Jeremey DuVall — a support team…
David Bisset
Jeremey DuVall -- a support team lead and Happiness Engineer at Automattic -- shares how to manage negativity with your customers on the HelpScout blog.
WordPress needs bigger data
Brian Krogsgard
WordPress needs big data -- knowledge of how the product is used -- to make better decisions as to how to direct the future of the software. To make my point, allow me to drift off into the wonderful world…
Listings, forked from WP Job Manager, goes generic
Brian Krogsgard
The Look And Feel -- an agency that includes Scott Basgaard and Coen Jacobs -- have forked WP Job Manager into a plugin called Listings, with the intention of enable generic "listings" with WordPress, that can be specialized for nearly any…
WooCommerce 2.6 released with shipping zones in core; also, Follow Up Emails acquired
Brian Krogsgard
WooCommerce 2.6 is out, and named "Zipping Zebra", with a slew of new features. Mike Jolley notes in the announcement that this release has been in, "development for ~5 months, and has had over 1700 commits from 25 contributors." The most visible…
Growing a lifestyle business without losing the lifestyle
Nate Wright
Balancing a lifestyle business -- and trying to grow it -- can be tricky, when you're not willing to give up your lifestyle for that growth. There are ways to grow your business without giving up the lifestyle you began it all for, right?
Automattic is building a directory for WordPress professionals
Brian Krogsgard
There's not a whole lot to this story that's not in the title, but Jetpack.pro is the directory that Automattic is building, and it's in a very early beta stage right now. In the email to beta testers, they noted,…
The WordPress.org recommended host page has finally updated
Brian Krogsgard
The WordPress.org recommended host page is a valuable piece of real estate. Many rumors have been circulated over the years in regard to how the page is curated and what criteria are used. It was long neglected, then transitioned to two…
Automattic has won the rights to manage .blog
Brian Krogsgard
Automattic has won the rights to manage the gTLD .blog, one of the most sought after generic top level domain extensions to date. They paid "about $19M" for the privilege, according to Matt Mullenweg's blog post (which he has since…
Trademarks, Woo, and you
Brian Krogsgard
There's been talk lately about Automattic enforcing trademarks for the term "Woo", by sending takedown notices to websites utilizing the term in their domains and offering services or products associated with WooCommerce. Automattic has been sending letters, primarily to sites…
Thoughts on WooCommerce Connect
Brian Krogsgard
Last week, Automattic introduced WooCommerce Connect, a Jetpack-esque suite of tools for WooCommerce, where modules could utilize the processing power of WordPress.com to run particular elements of eCommerce websites. WooCommerce Connect requires Jetpack, and therefore also a WordPress.com account, in…
Here’s some insight from Patrick Rauland…
Brian Krogsgard
Here's some insight from Patrick Rauland on how many projects at Automattic start. Insightful, and this line might explain a few reasons why some items might take longer to be addressed then others: "Since getting people on board your project is…
Weekend listening: The A16Z podcast talked…
Weekend listening: The A16Z podcast talked about open source business models in a short episode the other day. Automattic isn't mentioned, but the conversation around investing in community influencers, winning over developers, and building out a sales team is pretty…
Shared hosting is hard, and EIG owns a lot of shared hosting companies
Brian Krogsgard
Chris Lema recently shared his opinion on some hosting companies to avoid. Spoiler: generally he doesn't care for hosting companies owned by EIG. You've probably never even heard of many of the companies in the list -- though you've probably all heard of…
Managing products is about focus
Brian Krogsgard
I have to hand it to Jeff Chandler, he's pretty good at raising a ruckus when he's annoyed with a plugin. Yesterday, I guess he reached his boiling point with Edit Flow, the quasi-abandoned plugin by Automattic for managing an…
Simplenote, acquired by Automatic in early…
Simplenote, acquired by Automatic in early 2013, has recently come out with versions for Windows and Linux. The versions are also going to be open-sourced, which is certainly something a company behind owned by Automattic would do. Simplenote is one…
1.4 million WordPress.com custom domains have just gone fully SSL
Brian Krogsgard
WordPress.com makes up for a huge number of LetsEncrypt's total SSL certificates. This morning, Automattic flipped the switch on enabling LetsEncrypt certificates for 1.4 custom domains on the platform. They had already enabled SSL on all WordPress.com subdomains, but this…
