or mentorship opportunities. Local communities interested in organizing such events can apply through the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/community-deputy/other-event-formats/nextgen-wordpress-event/\">&nbsp;Creative WordPress Events Form</a>. Approved communities will receive a dedicated website and a stipend of $100 – $500 USD to support the event.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team is also seeking volunteer designers to create a banner and logo for the event, as well as a sticker sheet featuring female Wapuu designs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pooja Derashri shared the vision of the team regarding this event: “By organizing women-centric WordPress events on International Women’s Day, we can spark meaningful conversations and encourage more women to join, lead, and contribute to WordPress. It’s an opportunity to strengthen our community and amplify women’s voices in open source.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The WordPress community has a history of organizing women-only events/initiatives. Notably, <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2023/11/shirley/\">WordPress 6.4</a> and <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2020/12/simone/\">WordPress 5.6</a> were led by teams composed of women and underrepresented gender groups.</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, 31 Dec 2024 19:14:44 +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:7:\"Jyolsna\";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:13:\"\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:66:\"WPTavern: Plugins Team Unveils Roadmap for Phase 2 of Plugin Check\";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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=184481\";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:77:\"https://wptavern.com/plugins-team-unveils-roadmap-for-phase-2-of-plugin-check\";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:3622:\"<p>Chris Christoff of the Plugins Team has published the roadmap of <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2024/12/24/plugin-check-goals-roadmap/\">Phase 2</a> of the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/plugin-check/\">Plugin Check plugin</a>. According to the statistics shared at this year’s State of the Word, 41% fewer issues were reported per approved plugin after launching the Plugin Check tool, enabling the team to approve 138% more plugins each week and significantly reducing the review queue length.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the words of David Perez, “Plugin Check is a tool for testing whether your plugin meets the required standards for the WordPress.org plugin directory. With this plugin, you will be able to run most of the checks used for new submissions and check if your plugin meets the requirements.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>David Perez also shared that the Plugin Check plugin significantly reduced the time for reviews, bringing the average wait time down from 37 weeks to 9 weeks, even as plugin submissions have almost doubled.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2024/09/17/introducing-plugin-check-pcp/\">Phase 1</a>, Plugin Check was released to the community as a plugin available through WordPress.org. It currently has 2000+ Active installations. In October this year, it became a <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-enforces-plugin-check-and-2fa-for-new-plugin-submissions\">requirement </a>for new plugin submissions to the Plugin Directory and for relisting plugins that were removed due to security issues.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2024/12/24/plugin-check-goals-roadmap/\">Phase 2</a> of Plugin Check will expand its coverage to include updates made by plugin authors to plugins already listed in the Directory. Planned improvements for the second phase include enhanced documentation, more intuitive messaging, a revamped UI, conditional rule application, the addition of an experimental checks feature, easier output customization for better integration, and retroactive directory integration.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Plugins Team revealed that the Plugin Check project also aims to help plugin authors keep up with the latest best practices by allowing them to quickly scan their plugins for performance improvements and best practice opportunities. The PCP team will also collaborate with other teams to support plugin authors.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, Plugin Check evaluates plugins based on best practices across five categories: General, Plugin Repo, Security, Performance, and Accessibility. The Plugin Team encourages all plugin authors to integrate Plugin Check into their development workflows.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1909\" height=\"1145\" src=\"https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/image-18.png\" alt=\"Errors shown when Classic Widgets plugin is checked with Plugin Check\" class=\"wp-image-184483\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Specific rollout timelines and processes for Phase 2 will be shared in a future Make Plugins post as its release approaches. Those interested in contributing to the plugin can do so on its <a href=\"https://github.com/wordPress/plugin-check/\">GitHub repository</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Details on the specific timeline and processes for Phase 2 will be shared in an upcoming ‘Make Plugins’ post as the release date approaches. Those interested in contributing to the project can do so through its <a href=\"https://github.com/wordPress/plugin-check/\">GitHub repository</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also check out <a href=\"https://pascalbirchler.com/wordpress-plugin-check/\">Pascal Birchler’s post</a> on Why you should start using Plugin Check.</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, 31 Dec 2024 17:59:09 +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:7:\"Jyolsna\";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:13:\"\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:72:\"Do The Woo Community: Highlights from a Q and A with James Kemp from Woo\";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:43:\"https://dothewoo.io/?post_type=blog&p=88445\";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:76:\"https://dothewoo.io/blog/highlights-from-a-q-and-a-with-james-kemp-from-woo/\";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:380:\"James Kemp, Core Product Manager at Woo, recently shared updates and plans for the platform during a Q&#38;A episode on Woo ProductChat. His insights shed light on the current direction of WooCommerce and its commitment to empowering both merchants and developers. Integrating Premium Extensions into WooCommerce Core To simplify the experience for users, WooCommerce is [&#8230;]\";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, 31 Dec 2024 10:50:00 +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:44;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:13:\"\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:79:\"WPTavern: WordCamp Europe 2025: Tickets and Diversity Scholarship Now Available\";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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=183631\";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:89:\"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-2025-tickets-and-diversity-scholarship-now-available\";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:2556:\"<p>WordCamp Europe has <a href=\"https://europe.wordcamp.org/2025/tickets/\">released tickets</a> for the 2025 edition of the event scheduled for June 5-7 in Basel, Switzerland.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two types of tickets: the General ticket, priced at €50, and the Micro-Sponsor ticket, which costs €250. Both options include access to all sessions and Contributor Day on June 5, though separate registration is required for Contributor Day.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Micro-Sponsor ticket, priced closer to the actual cost of attendance, is a great way to support the event if you’re able to contribute more. Tickets are refundable, and you can transfer ownership by editing the attendee details using the link provided in your purchase confirmation email. To purchase tickets, you’ll now need a <a href=\"https://login.wordpress.org/register\">WordPress.org account</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WordCamp Europe 2025 Diversity Scholarship</h3>\n\n\n\n<p>WordCamp Europe 2025 is introducing a <a href=\"https://europe.wordcamp.org/2025/apply-now-for-the-wordcamp-europe-2025-diversity-scholarship/\">Diversity Scholarship</a>, an initiative previously exclusive to WordCamp Asia. This program has been extended to the Europe event following recommendations from members of WordPress Community Support PBC and Queeromattic to allocate surplus funds from the 2024 flagship event budgets toward DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) initiatives. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>To qualify, applicants must be active contributors to the WordPress project, have never attended a flagship WordCamp (Asia, US, or Europe), require financial assistance to attend, and belong to an underrepresented demographic among open-source contributors. Applicants should also demonstrate a commitment to using their experience to help grow their local WordPress community or the WordPress community in Europe.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scholarship covers travel expenses to Basel from the recipient’s home city, accommodation during the event, and a ticket to WordCamp Europe 2025. However, it does not include airport transfers, meals, or other incidental expenses.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Applications for the scholarship will be accepted until<strong> January 31, 2025</strong>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more details, visit the WordCamp Europe <a href=\"https://europe.wordcamp.org/2025/apply-now-for-the-wordcamp-europe-2025-diversity-scholarship/\">website</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year’s event in Torino, Italy, saw nearly 3,000 attendees, and the 2025 edition is expected to draw between 3,500 and 4,500 participants.</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, 30 Dec 2024 17:59:10 +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:7:\"Jyolsna\";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:13:\"\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:66:\"Gravatar: Advanced Tips for Creating a Successful Online Community\";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:32:\"http://blog.gravatar.com/?p=2532\";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:61:\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/12/27/create-online-community/\";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:24623:\"<p>Building an online community takes dedication, skill, and strategic thinking – but the rewards make it worth every bit of effort. A thriving community can transform your business, whether it&#8217;s your main focus or supplements your existing offerings.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting a community might seem deceptively simple. After all, people naturally want to connect with others who share their interests. And social media makes it easier than ever to gather people in one place.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>But creating a community that genuinely serves its members while meeting your goals? That&#8217;s a different challenge entirely. Most communities struggle with low engagement, unclear purpose, or lack of sustainable growth.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This guide breaks down advanced strategies for building a community that lasts. You&#8217;ll learn practical approaches to choosing the right platform, creating engaging experiences, and fostering meaningful connections among members. Each section includes specific tactics you can implement right away, backed by examples from successful communities.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Define your reason for creating an online community</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting an online community requires significant time and resources. Before diving in, you need a clear purpose that guides every decision you make.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most successful communities serve specific, well-defined goals. A vague aim like &#8220;connecting people&#8221; won&#8217;t provide enough direction. Instead, focus on concrete objectives such as:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Supporting customers through peer-to-peer problem solving.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Building brand loyalty through exclusive experiences and early access.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Creating collaborative learning spaces where members share expertise.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gathering feedback to improve products or services.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Providing specialized networking opportunities in niche fields.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Your community&#8217;s purpose shapes everything from platform choice to content strategy. An educational community focused on live workshops needs different tools than a support community built around troubleshooting forums.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ask yourself: <strong>Will this community be central to your business model or support existing offerings?</strong> A course creator might build their entire business around a learning community, while a retailer might use community spaces to enhance customer experience through product discussions and reviews.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The clearer your purpose, the easier it becomes to make decisions that serve both your members and your goals.</p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Define your ideal persona and why community is important for them</strong></h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Success in community building starts with deeply understanding who your members are and what draws them to connect with others. Going beyond basic demographics reveals what truly motivates participation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take these specific examples:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Remote tech workers seeking professional growth might join to share career advice, discuss industry trends, and build relationships outside their immediate team.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Home bakers learning artisan bread techniques want to troubleshoot recipes, showcase their creations, and find motivation from fellow enthusiasts.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Independent artists could gather to share business tips, critique works in progress, and find potential collaborators.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Each group has distinct needs that shape how they&#8217;ll engage. Remote workers might value structured networking events and skill-sharing sessions, while bakers might prefer photo-rich discussions and live-streaming demonstrations. Artists might engage most with portfolio showcases and project collaboration tools.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Study where your ideal members currently gather online. What frustrates them about existing spaces? What makes them stick around? Use these insights to craft experiences that solve real pain points.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>And remember – your community will attract different types of participants. Some will actively create content, others will moderate discussions, while many will simply absorb information. Design your space to support all these interaction styles.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Selecting the right format and channels for your online community</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Your community&#8217;s format directly impacts how members interact and engage. Each option offers distinct advantages for different community goals:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Forums</strong> excel at organizing in-depth discussions by topic, making it easy for members to find relevant conversations and contribute meaningfully. They&#8217;re particularly effective for technical support or knowledge-sharing communities.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Live events</strong> build excitement and real-time connection. Whether through video workshops, AMAs, or virtual meetups, synchronous gatherings create shared experiences that strengthen community bonds.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/07/11/enable-comments-in-wordpress/\"><strong>Comment sections</strong></a> work well for focused discussions around specific content pieces. They&#8217;re ideal for communities built around blogs, courses, or media content where context matters.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Activity feeds</strong> keep members updated on community happenings, highlighting recent discussions, achievements, and contributions. They help maintain engagement between deeper interactions.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/\">WordPress</a> offers the flexibility to mix these formats without platform restrictions. Unlike social media networks, you control the experience and aren&#8217;t subject to algorithmic changes or paid reach limitations. It also gives you an opportunity to create an engaging community platform with <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/05/09/wordpress-profile-page/\">customized profile pages</a> and personalized recommendations based on user data.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whatever the format is,<strong> we recommend starting with free channels to build your initial audience.</strong> For example, many fitness channels offer free training videos on YouTube and then a paid membership option for subscribers who want to join specific programs. Similarly, the <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/@GoodMythicalMorning/community\">Good Mythical Morning YouTube channel</a> nurtures viewers before inviting them to join their premium <a href=\"https://www.mythicalsociety.com/\">Mythical Society community</a>. This approach lets you demonstrate value and build trust before asking for a deeper commitment.</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"314\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/mythical-society.png?w=660\" alt=\"The Mythical Society\" class=\"wp-image-2535\" />\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Creating member profiles for your community&nbsp;</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Member profiles form the foundation of community identity and connection. <a href=\"https://gravatar.com/\">Gravatar</a> helps website owners with this crucial element by linking profiles to email addresses, enabling consistent identity across platforms with minimal setup time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The &#8220;Update Once, Sync Everywhere&#8221; feature saves valuable time for both administrators and members. Instead of creating new profiles for each community space, Gravatar allows all integrated platforms to pull in and auto-populate profile data.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/08/26/gravatar-api-tutorial-for-app-developers/\">Two powerful APIs</a> make implementation straightforward:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <a href=\"https://docs.gravatar.com/api/avatars/images/\">Avatar API</a> pulls member photos and basic details</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <a href=\"https://docs.gravatar.com/rest-api/\">Profile API</a> imports comprehensive profile information</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This automation speeds up the <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/09/06/onboarding-user-experience/\">user onboarding</a> significantly. New members arrive with pre-filled profiles, reducing friction and increasing the likelihood they&#8217;ll engage right away. Familiar avatars across different sections of your community help members recognize each other easily, strengthening relationships.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><img src=\"https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/twemoji/2/72x72/2728.png\" alt=\"✨\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /><em>If you’re looking for some inspiration on how to build beautiful profile pages, check out our article on </em><a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/06/05/user-profile-page-examples/\"><em>user profile page examples</em></a><em>.&nbsp;</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Privacy remains in members&#8217; control. They choose what information to share and can maintain multiple identities for different community roles – perfect for separating member and moderator profiles.</p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://docs.gravatar.com/getting-started/\"><img width=\"3242\" height=\"729\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gravatar_integration_cta.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2632\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Creating community guidelines and moderation strategies</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Smart moderation strategies keep communities healthy while encouraging authentic interaction. Advanced approaches include:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>AI-powered content filtering to catch obvious violations automatically.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Multi-tier moderation systems where trusted members help maintain community standards.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Living guidelines that adapt based on community feedback and real situations.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravatar&#8217;s universal profiles enhance these efforts by:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Using verified email addresses to reduce fake accounts and spam.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Building trust scores based on member history across platforms.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Speeding up issue resolution through integrated reporting systems.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Balance strict rules with community self-regulation. The <a href=\"https://stackexchange.com/\">Stack Exchange network</a> demonstrates this well: Experienced members gain moderation privileges through consistent positive contributions, creating a sustainable system where the community largely moderates itself.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clear consequences for guideline violations matter, but focus more on rewarding positive behavior. Highlight exemplary members, celebrate constructive contributions, and create paths for members to earn additional privileges through helpful participation.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Strategies for launching and growing your community</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A successful community launch builds momentum that drives sustained growth. Smart tactics maximize early engagement and set the right foundations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reward early adopters with exclusive perks like special &#8220;founding member&#8221; badges displayed on profiles. Besides the badges, members with this level could also have direct access to community leadership, the right to give input on future features and direction, and even early access to new content or features.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, you should nurture all members, not just the early adopters. Create achievement systems that encourage meaningful participation:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Recognition for quality contributions.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Special roles for consistent, helpful answers.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Progress tracking tied to learning goals.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Visible milestones on member profiles.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can measure how successful your efforts are by measuring engagement metrics – number of comments, new members, etc. However, it’s best to go beyond the basics and track indicators that show real community health:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ratio of new discussions to responses.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Time between member questions and first answers.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Number of connections made between members.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Quality and depth of conversations.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, think of different ways you can scale engagement through time. Partner with micro-influencers who genuinely connect with your community&#8217;s purpose – their authentic enthusiasm will attract members who share your values.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As your community grows, personalize the experience based on member behavior and interests. Use Gravatar profile data to:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Customize onboarding paths.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Suggest relevant discussions.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Connect members with shared interests.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Highlight content matching expertise levels.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep in mind that small, active communities often provide more value than large, disengaged ones. Focus on fostering quality interactions rather than chasing member numbers.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Fostering engagement and participation in your online community&nbsp;</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Engaged communities don&#8217;t happen by accident. They need thoughtful content, smart incentives, and active leadership. This section explores advanced strategies that go beyond basic engagement tactics, helping you create an environment where meaningful interaction happens naturally.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Creating compelling community content and discussions&nbsp;</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Strong content sparks conversations that keep members coming back. Focus on creating material that taps into your community&#8217;s specific interests and motivations:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Frame discussion topics as practical problems to solve rather than digital queries.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Share behind-the-scenes insights that make members feel like insiders.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create content series that build anticipation and regular participation.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use polls and surveys to gather opinions on controversial industry topics.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Mix content formats to suit different learning and interaction styles:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Short-form videos for quick tips and demonstrations.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Long-form articles for deep dives into complex topics.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Audio content for on-the-go consumption.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Interactive workshops for hands-on learning.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Encourage member-generated content by:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Featuring expert members in community spotlights.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Running themed challenges that showcase member work.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Creating dedicated spaces for member success stories.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Setting up peer mentoring programs.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Implementing gamification and rewards for active members</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Gamification transforms passive members into active participants when implemented thoughtfully. The <a href=\"https://www.duolingo.com/\">Duolingo</a> language learning community demonstrates this perfectly – their streak system and XP leaderboards turn daily practice into an engaging challenge.</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"290\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/duolingo-daily-quest.png?w=660\" alt=\"Example of Duolingo completed daily quest\" class=\"wp-image-2578\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Achievement paths should reflect genuine community values. A tech support community might award &#8220;Problem Solver&#8221; status to members who consistently provide validated solutions. These members then receive special privileges, like the ability to mark answers as official solutions or mentor newcomers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Collaborative challenges build stronger connections between members. Take <a href=\"https://www.strava.com/challenges\">Strava&#8217;s monthly distance challenges</a> – they motivate individual achievement while fostering a sense of shared accomplishment. Your community might organize team projects that combine different skill sets, such as writers partnering with designers to create resources for the community.</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"270\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/strava.png?w=660\" alt=\"Strava’s monthly distance challenges\" class=\"wp-image-2538\" />\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The most effective rewards provide real value. </strong>This could mean exclusive access to industry experts, featured spots in community content, or early access to new features. One gaming community successfully uses a point system where active members earn credits toward premium content and merchandise.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Track achievements through Gravatar profiles to make recognition visible and persistent. Members can showcase their expertise badges, contribution streaks, and impact metrics across all community spaces, building consistent reputation and authority.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Staying involved and active as a community leader</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Leadership visibility builds trust and encourages participation. Make your presence felt through:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Regular &#8220;state of the community&#8221; updates.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Direct responses to member concerns.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Personal stories that demonstrate vulnerability.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clear communication about community decisions.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Balance hands-on involvement with empowering others.</strong> Train moderators to handle day-to-day management, spotlight emerging community leaders and create opportunities for members to take ownership of initiatives.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember that your consistent presence shows members their participation matters.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Scaling and building your community</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Growth presents both opportunities and challenges for community builders. A strategic approach helps maintain quality while expanding reach.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Start with a detailed roadmap that outlines growth phases.</strong> Map specific initiatives to member count milestones – what works for 100 members likely won&#8217;t serve 10,000. Include plans for things like expanding moderator teams, adding new content formats, introducing advanced features, and upgrading the technical infrastructure of your platform to accommodate increased traffic.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Make data-driven decisions</strong> by tracking meaningful metrics:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Member retention rates across different joining cohorts.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Response times for member questions.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Active participation percentages.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Content engagement patterns.</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Gather and act on member feedback systematically.</strong> Monthly surveys, feedback threads, and one-on-one conversations with active members reveal pain points before they become major issues.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Maintain community culture through growth spurts.</strong> The Reddit community r/AskHistorians demonstrates this well &#8211; they&#8217;ve scaled to over a million members while maintaining strict quality standards for historical discussion.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Be cautious about growing too quickly. </strong>Rapid member influx can overwhelm moderation systems and dilute community culture. Focus on attracting members who align with your community&#8217;s core values rather than chasing pure numbers.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>And remember: <strong>bigger isn&#8217;t always better.</strong> A focused community of 500 engaged members often provides more value than one with 50,000 lurkers. A great example of this is <a href=\"https://join.creatorscience.com/#pricing\">Jay Clouse’s highest-tier community</a>, which has a cap of 200 members. He knows that exclusivity is one of the most important perks, and having fewer subscribers allows him to pay more attention and provide those people with unique benefits.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to monetize your community strategically</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Smart monetization enhances member value while creating sustainable revenue. The trick lies in aligning monetary goals with community benefits. Here’s what you can do:&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Paid memberships: </strong>Premium memberships work well when they unlock genuine value. <a href=\"https://www.sarahbethyoga.com/\">Sara Beth Yoga</a>, for example, offers basic classes through her YouTube channel while reserving expert-led workshops and specialized support groups for paying members. Members gladly pay because the premium features directly serve their goals.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sponsored content: </strong>Brand partnerships succeed through authentic alignment. A photography community might partner with camera manufacturers for exclusive tutorials or early product access. Both the brand and community benefit, while members gain valuable insights.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Virtual events:</strong> These can include workshops taught by community experts, industry <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/06/16/how-to-network-at-a-conference/\">conferences</a> featuring member speakers, mastermind groups for specific topics, and behind-the-scenes tours or demonstrations.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Digital products</strong>: If members frequently ask similar questions, package those answers into comprehensive guides or courses. Let community input shape product development to ensure relevance.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Affiliate marketing: </strong>Sign up for affiliate programs to earn commissions on products you’ve personally tried and you believe your audience will find useful or interesting.&nbsp;</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Always maintain transparency about monetization. Explain how revenue supports community growth and improvement. Many successful communities, like <a href=\"http://dev.to\">DEV.to</a>, openly discuss their business model and gather member input on monetization decisions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Start small – test ideas with core members before full rollout. Their feedback helps refine offerings that truly serve the community.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Scaling your thriving community: Gravatar&#8217;s role in sustainable expansion</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Building a thriving online community requires careful planning, consistent effort, and the right tools. Each element covered in this guide is vital in creating spaces where people genuinely want to connect and contribute.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/06/03/profiles-as-a-service/\">Gravatar&#8217;s profiles-as-service system</a> removes major technical hurdles from community growth. This frees you to focus on what matters most – fostering meaningful connections between members.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The platform supports sustainable expansion through several key features:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Streamlined registration</strong> eliminates common friction points. New members arrive with pre-populated profiles, making them more likely to engage immediately. No more abandoned signups due to lengthy forms.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Multi-platform identity management</strong> helps members maintain consistent presence across community spaces. A member&#8217;s contributions in your forums, comments, and events all link back to their unified profile on <a href=\"https://github.com/\">GitHub</a>, <a href=\"https://slack.com/\">Slack</a>, and other integrated platforms.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rich profiles </strong>enable deeper connections. Members can showcase relevant expertise, interests, and achievements. This makes it easier for them to find like-minded peers and contribute meaningfully to discussions.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Privacy controls</strong> give members confidence in participation. They can manage multiple identities and control exactly what information appears in different community contexts. This flexibility encourages authentic engagement.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Developer-friendly integration</strong> speeds implementation through well-documented APIs and SDKs. You can focus on building unique community features instead of recreating basic profile functionality.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Ready to start building your community? <a href=\"https://docs.gravatar.com/\">Explore how Gravatar can help</a> lay the foundation for sustainable growth while creating engaging member experiences.</p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://docs.gravatar.com/getting-started/\"><img width=\"3242\" height=\"729\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gravatar_integration_cta.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2632\" /></a>\";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, 27 Dec 2024 16:11:49 +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:11:\"Ronnie Burt\";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:13:\"\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:96:\"WPTavern: WordPress Training Team Launches New Course for Designers: Beginner WordPress Designer\";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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=183334\";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://wptavern.com/wordpress-training-team-launches-new-course-for-designers-beginner-wordpress-designer\";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:1749:\"<p>The Training Team has launched a new course on Learn WordPress specifically for designers: <a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/course/beginner-wordpress-designer/\">Beginner WordPress Designer</a>. This learning pathway is crafted to help designers new to WordPress gain the skills needed to create professional websites.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The course covers essential topics such as building a style guide, understanding block themes, and adopting a block-first approach to design. It also teaches best practices in web design, theme customization, layout composition, and working with media blocks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This learning pathway is free and open to everyone and consists of 24 lessons organized into 6 sections, requiring approximately 4 hours to complete:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Introduction to designing with WordPress</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Getting to know WordPress</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Web design best practices</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Customizing themes and templates</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Layout composition</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Working with media blocks</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://x.com/dcwhatwhat/status/1870036926087954635\"><img src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcsB3IrCP79JgZlCcxR20I-kjT0wy8FAiSG471vrHErMhi3tkleO2KwZ8wwJU-LmAuauVD-D6FwKOe3NdOdEeSzfPhZbETKhQCGAuUuUwoZQs4jySI_OqjSX2UaGOyiZY9GUXZt2g?key=9To1fAJHQrfgfCSDChmn5_yZ\" alt=\"Tweet from WordPress Training Team rep Jamie Madden: \" /></a>\n\n\n\n<p>Lesley Sim, Co-founder of Newsletter Glue <a href=\"https://x.com/lesley_pizza/status/1870045335906832793\">tweeted</a>, “This looks so good and so useful.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://learn.wordpress.org/\">Learn WordPress</a> is an educational initiative by the Training team aimed at helping users of all levels improve their WordPress skills.</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, 26 Dec 2024 20:57:54 +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:7:\"Jyolsna\";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:13:\"\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: Matt Mullenweg Asks What Drama to Create in 2025, Community Reacts\";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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=183317\";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:86:\"https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-asks-what-drama-to-create-in-2025-community-reacts\";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:9860:\"<p>On Christmas Eve, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg took to <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/WPDrama/comments/1hlp08d/what_drama_should_i_create_in_2025/\">Reddit</a>, causing quite a stir by asking what kind of drama he should create in 2025. He posted, “What drama should I create in 2025? I’m very open to suggestions. Should we stop naming releases after jazz musicians and name them after Drake lyrics? Eliminate all dashboard notices? Take over any plugins into core? Change from blue to purple? I think we can brainstorm together and come up with way better things than I could on my own. <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/263a.png\" alt=\"☺\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> Also, Merry Christmas! <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f384.png\" alt=\"🎄\" class=\"wp-smiley\" />”</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"reddit-embed-bq\"><a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/WPDrama/comments/1hlp08d/what_drama_should_i_create_in_2025/\">What drama should I create in 2025?</a><br /> by<a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/user/photomatt/\">u/photomatt</a> in<a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/WPDrama/\">WPDrama</a></blockquote>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p>The post quickly amassed over 500 comments. However, the community was far from being amused, and a good portion of the replies urged him to stop posting, step down, seek professional help, or take a break and avoid creating any drama. “For someone in your position, creating extraneous drama for these people is not only disrespectful, it&#8217;s outright psychopathic to the extent that it affects their ability to work and be productive.”, read one <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/WPDrama/comments/1hlp08d/comment/m3ovebk/\">comment</a> from Stubby_Shillelagh.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Redditor WillmanRacing referenced a Sherman Act violation, suggesting sarcastically, “I have a fantastic idea for some drama we can get up to. Why don&#8217;t we create a <a href=\"https://wordpressfoundation.org/\">charitable foundation</a> governing our open source software product, instead of <a href=\"https://automattic.com/\">our for-profit company</a>. Why don&#8217;t we also operate our main website as its <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/\">own separate entity</a>, with employees and volunteers provided by <a href=\"https://audrey.co/\">yet another entity</a>. Then, why dont we have all of these entities take action against one of our competitors and their entire customer base, refusing to do business with any customers until they stop working with our competitor. Why don&#8217;t we ban ALL of those people from our services, and try to compel them to use our service instead?” </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many expressed frustration and hoped for a return to normalcy. One Redditor <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/WPDrama/comments/1hlp08d/comment/m3om7bh/\">shared</a>, “I&#8217;ve been a huge fan of WordPress for the longest time, and I hate to see all this drama happening. Learning WordPress is actually how I landed my first official programming job. I really hope everything will get back to normal soon.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Responding to calls for taking a break, Matt quoted Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “Life&#8217;s but a walking shadow, A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matt also hinted that some exciting things are on the way. He said, “I&#8217;m really excited for people to experience Phase 3 of Gutenberg, things like real-time co-editing done completely peer-to-peer with WebRTC.”&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf07lUKH9MXt_vqFieCzYniY92OBQ5zYieFbWFRkWW7EbOBWMx3wBq0OGn14WjHmtgfdAPR9NaJnV3eFmIN7szRoueCIZ-MYVZX10IpkgBG6skYhRTWHbs1KTsa3n6sl6OD7AKt3Q?key=VJAxsFxouUADeL7bmQ2E84-5\" alt=\"\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Another person <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/WPDrama/comments/1hlp08d/comment/m3q58tc/\">chimed in</a>, “Matt is doing to WordPress.org what broadcom is doing to VMware. WordPress used to be such a happy place with a rich thriving developer community, but now everyone is scared shitless that Matt will do a rug pull because he feels like it.”</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>It (WordPress) has a very special place in my heart, as well. I think WordPress&#8217; brightest days are ahead of it. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8211; Matt Mullenweg</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Matt was also criticized for not grasping the gravity of the situation. One Redditor <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/WPDrama/comments/1hlp08d/comment/m3ohcq4/\">said</a>, “How can you write such a post in a time like this? The WordPress community needs stability and a leadership to trust again. It doesn’t matter if you want to be funny, this is not the right time. Do you think people see this post and think, &#8220;yeah, that’s a project I want to contribute to?&#8221; Contributors are leaving, even getting banned. Clients are worried. Users looking for alternatives. A court is involved. But your actions don’t really look like you get the seriousness of this. It’s really sad to watch.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another Redditor too shared this opinion and Matt replied, “I hope you see how much this is unique to WPE and not something that has happened before or since with others. <strong>Silver Lake holds things for 4-6 years and then flips and moves on. Myself and many others are in this for decades. We have seen their type come and go in the past.</strong>”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a Redditor asked about choosing Shopify or sticking with WordPress, Matt recommended, “Use WordPress if you value freedom, autonomy, and want to be in complete control of your digital future. Shopify can be expensive but a good proprietary solution if you want to do exactly what they offer and not color outside the lines too much.” Most of Matt’s comments in Reddit were downvoted. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some supported Matt’s recent actions. “Thanks for your &#8220;drama&#8221;. Had it been successful, this would have set the best precedent ever for the all the hyper-capitalist leeches leeching off the free work of others. But everyone is selfish, and short-sighted. They should have taken the opportunity to back you, and dealt with you later, but alas. All fools.”, read one <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/WPDrama/comments/1hlp08d/comment/m3r7q2u/\">comment</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another one <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/WPDrama/comments/1hlp08d/comment/m3rbe7k/\">said</a>, “If you want to make the change you claim you want to see and Matt take a more ethical stance on his business practices, then maybe give WordPress back to the people for free as it was intended. Until then we should appreciate the guy who brought us to the dance. Does not mean we need to like him, more successful people are not liked, something very sad about watching a group of people attack a man who gave 50% of the net to the world for free.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The community also offered Matt various suggestions, both serious and playful:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Provide steady leadership.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Listen to the community.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Show restraint and consider how his actions affect the rest of the community.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Publicly promise that no plugins from the Repo will be taken over.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Endorse a successor to WordPress</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Federate the Repos and take the hosting costs off Automattic.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Introduce a built-in way to create a simple contact form&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hand over WordPress.org to a community-run group.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make Gutenberg absolutely awesome.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Offer WordPress with three options right out of the box: Classic only, Gutenberg only, or both.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Name WordPress releases after meteors/poets/songwriters.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Charge $.05 per request to anything at WordPress.org</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Regarding the ongoing drama, Matt said, “We&#8217;ll look back on the WPE drama next year as something that seemed like a big deal at the time but isn&#8217;t that notable in the grand arc of history.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;He signed off, saying, “I really do enjoy talking with people on the internet, even if we don&#8217;t always agree, and I appreciate everyone taking the time to share their perspective. Forums like this is how I got my start as a teenager. If you think Reddit is spicy, you should have seen Usenet and IRC back in the day! I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and very happy new year.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The discussion spilled over to Twitter, too. Ryan Duff <a href=\"https://x.com/ryancduff/status/1871708268755869736\">dubbed</a> it “Just another day of very unhealthy and toxic behavior from WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Takis Bouyouris <a href=\"https://x.com/takisbig/status/1872231107594535031\">tweeted</a>, “Either Matt has crossed some sort of personal Rubicon, or it is hard to imagine how such pettiness could have been the attribute of one who lead the project for so many years. Being lonely at the top, detached from reality and without healthy consult is a sign of a fading ruler. The Autumn of the Patriarch, by Gabriel García Márquez is a great novel on the topic.”&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Duane Storey <a href=\"https://x.com/DuaneStorey/status/1871773196795691345\">tweeted</a>, “Matt looking down at the #WordPress community on Reddit this Christmas eve, wondering why we are all still singing and enjoying ourselves without our WordPress.org toys.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kellie Peterson <a href=\"https://x.com/kellie/status/1871701861369340395\">exclaimed</a>, “What fresh hell? This is what Matt Mullenweg is doing on Christmas Eve. He could be spending it with his alleged many godchildren, his mother, and his sister but instead he&#8217;s sowing chaos.”</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, 26 Dec 2024 20:13:05 +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:7:\"Jyolsna\";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:13:\"\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:60:\"Gravatar: The Future of Blog UX: 6 Trends and Tools You Need\";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:32:\"http://blog.gravatar.com/?p=2562\";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:60:\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/12/23/blog-ux-best-practices/\";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:20196:\"<p>Even though great content is an important part of any blog, it’s only a small part of <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/08/16/user-experience-personalization/\">creating great user experiences</a>. Everything on your site should be focused on making sure readers can actually find, enjoy, and interact with what you&#8217;ve written.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>A well-designed user experience keeps visitors reading longer, encourages them to explore more posts, and makes them more likely to take a desired action, whether that&#8217;s signing up for your newsletter or checking out your products.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Search engines care about user experience too. </strong>Google specifically looks at how people interact with your blog, making UX a significant factor in where your content appears in search results. And according to <a href=\"https://lawsofux.com/jakobs-law/\">Jakob&#8217;s Law</a>, which tells us users prefer websites that work similarly to ones they already know, creating a familiar yet modern interface can dramatically increase engagement.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ready to make your blog easier to use and more engaging? Let&#8217;s explore some proven practices and tools to help create an outstanding experience for your readers. Plus, discover how <a href=\"https://gravatar.com/\">Gravatar</a> can boost your blog&#8217;s credibility and user interaction.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1. Ensuring your blog homepage is easy to navigate and well-organized</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The homepage of your blog sets the tone for the entire reading experience. Getting it right means implementing smart navigation features that help readers find exactly what they want.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Start with an intelligent search system. </strong>Add auto-suggest functionality that predicts what users might search for as they type and weigh the results based on popularity and relevance. Make sure search results can be filtered by date, category, or content type to help readers narrow down their options.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1647\" height=\"919\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/example-search-system-woo.png\" alt=\"WooCommerce’s search function\" class=\"wp-image-2565\" />\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Structure your content with a clear taxonomy.</strong> Limit your primary categories to 5-7 options – any more can overwhelm readers. Build nested subcategories for more specific topics and use dynamic tag clouds to show popular subjects. This creates clear pathways for readers to explore related content.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1687\" height=\"771\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gravatar-category-overview.png\" alt=\"Gravatar’s category overview\" class=\"wp-image-2566\" />\n\n\n\n<p>How you load content matters, too. For blogs with lots of posts, choose between:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Infinite scroll:</strong> Great for casual browsing and image-heavy content.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pagination:</strong> Better for readers who want to track their progress or return to specific pages.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>On mobile devices, focus on these essential elements:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A clean drawer menu that slides in from the side.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Floating action buttons for quick access to searches or categories.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Headers that stay visible while scrolling.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For content previews on your homepage:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Keep excerpts between 120-160 characters.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use 16:9 ratio images for consistency.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create custom layouts for different types of posts (tutorials, news, reviews).</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember to test your navigation with real users. Watch how they browse and search, then adjust based on their behavior. <strong>The best blog homepage design is one that feels natural and helps readers discover more of your content without thinking about it.</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2. Optimizing the visual experience on your blog posts</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The main goal of great blog design is to make content easy and pleasant to read. Let&#8217;s look at specific techniques that enhance readability and keep readers engaged.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Typography needs precise measurements to work well:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Set body text between 16-18px for comfortable reading.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use a line height of 1.5-1.6 to create breathing room between lines.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Keep line length to 60-75 characters to prevent eye strain.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pick fonts that render crisply on all screen sizes.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Make long posts easier to navigate with these structural elements:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Add a sticky table of contents that follows as readers scroll.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Show a progress bar indicating how far through the post they are.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create clear visual separation between sections using whitespace.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Include &#8220;jump to section&#8221; links for quick navigation.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The first screen readers see (the &#8220;above-fold&#8221; area) should give them immediate context:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Add a clear summary box highlighting the main points.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Display estimated reading time prominently.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Keep at least 15-20% of space empty to avoid visual clutter.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use subheadings to break up text into scannable chunks.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For complex or technical posts:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Create expandable sections for detailed explanations.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Add tooltips to explain specialized terms.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use bullet points and numbered lists for step-by-step instructions.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Include relevant screenshots or diagrams.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Most importantly, maintain consistency across all posts. </strong>Readers shouldn&#8217;t have to relearn how to navigate each time they visit. This follows Jakob&#8217;s Law – when elements work the same way throughout your blog, readers feel more confident exploring your content.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, visual design should support your content, not compete with it. Every element should serve a purpose in making the post easier to read and understand.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>3. Performance optimization: Speeding up your blog with dynamic content loading</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A fast-loading blog keeps readers happy and engaged. Here&#8217;s how to serve content quickly and efficiently using modern loading techniques.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Start with progressive loading to prioritize what matters</strong>, such as text and critical elements. Defer less important elements until after the main content appears and use resource hints to tell browsers what to load next. For example, you can implement the intersection observer API to load images only as readers scroll through them.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Structure your JavaScript smartly</strong> by splitting code into smaller chunks that load only when needed. Use dynamic imports for features like comment sections or sharing buttons, load third-party scripts (like analytics) after core content, and apply virtual scrolling on index pages to handle large archives efficiently.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Optimize images for better performance</strong> by compressing them without noticeably reducing quality. We recommend generating WebP versions of all images and creating multiple sizes for different screen widths. You could also use content-aware loading to prioritize visible images.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Set up technical optimizations</strong>, including browser caching with appropriate cache-control headers, skeleton screens (placeholder content) while posts load, and a CDN that will serve assets from locations close to your readers. Make sure you monitor Core Web Vitals regularly to catch performance issues early.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Include infinite scroll implementations</strong> like pre-loading the next set of posts before readers reach the bottom, keeping memory usage in check by removing posts far outside the viewport, saving scroll position when readers click through to a post, and showing loading indicators only when new content is actually loading.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>4. Making your blog more authoritative through E-E-A-T best practices</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Building trust with users means showing them exactly why they should value your content. Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) help readers – and search engines – understand the credibility behind your posts.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best way to do that is by creating <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/10/23/upgrade-author-profiles-with-the-gravatar-block-for-wordpress/\">comprehensive author profiles</a>:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>List relevant credentials and certifications.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Highlight years of experience in specific topics.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Link to other published work and research.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Show professional achievements and awards.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Connect social media profiles to establish a reliable <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/04/10/personal-branding-tools/\">digital presence</a>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravatar makes managing author identities simple across multiple platforms. Contributors have to create just one profile, and their information appears on Gravatar-supported websites, including every <a href=\"http://wordpress.com\">WordPress.com</a> blog. There, the integration happens automatically – perfect for blogs with multiple contributors or authors who write across different sites.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For <a href=\"http://wordpress.org\">WordPress.org</a> sites, the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/\">Gravatar Enhanced plugin</a> adds powerful profile features:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Customizable author profile blocks.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1548\" height=\"742\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/profile-block-example.png\" alt=\"The Gravatar profile block on WordPress\" class=\"wp-image-2567\" />\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Automatic profile card embedding in posts.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Social media integration.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Custom biography sections.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1542\" height=\"724\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/customizable-author-biography.png\" alt=\"Example of a customizable author biography section \" class=\"wp-image-2568\" />\n\n\n\n<p>You can use these features to build authority with your audience and create dedicated pages showcasing each author&#8217;s expertise. And if your users don’t have a Gravatar profile, you can set up an automated email sequence inviting them to create one.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"660\" height=\"198\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gravatar-plugin-invitation.png?w=660\" alt=\"Example of an invitation to create a Gravatar profile\" class=\"wp-image-2569\" />\n\n\n\n<p><img src=\"https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/twemoji/2/72x72/1f4a1.png\" alt=\"💡\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /><em>If you’re not on WordPress (org or com), don’t worry! You can use Gravatar on any platform thanks to its easy-to-implement </em><a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/06/03/profiles-as-a-service/\"><em>REST API</em></a><em>.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, going beyond author profiles, you can build authority by structuring your archives effectively. For example, you can create Group posts by topic to demonstrate subject knowledge and display engagement metrics like comment counts. When you have someone who’s been contributing for a while, you can feature their most popular or influential posts or add testimonials from industry peers or readers.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also recommend that you make expertise visible throughout your content, not just through design:&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Add &#8220;About the Author&#8221; sections within posts.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Include relevant credentials in article introductions.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Link to author&#8217;s research or cited works.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Show expertise indicators next to author names.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Feature author contributions to industry publications.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Gravatar API lets you enhance these profiles further:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Pull in verified professional achievements.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Display unified author information across platforms.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Show real-time updates to author credentials.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create custom profile layouts for different content types.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Whatever your approach is, the best strategy is authenticity. Focus on highlighting genuine expertise and real accomplishments rather than inflating credentials. Readers appreciate honesty and will trust authors who demonstrate their knowledge through quality content backed by verifiable experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/\"><img width=\"3243\" height=\"729\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gravatar_enhanced_cta.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2634\" /></a>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>5. Boosting engagement and user interactions on your blog</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are several strategies you can implement for a successful and engaging experience.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, you must <strong>ensure that your internal linking structure is logical</strong> – you don’t need to link to everything, just the posts that make sense. When you’re smart about it, you can keep readers exploring your content naturally through connections based on topics, skill levels, and reader interests. So, place contextual links within your content where they add value, and use automated related post sections that adapt based on what similar readers have found useful.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, it’s a great thing to guide your readers throughout the blog, but you also need to <strong>motivate them with concrete but meaningful calls to action</strong>. Don’t bombard them with popups; analyze your scroll depth data to understand where readers are most receptive to taking action. Test different CTA positions, designs, and messages with various user segments to find what resonates best.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to create a successful newsletter? <strong>Think beyond basic signup forms.</strong> <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/newsletter/\">WordPress.com&#8217;s native newsletter</a> functionality allows for sophisticated subscriber management. You can segment your audience, deliver automated post notifications, and track which content drives the most engagement. Plus, you can show different content blocks depending on whether someone&#8217;s already subscribed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, perhaps the most powerful way to <strong>build engagement is through an active comment section</strong>. Here&#8217;s where Gravatar&#8217;s universal profile system really shines. When readers comment, their <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/06/05/user-profile-page-examples/\">verified profiles</a> automatically sync across any Gravatar-enabled platform. This builds a sense of community as readers recognize familiar faces and can trust they&#8217;re interacting with real people.</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1784\" height=\"992\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gravatar-comment-section.png\" alt=\"Example of a comment section with Gravatar profiles\" class=\"wp-image-2570\" />\n\n\n\n<p>With the <a href=\"https://jetpack.com/\">Jetpack</a> plugin, you can enhance this further by enabling <a href=\"https://support.gravatar.com/profiles/hovercards/\">hovercards</a> – detailed profile previews that appear when readers hover over a commenter&#8217;s name. These cards can display social connections, verified links, and complete user information, encouraging meaningful discussions while reducing spam and low-quality comments. This feature is automatically enabled on WordPress.com websites.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img width=\"1036\" height=\"569\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/hovercards-example.png\" alt=\"Example of hovercards\" class=\"wp-image-2571\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Want to set up commenting on your WordPress site? Check out our detailed <a href=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/07/11/enable-comments-in-wordpress/#:~:text=Enable%20comments%20on%20specific%20posts&text=Go%20to%20the%20Discussion%20panel,and%20click%20on%20Allow%20comments\">guide on enabling and managing comments</a> effectively.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>6. Creating multimedia elements that add genuine value to articles</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Adding images, videos, and interactive elements can enhance understanding – but only if they&#8217;re implemented thoughtfully. Your multimedia content should support your message without slowing down your blog.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Data visualization demands careful attention to detail:</strong> Interactive charts and graphs have to work across screen sizes while maintaining readability. Before adding a visual element, ask whether it makes complex information clearer. And remember to A/B test different visualization styles to see which ones readers engage with most.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Video integration requires balancing quality with performance: </strong>Implement lazy loading so videos only download when readers scroll near them. This keeps your pages fast while still offering rich content. Match your video player controls to your blog&#8217;s design, and add clear thumbnails that tell readers what they&#8217;ll learn.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Whatever multimedia elements you choose, optimize them for <a href=\"https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9205520?hl=en\">Core Web Vitals</a>:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Compress files without sacrificing quality.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Set proper width and height attributes to prevent layout shifts.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use modern formats like WebP for images and WebM for video.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ensure all content works well on mobile devices.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Most importantly, <strong>make your multimedia content accessible</strong>. Add descriptive alt text for images, provide transcripts for videos, and ensure interactive elements work with keyboard navigation and screen readers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of multimedia as a powerful tool, not a requirement. Each element should serve a clear purpose in helping readers better understand your content. When used strategically, these additions can transform complex topics into engaging, memorable experiences.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Boost your blog’s UX with Gravatar integration</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ready to put these UX improvements into action? Gravatar offers a simple way to enhance your blog&#8217;s user experience through automated profile management.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Gravatar Enhanced plugin makes implementation straightforward, with customizable profile blocks that showcase author expertise and build reader trust. Hovercards add depth to your comment sections, displaying detailed user information when readers hover over profile images. This creates a more dynamic, engaging experience that encourages meaningful discussions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For developers, the Gravatar API enables custom profile displays tailored to your blog&#8217;s specific needs. Build unique author showcases, create advanced comment systems, or integrate user profiles in creative ways. Plus, built-in privacy controls let users manage exactly what information they share.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you’re a developer or a passionate blogger, you can use Gravatar to transform your blog into an engaging, professional platform where readers can connect with authors and each other meaningfully. Check out the <a href=\"https://docs.gravatar.com/\">Gravatar REST API</a> or the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/gravatar-enhanced/\">Gravatar Enhanced plugin</a> today!</p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https://docs.gravatar.com/getting-started/\"><img width=\"3242\" height=\"729\" src=\"https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/gravatar_integration_cta.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2632\" /></a>\";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, 23 Dec 2024 19:24:17 +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:11:\"Ronnie Burt\";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:13:\"\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:85:\"WPTavern: Joost de Valk Calls for Breaking the WordPress Status Quo, Community Reacts\";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:30:\"https://wptavern.com/?p=183019\";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://wptavern.com/joost-de-valk-calls-for-breaking-the-wordpress-status-quo-community-reacts\";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:10236:\"<p>Joost de Valk, co-founder of the Yoast SEO plugin has called for <a href=\"https://joost.blog/wordpress-leadership/\">Breaking the Status Quo</a> of the WordPress world. This comes in the wake of Matt Mullenweg’s announcement of a <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-declares-holiday-break-for-wordpress-org-services\">holiday break for WordPress.org</a> and the ongoing Automattic-WP Engine legal dispute.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>de Valk said, “We, the WordPress community, need to decide if we’re ok being led by a single person who controls everything, and might do things we disagree with, or if we want something else. For a project whose tagline is “Democratizing publishing”, we’ve been very low on exactly that: democracy.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Referring to Mullenweg as a BDFL (Benevolent Dictator For Life), de Valk argued that Matt is “no longer Benevolent, and because of that, speaking up in public is a risk.” </p>\n\n\n\n<p>de Valk acknowledged that due to Yoast’s contributions to WordPresss, he “did get some say in where WordPress went, though never officially, and never when it went in directions that Matt disagreed with. Over time, that influence became less as Matt tightened his grip on the project. I think that tightening was in part a cramp. Wanting to control more what people were working on, because the project wasn’t progressing fast enough in the direction he wanted it to go in.”</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I think it’s time to let go of the cult and change project leadership. I’ve said it before: we need a “board”. We can’t wait with doing that for the years it will take for Automattic and WP Engine to fight out this lawsuit.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8211; Joost de Valk</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>He said, “I’m still, to this day, very thankful for what Matt has created. I would love to work with him to fix all this. But it’s clear now, that we can no longer have him be our sole leader, although I’d love it if we could get him to be among the leaders.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He put forward 5 steps that must be taken fast:&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A WordPress foundation-like entity consisting of a board with people from diverse backgrounds leads the project.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>WordPress.org and key community assets are transferred to the foundation.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The WordPress trademark is made public domain or managed for free use.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Companies and individuals can sponsor the foundation, receiving perks like listings on a hosting page.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Small teams are formed for Architecture, Product, Events, etc., with proper governance.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>He also suggested “Federated and Independent Repositories” to decentralize the official WordPress repository. He said, “Matt might not agree to my first five points above. However, we can still work on the Federated and Independent Repositories without his permission because, frankly, we don’t need it.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He revealed that he’s already in talks with other community figures like Karim Marucchi, CEO of <a href=\"https://crowdfavorite.com/\">Crowd Favorite</a>. He is also willing to take up the mantle of the movement if needed.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said, “I’m here, and willing to lead through this transition. I do have the time, the energy and the money needed to fund myself doing it. I’ve worked in this industry and this community for close to 20 years and it’s very dear to me. Thanks in large part to the WordPress project, I have the privileged position to be able to drop and/or delegate some of the stuff I’m working on and start working on this.”</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Karim Marucchi&#8217;s Vision For a New WordPress Business Roadmap</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Karim Marucchi of Crowd Favorite <a href=\"https://marucchi.com/wordpress-leadership-continued/\">backed Joost de Valk</a>. He said, “the current situation has jeopardized the very fabric of this ecosystem.”</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>We need to prevent a single entity from doing to WordPress what befell other open-source projects that shrank or died while protecting one party’s market position.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8211; Karim Marucchi</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>He proposed five essential critical paths to concentrate on:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Securing the supply chain &amp; start modernization </li>\n\n\n\n<li>Convening, defining &amp; creating the Commons </li>\n\n\n\n<li>Defining the roadmap as “the” Open-Web’s Operating System.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Open Source as a hub for innovation</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Focusing on leading data ownership, privacy, and accessibility</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>de Valk and Marucchi will get together with other community leaders in January 2025 to decide the way forward.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Response From Matt</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Matt commented under de Valk’s blog post: “I think this is a great idea for you to lead and do under a name other than WordPress. There’s really no way to accomplish everything you want without starting with a fresh slate from a trademark, branding, and people point of view.”</p>\n\n\n\n<img src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcTpyqNYnNjZg-xV2Rv1R7x3qQXGpoU7AVGZOc8tFo9OOrVkfiL8ChA2lRDim6K7cX0D6yfTdxr8OjEGK-hQHA9_hnfXqMbbQICT9rD3KXX9KrRuxfPPDRt-DaNRfYhaKGxBmGfzQ?key=-I6GkQPHdB1BBSFBEdeFapzU\" alt=\"\" />\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Response From the Community </h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Joost de Valk found support from other community leaders too.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brian Gardner of WP Engine supported de Valk, <a href=\"https://x.com/bgardner/status/1870160970930094201\">tweeting</a>, “Cosign. (My personal op and b/c I <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f49b.png\" alt=\"💛\" class=\"wp-smiley\" /> WordPress.)”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WP Engine also came out in <a href=\"https://x.com/wpengine/status/1870242287218790849\">support</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<img src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdEiJs51Ktl6ff9Sk9qm46CV7Ov8Jz0F57KRKIXNwYrGYQT-T8w1r0MPOJb-7TfTRLPEEtdX8wPepMDPulo20eAC04JCpQmKaMhVAPAalacKcJbWqJaDdGUcUc8Xn4PsZdJkHYL?key=-I6GkQPHdB1BBSFBEdeFapzU\" alt=\"\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Michele Butcher-Jones of Can’t Speak Geek also shared her <a href=\"https://x.com/Michele_Butcher/status/1870153025970389432\">thoughts</a>:</p>\n\n\n\n<img src=\"https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdmEzYfuNjqwVmODtiT7PFZTYA2Prtc6p5vlH-U46nbuPrPotPJh3NZj6NHuFSa6FvNJjKzIZYl7Ll2UmoaJbgqo7M03lP2zn_Z5mYm7zddaTZFhtqzyiUlu3Rjen4L4RO-6lWv?key=-I6GkQPHdB1BBSFBEdeFapzU\" alt=\"\" />\n\n\n\n<p>Katie Keith of Barn2Plugins <a href=\"https://x.com/KatieKeithBarn2/status/1870209673300988414\">shared</a>, “Wow, I never expected someone as high profile as&nbsp; @jdevalk to speak out so openly against the current leadership of WordPress. However, I completely agree with his analysis of the situation and his proposed solutions.”</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress Core Committer Tonya Mork <a href=\"https://x.com/hellofromTonya/status/1870185509391348102\">said</a>, “I&#8217;ve been mostly quiet, other than publicly pausing my WordPress Core contributions. That ends today. I stand with&nbsp; @jdevalk and @karimmarucchi for the &#8220;hold this community together&#8221; effort. 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