Planet

A Definitive Guide to WP-Config, the WordPress 6.1 Field Guide, and Twenty Twenty-Three

Daniel Schutzsmith

October 14, 2022

Here’s a glimpse of what’s going on in the world of design and development in the WordPress space this past week: A delicious developer's advanced guide to WP-Config, the WordPress 6.1 Field Guide, and Twenty Twenty-Three looks amazing! Brian Gardner released a new FSE theme, Powder. Cool Tool of the Week: Lorem Picsum by David Marby and Nijiko Yonskai.

Why the WordPress.org growth charts might not matter

Dan Knauss

October 14, 2022

BusinessFeatures

In 2019-20, only four plugins entered the space and broke into the upper tiers. These were Site Kit for Google, Facebook for WooCommerce, Creative Mail for WordPress and WooCommerce, and Google Ads and Marketing by Kliken. Has the WordPress.org repository become a closed shop, a tapped-out ecosystem where the winners have taken all? Here are some suggestions about how to break in or changes that could be proposed to open and diversify the repository. Until that happens, do growth charts matter?

Two Key Questions We Need To Answer

Cory Miller

October 14, 2022

PlanetPost Status Team Blog

What are the best things the WordPress community can do to better support plugin developers and founders? Recent discussions around the Active Install data being removed from WordPress.org forces us to respond to this question if we believe a healthy third-party plugin market is essential to WordPress, as I do.

Till Krüss on Object Cache Pro, WordPress, Plugins, Testing, and Performance — Post Status Draft 126

Dan Knauss

October 14, 2022

DraftPlanet

Till Krüss explains how he found his way into WordPress and a successful business that's solving the hard problems of caching and performance optimization. His work and business model suggest several areas of opportunity for developers and founders working in the WordPress plugin market today.

Till Krüss on WordPress, Performance, the Plugin Business, and Life

Dan Knauss

October 13, 2022

BusinessHosting

What plugin owner has not felt the pain of an extraordinarily busy support forum? Till is up to (wait for it..) 5-10 minutes a day on support — which he aims to decrease. How? Testing to ensure the highest quality.

WordPress 6.1 RC1 • DevNotes • Field Guides • New LearnWP Course

Courtney Robertson

October 12, 2022

DesignHosting

WordPress 6.1 RC 1 has shipped with a release date of November 1. It's time to start testing! Check out the Developer Notes, Field Guide, and related team updates.

How Open Source is WordPress?

Michelle Frechette

October 7, 2022

PlanetThe Week in Review

Decision-by-committee is difficult enough, and decision-by-community is called an election. Surely there must be a way that we can gather information, keep the community informed, and move forward in a mutually-beneficial way.

Trust Issues

Dan Knauss

October 7, 2022

BusinessPlanet

Cory Miller asks, "What can we do to better support our plugin developers and product owners?" Katie Keith offers some clues with the story of her WordPress/WooCommerce agency and product shop, Barn2 Plugins. Dan Knauss and Nyasha Green talk about microaggressions, the Active Install Growth Data story, and US federal legislation aimed at Open Source Security. In an increasingly "demon-haunted world," how can we know who is doing what with the hardware and software tools we use? Ben Gabler, CEO and Founder of Rocket.net, is in our Member Spotlight.

What Can We All Do to Better Support Our Plugin Developers?

Cory Miller

October 7, 2022

PlanetPost Status Team Blog

The recent discussions around the Active Installs data being removed from the WordPress Repo prompted a couple of questions I think we need to answer as a bigger WP community and particularly our members at Post Status. As someone who…

Post Status Excerpt (No. 70) — Trust and Distrust: Microaggressions, Active Install Growth Data for Plugins, and Open Source Security

Dan Knauss

October 7, 2022

BusinessDesign

In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, Dan and Ny take on three issues in the WordPress community that can threaten or impair trust while also revealing how foundational trust and healthy communication are: 1) racism and microaggressions, 2) the sudden removal and uncertain fate of the active install growth chart in the WordPress.org plugin repository, and 3) open source and security. Briefly discussed: emerging US federal policy that aims to secure open-source software. Zero-trust architecture might work well for networked machines, but human relationships and communities need trust.

Diversifying Revenue, the 50% Coding / 50% Marketing Lifecycle, Active Install Clawback, and Turbo Admin

Daniel Schutzsmith

October 7, 2022

BusinessPlanet

Here’s a glimpse of what’s going on in the world of design and development in the WordPress space this past week. As I look around the Post Status Slack and the chatter on Twitter, this week has been filled with conversations emphasizing the struggle of running a business as a solo devpreneur.

WordPress 6.1 Beta 3 • Active Install Growth Chart

Courtney Robertson

October 6, 2022

DesignHosting

Help test WordPess 6.1 Beta 3! 🧪 Check out the latest features that are coming in the 6.1 release. 📦 Follow updates about bringing back the Active Install Growth chart. 📈

Going from Agency to Products: The Story of Barn2 — Post Status Draft 125

Dan Knauss

October 4, 2022

DraftPlanet

From client services and agency work to a successful product business — Katie Keith tells Cory the Barn2 Plugins story in this episode of Post Status Draft.

Open Source Communities: You May Not Be Interested in CISA, But CISA is Very Interested in You

Dan Knauss

October 3, 2022

FeaturesPlanet

United States national security interests are poised to become more invested in and engaged with open source projects classified as public infrastructure. From Log4j to the Securing Open Source Software Act, how did it all come together in 2022, and what may lie ahead?

Active Install Charts Removed from Plugin Repo

Dan Knauss

October 3, 2022

BusinessFeatures

In reaction to as-yet-unpublicized details about the abuse of active install data in the WordPress.org plugin repository, the charts displaying that data have been removed from plugin pages in a move expected to be temporary. Important (and some familiar) questions are emerging as this story unfolds: how to balance the values of openness, security, and privacy as well as cooperation and competition at WordPress.org — still the central hub for WordPress plugin businesses.