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Are you driven by a desire to share your knowledge and expertise with the world? Do you feel the pull of making an impact but aren’t sure how to leverage your skills? In today’s digital economy, there’s an abundance of opportunity, but sometimes the path is anything but clear. That’s why we’ve crafted a comprehensive guide to help you navigate this exciting journey. 

Unlock your future with our brand-new course: Building Online Courses. 

Not just another how-to guide

We’ve taken the essence of building compelling, flexible, and effective online courses and distilled it into actionable insights. This course is a treasure trove of strategies designed to help you bring your unique skills to a global classroom. Let’s delve into why this course is essential for aspiring educators like you.

How online courses will transform your brand 

Imagine breaking free from geographical and time constraints. That’s the power of online courses—they’re a stage for you to share your skills and knowledge with a global audience. Here’s why that’s a game-changer:

• Global reach: Break through geographical boundaries. Whether it’s someone across the world or literally right next door, your digital classroom is limitless.
• Flexibility: Craft your product around your life. No more stressing over schedules; this is learning and teaching on your terms.
• Financial freedom: Create new avenues of income by monetizing your expertise. After all, why shouldn’t you benefit from the value you’re bringing into people’s lives?
• Community building: Establish a tribe of like-minded learners. It’s not just about information; it’s about transformation.
• Convenient creation: We demystify the technical aspects of building a course so that you can focus on what truly counts: impactful content.

Tailored to your needs

Choose from a variety of course setup options. Are you a fan of simplicity? WordPress.com’s built-in features, like pages and posts, make course building a breeze. Prefer a structured approach with advanced features? Our Learning Management System (LMS) options like Sensei offer robust frameworks for a more comprehensive learning experience. In Building Online Courses we cover them all and guide you through how each option works.

As an added bonus, we’re also offering a webinar: Effortless Course Creation: Sensei LMS + WordPress.com for two live sessions in October (the recorded replay will be available after that).

Empower, engage, excel

We don’t stop at the “how”—we also dive into the “why,” helping you map out a meaningful and coherent educational pathway. From determining course frequency to crafting a compelling sales page, every lesson is a stepping stone to elevate your teaching and, in turn, enrich your students’ lives.

Are you ready to blaze a trail?

Join us as we break down barriers and redefine the landscape of online education. Whether you’re an expert or someone who’s just a few steps ahead of the audience you wish to serve, this course will set you on a path to success.

Ready to turn your passion into impact? Dive into the enriching world of Building Online Courses and become the educator the world needs.

Are you excited? So are we. Let’s build your future in education, together.

Join WordPress Executive Director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, as she goes back to the basics and offers some insight into block patterns for WordPress. Don’t miss this exciting insider’s look!

Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording.

Credits

Host: Josepha Haden Chomphosy
Editor: Dustin Hartzler
Logo: Javier Arce
Production: Brett McSherry
Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

Show Notes

• Using Block Patterns
• Pattern Library
• Taking Advantage of Query Loops
• Small List of Big Things
  • The WP Annual Survey is available! Each year, the WordPress community (users, site builders, extenders, and contributors) provides valuable feedback through an annual survey.
  • WordCamp Asia is searching for volunteers for the upcoming WordCamp on March 7–9, 2024. They are looking for Contributor Stories, Event Volunteers, Emcee support, A/V Team Crew, and even designers to help create the official Wapuu for the event.
  • Local WordCamp Meetups! Use this opportunity to find upcoming local events or volunteer to help at the next one. They are an excellent opportunity to meet with others in the community.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Josepha: Hello everyone. And welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go.

[00:00:28] (Intro music) 

[00:00:39] Josepha: Today’s briefing topic is going to take a bit of a back-to-basics look at block patterns. Block patterns are one of my favorite enhancements that came through the Gutenberg project, and they’re pretty much exactly what they sound like. Groups of blocks that are arranged together. These patterns can be as simple as a block that holds a series of social sharing icons, but they can also be as complex as an entire landing page, complete with a call to action and interactive gallery.

They can be used as a starting point where you activate an entire pattern and then modify the pieces that don’t quite work for you or as a sort of inspirational catalog of design elements for you to build your own patterns from. 

So, where do these block patterns come from? Who created them? As with most things in WordPress, the answer is lots of places. Some patterns are included with WordPress by default, and there are also sometimes specialized block patterns that are bundled with a particular theme or plugin. There’s also a pattern library that includes both curated block patterns and all the patterns that are created and shared by the WordPress community itself.

So from the CMS, from themes, from plugins, from designers, from hobbyists, from people who just like love creating things and putting it out in the world, that’s, that’s where those patterns come from. But you can also create and curate your own block patterns, either to share back to the community as some folks do or because you are a site administrator and everyone needs to be able to add, I don’t know, an author block or something. But you don’t always want to be the one that has to put the photo on the page. 

There are a few blocks that have their patterns built into settings, most notably the Query Loop Block. I’ll share a tutorial about how to work with that in the show notes, but ultimately, what’s important to remember here is that block patterns are a really powerful tool with a lot of ways to implement them. You can start as simple as you want or as complex as you want, but either way, getting familiar with this concept in the software will give you a leg up on your next project.

[00:02:53] (Music interlude) 

[00:03:00] Josepha: That brings us now to our small list of big things. 

First up, the annual survey is available. Each year, the WordPress community, so users, site builders, extenders, contributors, artists, you all provide valuable feedback through an annual survey. And every year, I look into the results to get a sense for what areas need the most attention in the project. So click the link in the show notes to take the 2023 survey and help co-create WordPress. 

The next thing on our small list of big things is WordCamp Asia is currently searching for volunteers for the upcoming event on March 7th through 9th, 2024. They’re looking for Contributor Stories, Event Volunteers, Emcee support, A/V Team Crew, and even designers to help create the official Wapuu for the event. I’ll include a link to applications for that in the show notes as well. 

And finally, I think it’s important to mention that if you don’t really know what a WordCamp is, so you don’t really understand why you should volunteer to help this one, or why you would want to, then head over to your local meetup. If you look in your WordPress dashboard, there’s a widget in there that tells you when the next local event will be. And I know that they will all be delighted to have you there. And who knows, maybe your city will be the next to host a WordCamp. I’ll also include in the show notes just a list of all of the meetup groups that we have in the world. And so if you don’t trust your dashboard or you don’t share your location there for some reason, you can just find it on your own.

And that, my friends, is your small of big things.

[00:04:32] Josepha: Thanks for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. Don’t forget to follow us on your favorite podcast app, or subscribe directly on WordPress.org/news. You’ll get a friendly reminder whenever a new episode drops. If you liked what you heard today, share it with a fellow WordPresser. Or, if you had questions about what you heard, you can share those directly with me at wpbriefing@WordPress.org. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Thanks again for listening, and I’ll see you in a couple of weeks. 

[00:05:00] (Music outro)

This security and maintenance release features 19 bug fixes on Core, 22 bug fixes for the Block Editor, and 8 security fixes.

WordPress 6.3.2 is a short-cycle release. You can review a summary of the maintenance updates in this release by reading the Release Candidate announcement.
Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. Backports are also available for other major WordPress releases, 4.1 and later.

The next major release will be version 6.4 planned for 7 November 2023.

If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.

You can download WordPress 6.3.2 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”.

For more information on this release, please visit the HelpHub site.

Security updates included in this release

The security team would like to thank the following people for responsibly reporting vulnerabilities, and allowing them to be fixed in this release:

• Marc Montpas of Automattic for finding a potential disclosure of user email addresses.
• Marc Montpas of Automattic for finding an RCE POP Chains vulnerability.
• Rafie Muhammad and Edouard L of Patchstack along with a WordPress commissioned third-party audit for each independently identifying a XSS issue in the post link navigation block.
• Jb Audras of the WordPress Security Team and Rafie Muhammad of Patchstack for each independently discovering an issue where comments on private posts could be leaked to other users.
• John Blackbourn (WordPress Security Team), James Golovich, J.D Grimes, Numan Turle, WhiteCyberSec for each independently identifying a way for logged in user to execute any shortcode.
• mascara7784 and a third-party security audit for identifying a XSS vulnerability in the application password screen.
• Jorge Costa of the WordPress Core Team for identifying XSS vulnerability in the footnotes block.
• s5s and raouf_maklouf for independently identifying a cache poisoning DoS vulnerability.

Thank you to these WordPress contributors

This release was led by Joe McGill, Aaron Jorbin and Jb Audras, with the help of David Baumwald on mission control.

WordPress 6.3.2 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver maintenance and security fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.

Aaron Jorbin, Aki Hamano, Akihiro Harai, Alex Concha, Andrew Ozz, Andy Fragen, Anthony Burchell, Aurooba Ahmed, Ben Dwyer, Carolina Nymark, Colin Stewart, Corey Worrell, Damon Cook, David Biňovec, David E. Smith, Dean Sas, Dennis Snell, Dhruvi Shah, Dion Hulse, Ehtisham S., Felix Arntz, George Mamadashvili, Greg Ziółkowski, Huzaifa Al Mesbah, Isabel Brison, Jb Audras, Joe Hoyle, Joe McGill, John Blackbourn, John James Jacoby, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jonny Harris, Jorge Costa, Justin Tadlock, K. Adam White, Kim Coleman, LarryWEB, Liam Gladdy, Mehedi Hassan, Miguel Fonseca, Mukesh Panchal, Nicole Furlan, Paul Biron, Paul Kevan, Peter Wilson, Pooja N Muchandikar, Rajin Sharwar, Ryan McCue, Sal Ferrarello, Sergey Biryukov, Shail Mehta, Stephen Bernhardt, Teddy Patriarca, Timothy Jacobs, Weston Ruter, Zunaid Amin, ahardyjpl, beryldlg, floydwilde, jastos, martin.krcho, masteradhoc, petitphp, ramonopoly, vortfu, zieladam

How to contribute

To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, pick a ticket, and join the conversation in the #core and #6-4-release-leads channels. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook.

Already testing WordPress 6.4? The fourth beta is now available (zip) and it contains these security fixes. For more on 6.4, see the beta 3 announcement post.

Thanks to @jeffpaul, @chanthaboune, @peterwilsoncc and @rawrly for proofreading.

Exciting times are here for all WordPress.com users! The revolutionary ActivityPub feature is now available across all WordPress.com plans, unlocking a world of engagement and interaction for your blog. Your blogs can now be part of the rapidly expanding fediverse, which enables you to connect with a broader audience and attract more followers.

Let’s dive into what this means for all WordPress.com blogs.

What is the “fediverse”?

The fediverse consists of federated platforms like Mastodon, which are networks of independent websites or servers that can communicate with each other while still operating individually. It’s much like email; you can send emails to users with accounts on different services (like Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), yet all of them can interact seamlessly. Similarly, federated platforms enable users to follow, share, and interact with content across different services in a unified network.

What is the ActivityPub plugin?

ActivityPub is a WordPress plugin that facilitates seamless integration between your blog and a host of federated platforms, including Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, and more. This plugin empowers your readers to follow your blog posts on these platforms. 

In addition, replies to your posts from these platforms are automatically turned into comments on your WordPress blog, creating a more interactive and dynamic conversation around your content. Synchronicity for the win!

Transform your blog into a fediverse profile

Your WordPress blog can now become a profile for the fediverse. This means your readers can follow you and receive all the latest posts from your blog directly on their preferred platform. More so, they can engage in enriching conversations by replying to your posts, with their replies reflecting as comments on your blog post, creating a synchronized and interactive experience.

On Free, Personal, and Premium sites, you can enter the fediverse through your settings (see how below); for Business and Commerce sites, simply install the ActivityPub plugin and follow the prompts to set up your profile.    

Getting started is a breeze

1. From your blog’s dashboard, go to Settings > Discussion and activate the feature by toggling “Enter the fediverse.”
2. Make note of your default fediverse profile name. In the example above, it’s the alias openprotocolfanblog.wordpress.com@openprotocolfanblog.wordpress.com. Your alias will be unique to you, of course, and will be far more memorable with a custom domain! (More on that below.)
3. Follow your new profile on a federated platform, such as Mastodon.
4. Share your profile name with others so they can follow your blog on federated platforms.

Remember, this feature is applicable to new posts only; and it might take up to 15 minutes for new posts to appear on federated platforms.

Why use a custom domain?

Upgrading to a domain doesn’t just give your profile a professional touch:

• A shorter custom domain is simply more memorable than the default name provided.  
• It ensures your profile is uniquely identifiable, making it easier for users across the fediverse to find and interact with your content. 
• With a custom domain you can easily move your entire fediverse connection to any host at any time. 

Make new connections today!

Take advantage of this new opportunity to extend your blog’s reach, connect with diverse audiences, and create engaging dialogues. It only takes seconds to enable this simple yet powerful feature on WordPress.com. And remember, upgrading to a domain not only emphasizes your unique identity but also enhances profile portability and unlocks additional settings and features. So, why wait? Dive in and showcase your content to the world!

While there are many ways to monetize your website, there’s one strategy that stands out for its potential and simplicity: the paywall. We’re excited to tell you that this feature is now available on all WordPress.com sites. 

Let’s explore why and how to use the new Paywall Block. 

What is a paywall and what are the benefits?

A paywall allows you to restrict certain pieces of content on your site or newsletter, requiring your readers to subscribe in order to access your work. 

Generally, you’ll insert a paywall partway through a post, allowing all visitors to see a portion of the content, but then incentivizing them to subscribe in order to read the rest of it. 

If you’re wondering whether this strategy is worth considering, here are the three key benefits:

1. Revenue generation: By offering premium content behind a paywall, you open a new revenue stream and diversify your income.
2. Audience loyalty: Paying subscribers are committed to your content, and are more likely to share your content and contribute to your site’s growth. 
3. Content versatility: You can now offer a mix of free and premium content, and adapt it to each situation. For example, you can upload a podcast and put the transcript behind the paywall, or write a detailed case study and put the downloadable content and resources behind the paywall. These limitless opportunities make it easier for you to attract a wider audience—you can use your free content to draw in new users, and then entice them to subscribe for access to premium content.  

How to use the Paywall Block

You can add the Paywall Block anywhere in your posts or pages:

1. In the editor for any post/page editor, type “/” or click the inserter (“+”) button to add a new block.
2. Search for “Paywall,” insert the block, then drag it wherever you want.
3. From the toolbar or the right sidebar, choose the audience segment who will have access to the content below that paywall—and you’re all set! 

You can also add the Paywall Block to previously published material.

Amplify an existing site with newsletter features

Whether you already have a well-established site or you’re starting from scratch, at WordPress.com you have all the tools you need to start a newsletter. With the Subscribe Block and Newsletter Patterns at your disposal, you can get a publication up and running in no time. With the new Paywall Block, we’ve added another piece to your newsletter toolbox.

What’s next?

WordPress.com is ever-evolving, and we’re always refining the design, experience, and offerings for writers, creators, and publishers like you. We’re all ears for your ideas to make it even easier for more people to publish and earn from their work.

Try out the Paywall Block and let us know what you think in the comments. We’re always listening to your feedback.

The shift towards online education is more than just a trend—it’s a significant and lasting change in how we share knowledge with the world. Whether you’re an experienced educator, corporate trainer, or influential thought leader, our upcoming webinar will equip you to set up and manage your own online course effectively.

In this comprehensive live demonstration, our WordPress.com specialists will walk you through the process of creating, managing, and monetizing your online courses using the Sensei Learning Management System (LMS) plugin with WordPress.com. You’ll learn:

• Setting up your course outline
• Creating engaging and educational content
• Utilizing AI educational tools
• Other tips for managing your courses

This valuable webinar is free to attend and will conclude with a live Q&A. Don’t miss this chance to elevate your educational or training initiatives through the synergistic capabilities of WordPress.com and Sensei. We’re offering two sessions the week of October 16th—sign up below!

Don’t miss our other October webinars!

This month we’re introducing you to the full power of WordPress plugins and the critical role a custom domain plays for your site. Both sessions aim to provide the tools required to elevate your website to new heights.

Picking the Perfect Plugin

Extend your website’s capabilities beyond its basic functions with the right plugins. In this interactive session, our Happiness Engineers will guide you through the process of selecting, evaluating, and managing plugins to enrich your WordPress.com site. Learn the essentials to make informed decisions that cater to your site’s unique needs.

Mastering Custom Domains

Unlock your site’s full potential with a custom domain. In this session, you’ll learn how to find, register, and connect the ideal domain to your WordPress.com site, and the advantages of adding a domain-specific email addresses to increase your email open rates. Our experts will provide the knowledge you need to manage your domain with confidence.

Join us for our October live webinars, carefully curated to benefit both novice and experienced site owners. Each webinar is free to attend and features a live Q&A session with our expert Happiness Engineers. Make the most out of your WordPress.com experience by attending these invaluable sessions.

Your domain is the lifeblood of your online presence. For the last few months, we’ve been hard at work building a number of exciting features to ensure a world-class domain name experience on WordPress.com whether you have one domain or one hundred! 

Below, we highlight a handful of new enhancements in how you manage and organize your domains on our platform. 

Table of Contents

1. Table of Contents
2. A fresh look for your domains dashboard
3. Secure your domain for the long term with multi-year registrations
4. Amplify your brand with domain (and subdomain) forwarding 
5. Easily transfer your domain to another WordPress.com user 
6. Bulk updates now available 
7. DNS imports made simple
8. Ready to dive in?

A fresh look for your domains dashboard

One of the first things you’ll notice is the stunning visual overhaul of the domain management dashboard. We’ve made significant improvements to make it more intuitive and enjoyable, especially for those of you with multiple domains. 

Secure your domain for the long term with multi-year registrations

You can now secure your domain(s) for multiple years at a time, all the way up to ten years for most TLDs. Remember, you don’t need to have a website with WordPress.com to house your domain with us. 

Amplify your brand with domain (and subdomain) forwarding 

This feature is perfect for folks who want to utilize a unique domain name that will lead visitors to a specific site or page. Forwarding your domain or subdomain can be used for a number of purposes:

• E-commerce Campaigns: Launching a product? Secure a catchy domain and point it directly to your product page.
• Rebranding: If your long-established domain isn’t snappy, mask it with a more memorable one.
• Social Media Simplification: Make it easy for people to find your Facebook or LinkedIn by redirecting a unique domain straight to your profile.

Learn more about domain forwarding. 

Easily transfer your domain to another WordPress.com user 

If you’re looking to transfer a domain to another WordPress.com user, there’s no need to reach out to our Happiness Engineers. Do it yourself with a single click from the transfer settings page.  

Learn more about domain transfers. 

Bulk updates now available 

We’ve made it easier than ever to manage multiple domains. With our latest update, you can now perform bulk updates, like setting auto-renewal options or updating your contact details. No more clicking through to individual domain management pages. 

DNS imports made simple

With every domain transferred to us, we attempt to discover and import your DNS records automatically to make sure your website, email, and other services continue working as expected after the domain transfer is complete. We also allow you to import all your DNS records using our new BIND file imports. Both those features are available to you to allow a smooth transfer of your domain. We still recommend all our users check and confirm all their DNS records were imported successfully to avoid any service interruptions.

Ready to dive in?

We can’t wait for you to try out these feature upgrades yourself. If you have domains with us already, visit your dashboard:

If you need a new domain, get started here: 

And if you have a domain to transfer from Google or Squarespace, we’ll cover the fees for you and provide an extra year of registration. Learn more and get started here. 

Thank you for choosing us as your trusted domain hosting provider. We’re excited to continue supporting your online journey and helping you make a lasting impact on the web.

WordPress 6.4 Beta 2 is now available for testing!

This beta version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it is recommended you evaluate Beta 2 on a test server and site.

You can test WordPress 6.4 Beta 2 in three ways:

1. Plugin: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).
2. Direct download: Download the Beta 2 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.
3. Command line: Use the following WP-CLI command:
   wp core update --version=6.4-beta2
4. Local environment: Use wp-now to set up a Node.js-based WordPress 6.4 Beta 2 install locally. Learn more in this guide.

The current target for the final release of WordPress 6.4 is November 7, 2023. Get an overview of the 6.4 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.4-related posts in the coming weeks for more information.

The WordPress 6.4 release is brought to you by an underrepresented gender release squad to increase participation and partnership with those who identify as gender-underrepresented in the WordPress open source project.

Want to know what’s new in WordPress 6.4? Read the Beta 1 announcement and tune into Episode 63 of the WP Briefing podcast for details.

How to get involved with testing

Your help testing the WordPress 6.4 Beta 2 version is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.4.

The Font Library feature, currently available in Gutenberg 16.7, requires more testing and feedback to ensure it is ready for inclusion in the upcoming 6.4 release. Check out this guide for further instructions on how to test it.

If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.

Learn more about Gutenberg updates debuting in WordPress 6.4 by reviewing prior editions of What’s New in Gutenberg posts for 16.2, 16.3, 16.4, 16.5, 16.6, and 16.7.

Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Vulnerability bounty doubles during Beta 2

Between Beta 1 and the final release candidate (RC) for each new WordPress version, the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper.

Beta 2 highlights

WordPress 6.4 Beta 2 contains more than 50 updates since the Beta 1 release, including 18 tickets for WordPress core.

Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes; more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 1 using these links:

• GitHub commits for 6.4
• Closed Trac tickets since Beta 1
• GitHub commits for Twenty Twenty-Four

Note on Twenty Twenty-Four

Please note that some images in Twenty Twenty-Four may not load correctly. A fix is in the works! Learn more on this Trac ticket.

Note on pattern management improvements in non-block themes

While WordPress 6.4 will bring several exciting pattern advancements, improvements to pattern management in non-block themes will eventually be addressed in WordPress 6.5. The Beta 1 announcement has been updated to reflect this change accordingly.

A Beta 2 haiku

Not the first, nor last
A second space to reflect
Both new and not new

Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @meher, @sereedmedia, @rmartinezduque, @cbringmann, @priethor, @annezazu.