WordPress News

Five takes on helpful plugin stats and insights

Dan Knauss

October 20, 2022

Good ideas for the future of data disclosed to plugin authors using the wordpress.org repository:

1) Identify surges of unhappy users reacting to a bad release — and the opposite, happier outcome.

2) Use pageview analytics to estimate total potential user interest and conversion rates.

3) Assess a plugin's performance with the .org search algorithm, the quality of releases, and plugin incompatibility as well as PHP compatibility issues.

4) Collect significant user behavior data anonymously without phoning home.

5) Just reveal all the raw data with privacy options for individual authors — no interpretive analysis on wordpress.org.

BONUS: Let's take this discussion somewhere else!

Does WordPress.org Data Belong to the WordPress Community? Should It?

Dan Knauss

October 14, 2022

BusinessNotes

Today WP Watercooler sought Solutions to the Active Growth Problem. In a pointed but respectful conversation moderated but Sé Reed, the Watercooler crew got one new detail from Otto about the decision to remove the active install charts: it was…

Over, Under, Around, and Through

Dan Knauss

October 14, 2022

BusinessPlanet

This week Alex Denning (Ellipsis) draws on Iain Poulson's historical, high-level plugin data at WP Trends to offer some thoughtful, somewhat contrary, but practical and grounded perspectives on the value of Active Install Data. At the WP Watercooler and elsewhere, a realization seems to be setting in that the data is not open source and not the property of the WordPress community. Like last week's episode of Post Status Draft with Katie Keith of Barn2 Plugins, Till Krüss (Object Cache Pro, Relay) offers a lot of lessons this week about less travelled paths to success in the plugin business even as a very small company or company of one. Performance, testing, and support are key, interrelated parts of Till's success and probably the most important ones to borrow in your own life and work if they resonate.

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.

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.

WordPress Core Contributor Stats: 19.9% Sponsored for 6.0 Release

Dan Knauss

September 29, 2022

BusinessNotes

The percentage of sponsored contributors has steadily increased to almost 20% now.

Is this a WordPress Acquisition?

Dan Knauss

August 25, 2022

BusinessHosting

DigitalOcean's acquisition of Cloudways is an investment in the WordPress ecosystem with an emphasis on "digital agencies, eCommerce sites, bloggers, freelance developers and builders hosting on WordPress."

Growing as a leader and setting your team up for wins

Dan Knauss

August 24, 2022

BusinessCareers

James Giroux writes so much good stuff on his own blog, I can't keep up. I am accumulating a list of things he's tackled that are unusual to see written about in any depth in the WordPress community, especially by…

Languages of Contribution and Creation

Dan Knauss

August 19, 2022

BusinessFeatures

The Creator Economy owes a lot to WordPress, but that doesn't mean WordPress is valued or even understood by Creators as an open source project and community. Are the stories we tell and the words we use compelling to newcomers and the younger generations we need to succeed us? Is the story and language that got WordPress where it is adequate to take it where it wants to go?

New Voices

Dan Knauss

August 12, 2022

BusinessPlanet

WordPress needs more and better conversations. Respect, cooperation, and appreciation for each others’ roles even across differences and real disagreements — is it possible?

Post Status Excerpt (No. 63) — Pay Transparency, Mutual Respect, and the Community We Need

Dan Knauss

August 11, 2022

BusinessCareers

This week, Ny relates some personal experiences where pay transparency was lacking and the impact it can have on workplace cultures. This leads into a discussion of pay transparency in the hiring process — how it matters to everyone but especially job seekers who are black, indigenous, and other people of color.

Local Development Tools and the Open Web

Dan Knauss

August 9, 2022

BusinessDesign

Who is not using Local? Is it an Open Web tool? Let's review some "Local history" and consider where WP Engine's popular developer tools could be headed.

DesktopServer Shutting Down After 12 Years

Cory Miller

August 5, 2022

BusinessHosting

It's sad to hear that ServerPress is closing its doors and DesktopServer has reached its end. Marc Benzakein and Gregg Franklin were active WordPress community members for years and I appreciated their work. Shared in an email to their customers:…

If you step out, keep the door cracked

Cory Miller

August 2, 2022

BusinessPost Status Team Blog

WordPress is an amazing community, but if you’ve been in it for long, it can be a bit rough too. We are one big messy family. For the overwhelming majority of my time in it, I’ve found the most incredible…

Market Size and Market Shares: Thinking Bigger About the WordPress Economy

Dan Knauss

July 15, 2022

BusinessFeatures

$635.5 billion…That’s "billion," with a “B.” Let's look at the size of the universe inhabited by our market of markets of cathedrals and bazaars: the WordPress ecosystem. How should we think about WordPress's market share or, maybe more accurately, its shares? Are we selling them short and dampening growth?

It’s Hard to COPE Without a WordPress Lite

Dan Knauss

July 8, 2022

BusinessDesign

It's still far from simple to do well — let alone do better — what was first possible in the Web 1.0 era, even before WordPress was born. Thoughts on "WordPress Lite" and "Create Once, Publish Everywhere."