February 2014 • Page 2 of 3 • Post Status

The ins and outs of code blocks in WordPress content

Chris Coyier has done a nice job going through the various considerations to make … Read more

Managing Jetpack enabled blogs on WordPress.com

I have tons of WordPress.com connected blogs. Some are connected to WordPress.org sites that … Read more

Business theme highlight: Forefront

I discovered a new WordPress theme today, thanks to a tweet from Ian Stewart, … Read more

Why I’m done with social media buttons

I get asked at least once a month to put sharing buttons on Post … Read more

Automattic should acquire Editorially

http://vimeo.com/73479976 Watch the video above. See the beautiful and collaborative writing experience that Editorially … Read more

Meet Joshua Benton, Director of Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab

Joshua Benton runs a small newsroom of four full time staff. They publish around … Read more

WordPress Core Proposal: Offline Editor

WordPress has a lot of killer features already, and more on the roadmap for … Read more

Yoast enters the WordPress theme market

Joost de Valk has announced his company (Yoast) have released three Genesis Child Themes, … Read more

The rise of WordPress maintenance services

WordPress maintenance services seem to be all the rage. As people are using WordPress to do more, more maintenance is sometimes required. Also, having a seasoned development team on hand for when things go wrong can be quite valuable.

There are a few players in this space. And I’m not talking about tools for managing your own sites like WP Remote and Manage WP. I mean full-service maintenance services that charge monthly fees for complete site management.

The WP Valet, Maintainn, and WP Site Care are three such services whose owners I know and trust. I’ve sent referrals to all three. And new services are showing up to compete with them often (one of the latest promising options is EmbraceWP).

There is also another similar type of business that’s more centered on a la carte WordPress services. I’ve recommend Tweaky (now Elto) from my own contact form for small a la carte services, and there are others like Codeable, WerkPress, and Fantasktic, all of whom are recommended by people I trust.

Considering all of these options raises a few questions for me.

Who can I trust?

In the face of so much competition, how does a site owner know who to use? In short, that’s a difficult question to answer. My best recommendation would be to use those recommended by other folks you trust. Choose services led by people you have a personal relationship with.

Do not choose purely based on price. Also, be sure to gather apples to apples comparisons. Here are some questions you can ask any provider:

Does your plan include hosting?
Does it include updates?
What’s your average response time on maintenance tasks?
Do you do regular monitoring on my site performance?
What kind of reports can I expect to keep informed about my site?
What makes you different from using a managed WordPress host?
Who is your primary host provider?
Does my onboarding process include a code review?
Do you use version control for site maintenance?
Will I have a staging area for testing site changes?

The list can go on. But you get the point. Not every service is created equal, and the answers will change depending on who you get a maintenance quote from.

How do I choose?

WordPress capabilities magic with map_meta_cap

Mannie Schumpert has done a nice job offering some practical examples using map_meta_cap. Mannie … Read more

Battling round numbers with WordPress 4.0

WordPress 3.9 hasn’t quite reached beta, but many of us are already looking ahead to WordPress 4.0. I know, I know: 4.0 is no more significant than 3.9 or any other major release. It just so happens that WordPress’ twenty-third major release will be labeled 4.0.

But we know — even those of us who know that 4.0 is just 4.0 — that we’ll be just a little more excited about 4.0 than a normal major release. We remember 3.0. It was huge! Multisite, custom post types and many other amazing things we now take for granted were included. But, that doesn’t mean that 4.0 will be so big.

In the stock market, the arbitrary assignment of additional importance to round numbers is called round number bias. The problem is, even though all halfway savvy investors understand this, it doesn’t stop anyone from using round numbers as points of reference and milestones, therefore giving them even further support for importance.

“With shares flirting with $500 again, is it time to buy or time to panic?”

– fool.com talking about Apple.

No matter how much we may want to ignore round numbers, we are drawn to them. They make understanding things easier. And like in the stock market, even though we know 4.0 is just another major release, we want it to be special. We want it to have flair. And I can guess the big tech headlines now. They probably won’t recognize the WordPress version numbering policy at all. They’ll cite the big release of 4.0, and weigh its greatness based on what new major features are included.

Signature features

Pressure for signature features can sometimes make software management difficult. WordPress 3.7 lacked a signature feature, but it was still an incredible release. WordPress 3.8 shipped with the new admin design, so the signature feature was taken care of. But other times, the desire to ship with a signature feature can end up putting so much focus on said feature that other items that should’ve been a lock, end up not getting the attention they otherwise could have. All for the sake of releasing something “sexy”.

Every planning meeting for core development, I see folks in chat wanting to know what the signature feature is going to be.

And in 4.0, expectations will be high. Also, I’ve followed WordPress project lead Matt Mullenweg’s style of leadership for a number of years now, and I think he’ll want to see something really special in 4.0 too.

So, while it may just be another release, I think extra special attention will be given to the signature feature for 4.0.