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This month we feature Monika Rao, a Product and Quality Assurance Manager from India. She finds contributing to the WordPress project a way to deepen her technical skills and further her web career.

The People of WordPress series shares inspiring stories of how people’s lives can change for the better through WordPress and its global community of contributors.

Monika was born in Udaipur, in the state of Rajasthan, India. At that time, she recalls, there was some resistance to girls’ education in certain subjects. Thanks to her parents’ support and encouragement, she graduated in Computer Science Engineering. Following graduation, she went on to work for an international firm. However, she felt she wanted to work in her home area and so returned to work for a firm based in Udaipur itself.

Monika started her career journey with WordPress in 2015, and was fascinated as she learnt more of the technology. A few years later, she moved into a  role as a WordPress Quality Analyst, enabling her to dive further into the software.

“From that moment, I decided to make it an integral part of my ever-learning professional career,” she said.

The more Monika researched WordPress, the more she found it was not just a tool to simplify website building but also a platform where you could “meet new people, share your thoughts, learn from them and improve yourself through the process.”

When she first started working with WordPress, she found she had many questions, ranging from what are themes and plugins to what is a WordCamp. As her knowledge grew, she knew one day she wanted to be able to contribute to both the code and the community supporting it.

Becoming part of WordPress

Monika started contributing to WordPress in 2015 with Theme Review. In this area, she was able to work alongside WordPress code experts and, at the same time, learn the concepts of theme development. She saw this as a great opportunity to learn and improve her development skills. 

She was also very interested in testing from the beginning, so she started contributing to Core. Her first contribution was to the WordPress 4.7 release in 2016. She remembers the day she first saw her name in the WordPress contributor list. This encouraged her to make more contributions including to core and the community team, and each time she felt more like part of the community.

Thus inspired, Monika delved into making the software more easily available in her native Hindi language through joining other contributors to the Polyglots team. She went on to become a General Translation Editor for the Hindi language, and has continued to contribute in this area.

As she became involved with the WordPress community, she looked for ways of sharing it with others in her home city. In 2017 she was part of the organizing team for WordCamp Udaipur 2017 and there shared her contributing journey with others. This was her first WordCamp, and she describes the experience as ‘superb’. It enabled her to connect to both those new to WordPress and those already working with it.

“It was a great moment for me speaking in front of hundreds of people and everyone cherished my journey. It inspired me to continue my contribution to other teams too.”

Monika Rao

She went on to be an organizer for WordCamp Udaipur 2018 and WordCamp India 2021. She also contributes to the Meta and Theme review teams.

Contributing to WordPress software releases

2019 was a big year for Monika. She got married and joined a new firm where she could work more on WordPress, learning about marketing and design.

In November 2019, the WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden put out a call for an all-women and non-binary release squad. Monika said: “I’ve always felt that not enough women take part in WordPress, so I decided to jump in.” She took on the role of Test Lead.

“It was a wonderful journey— worth every second and this was a proud moment for me when I saw my name on the WordPress Noteworthy list. You feel proud when you see your small contributions in use by 40 per cent of the web.”

Monika Rao

As a Test Lead, her priority was ensuring the release would be stable and, more importantly, ready for production sites. To effectively manage all the testing, test scrubs were run weekly, highlighting the key testing areas to help get the entire team involved. The scrubs also played an important role in picking up tickets needing immediate resolution.

Monika also continued her role in the WordPress 5.7 release, and focused more on the core software. She believes being part of the Core and Test teams is a good way to watch and learn, as well as take part in the different elements that make up a release.

“Skills you have will eventually fade away unless you work on them and sharpen them. So don’t underestimate the value of any skill. It will eventually help you somehow in your career.”

Monika Rao

She added: “I owe my skills and knowledge to WordPress and its lovely community. The best part about this platform is that it is free and provides ample opportunities to improve your skills and build a career. The wider WordPress community is highly supportive, and it provides numerous additional resources, such as online forums, tutorials, and meetups, to help people learn and grow. With the help of WordPress, anyone can learn how to create websites, develop plugins, and contribute to the community.”

This route for learning has helped Monika in choosing the direction of her career and in keeping her skills up-to-date. In October 2021, she joined a company specializing in producing WordPress plugins and services for online businesses.

Everyone can contribute to WordPress

Monika is determined more people, especially other women, have opportunities to contribute to open source in general.

“Many people are using WordPress, but they don’t all know about contribution. Therefore, my future goal is to help people, especially women, contribute more to WordPress.”

Monika Rao

“When I first started contributing to WordPress, I thought that being from a testing background, I may not be able to contribute much. However, I soon realized that there are various different areas where I could easily contribute and develop my skills,” said Monika.

“So, I would encourage anyone who is interested in contributing to WordPress to find their own area of interest, regardless of their background, be it marketing, content writing, designing, or any other field. The WordPress community welcomes contributions from people of all backgrounds and skill-sets. So, don’t hesitate to dive in and contribute in a way that suits your interests and skills.”

Share the stories

Help share these stories of open source contributors and continue to grow the community. Meet more WordPressers in the People of WordPress series.

Contributors

Thanks to Monika Rao (@monikarao) for sharing her adventures in open source.

Thank you to Abha Thakor (@webcommsat) and the late Surendra Thakor (@sthakor) for interviews and writing this feature, and to Meher Bala (@meher), Chloe Bringmann (@cbringmann), Mary Baum (@marybaum) for work on photographs and review.

The People of WordPress series thanks Josepha Haden (@chanthaboune) and Topher DeRosia (@topher1kenobe) for their support.

In early April, we experienced an unexpected suspension of our Twitter API access. This access is what powers Jetpack Social, which in turn helps you automatically share your blog posts to Twitter. Though the service was restored that same day, it turns out that there were bigger changes looming on the horizon. 

Twitter recently notified Automattic that it was dramatically changing the terms and pricing of the Twitter API. The cost increase is prohibitive for us to absorb without passing a significant price increase along to you, and we don’t see that as an option. We have attempted to negotiate a path forward, but haven’t been able to reach an agreement in time for Twitter’s May 1 cutoff. 

Given that, we have decided to discontinue using the Twitter API.

For WordPress.com and Jetpack users, Twitter will no longer be part of Jetpack Social. However, we’re adding Instagram and Mastodon very soon. In the meantime, auto-sharing to Tumblr, Facebook, and LinkedIn still works as expected, and you can continue sharing your blog post links on Twitter manually through their app or desktop site.

We apologize for any inconvenience this causes for your website and marketing efforts. We wish the outcome had been different, but our customers are always our primary concern, and we’re not willing to compromise the experience or value you receive from WordPress.com and Jetpack. 

If your recent experiences with Twitter have left you dissatisfied, go take Tumblr for a spin — we hear it’s quite a party over there.

Join WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy in the 54th episode of the WordPress Briefing as she explores the concept of the four freedoms of open source and likens it to today’s Bill of Rights for the open web.

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

Credits

Editor: Dustin Hartzler
Logo: Javier Arce
Production: Chloé Bringmann
Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

Show Notes

• Episode 2: WordPress is Free(dom)
• OpenAI ChatGPT and Github Copilot
• WordPress 6.3 Planning Proposal & Call for Volunteers
• Preparing for the Next Underrepresented Gender-Led Release – WordPress 6.4
• WP20 — Celebrating 20 years of WordPress

Transcript

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00] 

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!

 [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:40] Start of Show

Just over 50 episodes ago, I shared some basic thoughts about the four freedoms of open source. I also talked through the most quoted phrase in open source  “free as in free speech, not free as in beer.” And honestly, what podcast about the freedoms of open source would be complete without that? If you haven’t listened to that episode, I suggest you do, but if you don’t have time, I’ll start by reminding us all of the definition of free software, which is most commonly referred to as the four freedoms of open source.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:12]

So the first thing is the freedom to run the program as you wish for any purpose. The second thing is the freedom to study how the program works and to change it so that it does your computing as you wish. As a side note, access to the source code is a precondition for this. 

The third freedom is the freedom to redistribute copies so that you can help others. And the fourth freedom is the freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this, you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes, and of course, also access to the source code is a precondition for this. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:47]

The TLDR version of these freedoms is, essentially, that users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change, and improve the software. Now, normally when I speak about the freedoms of open source, I’m talking about it either from a practical or a philosophical standpoint, but I also spend a lot of time thinking about it from a leadership and organizational perspective.

Every once in a while, you might hear me talk about the effects of “open source at scale,” or you might hear Matt say that the four freedoms are essentially the “Bill of Rghts for the open web.” I almost never really dig into either of those topics because it’s just really complicated. But for starters, anytime you talk about what someone is entitled to or deserves or expects, there is a feeling of political bias.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:40]

And while I personally believe that creating software is inherently political or, at a minimum, concerned with the needs of people, that’s not what convinces anyone to participate in open source, and it’s certainly not what convinces people to use WordPress. But here’s the thing, as a leader in a widely used, free, and open source software project, as a leader in WordPress, I also know that every new user to our platform or any other open source platform represents a little more freedom in the world.

A little more access to tools and jobs that weren’t available before. A slightly more open door to networks that undergird the success of entrepreneurs across the globe and a little more equity to the world of democratizing publishing. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:28]

When I look at the four freedoms of open source, this Bill of Rights for the Web, I see not only the freedoms that we should have but also the things that we should have freedom from. 

We should have the freedom to know how our tools work, the freedom to know what information they need from us, and also the freedom to have some way to make that software work specifically for us because that’s why we have software because we have humans that need it. But we should also have freedom from having to hide our hacky enhancements or freedom from fear of losing our earned audience, or even the fear of losing access to copious amounts of content that we have created ourselves over the years.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:13]

And honestly, the things that we should be free from just include a lot of fear of loss. Loss of opportunity or relevance or livelihood. And I feel like for our project, and maybe for open source as a whole, we’re encountering a lot of that right now, whether we are aware of it or not. We’re seeing advancements like GPT3 or ChatGPT if that sounds more familiar and co-pilot.

And while it’s not quite in the same vein, also things like Gutenberg. Advancements that are coming to technology around us, technology we’re familiar with. And it’s hard to see what’s in them sometimes. It’s hard to see what drives them. It’s hard to know how we can make them work for us. So I have to remind us all, as citizens of an open source community, that what protects us from those things we should be free from is directly connected to how active we are in the things we are free to. 

We hear that in a slightly more routine way from folks around open source communities. Basically, the whole concept of open source software is being built by the folks who show up. You can’t influence the future of anything if you’re not showing up in the spaces where the influence happens.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:35]

So be an active participant in these new technologies. Learn how GPT works and how it could work for you, even if it’s just writing better prompts. Learn how Gutenberg can support your needs, not subvert your needs, even if it’s just learning how to arrange a series of blocks into a pattern or patterns into a page.

But as with all fast-moving technological advances, I encourage you to leap in feet first, not head first. Get in up to your neck in the “why”s and “how”s of that new technology you’ve been worrying about. Be the first to become best at this arcane new thing because that’s why we open source at all so that you have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change, and improve your software. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:33] Small List of Big Things

That brings me now to my small list of big things. It’s a very small list, but it is very big, as always. The first thing is that we are gearing up for the remaining major releases of the year, WP 6.3 and 6.4 in an atypical moment for our project. You can volunteer for both simultaneously if you want, and hopefully, you do want.

Second thing is that there are many ways to celebrate WordPress’s 20th anniversary on May 27th. But one of the things you can do right now is record a short video or sound clip about a great memory or experience you have had in this community or just generally because of WordPress. Those will be featured on the WP 20 website, and maybe even a lucky few will make it into the second volume of the WordPress history book.

And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thanks for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks. 

At WordPress.com, we’re always pushing our platform to do even more so that you can create, design, and publish amazing things with ease. 

The last few weeks have found us as busy as the springtime bees improving the writing and publishing process even more, bringing our ad platform to mobile, and ensuring that previous edits to your work are readily accessible. 

Let’s jump in and take a look.   

Write without distractions 

One of writing’s biggest challenges has nothing to do with the words — it’s filtering out the noise (both literal and figurative) so you can focus. We can’t change your physical environment, but we’re doing what we can to help you get into “the zone” a little more easily. Enter distraction free mode, a minimalist WordPress experience that removes the buttons and menus.   

From the top toolbar, click the three-dot menu on the right-hand side. Select “Distraction free” and you’ll notice the top toolbar disappear. (To bring it back, simply hover over the top of the page and it’ll pop back down.) Your pages and posts will be distraction-free until you deselect this mode. 

When to use this feature: You can’t resist experimenting with various settings or styles, but you also really need to get that new post finished. (Believe us, we’ve been there.) With this cleaner interface, you can focus on your words and your words alone. 

Promote your content from your phone 

Blaze, our self-serve ad platform, makes it easier than ever to spread the word about whatever it is you’re writing, creating, or selling. Now, you can Blaze on the go with the Jetpack app. 

From the main dashboard, simply click on the banner that says “Promote your content with Blaze.” You can also promote your work directly from the Posts or Pages menus by clicking “More” or the three-dot menu and selecting “Promote with Blaze.” 

When to use this feature: You’re waiting for take-out at your favorite Indian restaurant. While scrolling the Jetpack app, you notice traffic spiking on one of your recent blog posts — something about it is resonating with readers. Maximize its impact by boosting it to an even wider audience with Blaze.

Easily find and add free images 

Need a featured image for your post? You can now find and add free-to-use images even faster. Open the Inserter (the red “+” button at the top left of any post or page), navigate to the tab labeled “Media,” click “Openverse,” and find the perfect option from our favorite open-source library. 

You can also still access Openverse from the Image Block or Media Library. 

When to use this feature: You’re on the hunt for just the right image to use in your new blog post. Rather than doing a Google search in a separate tab — and running the risk of using an image you don’t have rights to — use the Inserter to search and place exactly what you need. 

Give readers a timetable

Here’s a fun built-in feature that a lot of folks don’t know about: The WordPress.com editor’s “Outline” function displays a post’s various headings for easy scanning, as well as a word/character count and a “time to read” estimate of how long it would take an average reader to get through the content on that page: 

You can even display that estimate to your site visitors with the new Time To Read Block. (Styling and other customization options are on the way.) 

When to use this feature: You do a lot of longform writing on your site, regularly publishing posts that go over 1,000 words. With this new block, let readers decide whether to start your post now, or wait until they have time to read it in one sitting. It’s a small touch, but a surprisingly thoughtful one. 

Access previous edits to your templates 

Access to previous versions and revisions of posts/pages has long been a staple of the WordPress experience. We’ve now added that same functionality to templates and template parts in the Editor.  

This can be useful for restoring a previous version of a template that you’ve made changes to, or simply for reviewing the changes you’ve made over time. 

When to use this feature: You experimented with some stylistic changes to your homepage template, but after a couple weeks of trying it out, the new look just isn’t hitting quite right. Head over to revisions to easily restore the previous version of the template. 

Looking to take your WordPress website to the next level? You’re in luck! Our WordPress.com webinars are designed to help you create and customize your site with ease, and they’re incredibly popular among site owners. Plus, they’re completely free to attend!

Check out these upcoming webinars, which are conducted live by our knowledgeable Happiness Engineers:

Compelling Homepages: Create a Custom Layout with the WordPress Block Editor

Your site’s homepage is its highest-traffic page, so making it count is crucial to the success of your site. Join us to learn how to create a professional-looking and engaging homepage using the WordPress block editor. Our experts will teach you how to build an effective visual hierarchy and design attention-grabbing calls to action.

• Tues Apr 18 at 9:00pm CEST | 3:00pm EDT | 12:00pm PDT
• Wed Apr 19 at 7:00pm AEST | 2:30pm IST | 11:00am CEST
• Thurs Apr 20 at 9:30pm IST | 6:00pm CEST | 12:00pm EDT | 9:00am PDT

Site Editing: Custom Headers

Your site header is an essential element of your brand identity. In this webinar, we’ll explore the importance of your site header and show you how to create a unique, brand-aligned header using the WordPress.com Site Editor. You’ll learn how to select, customize, and replace header templates, add and edit your site title, logo, and navigation menus, and troubleshoot common issues.

• Tues Apr 25 at 9:00pm CEST | 3:00pm EDT | 12:00pm PDT
• Wed Apr 26 at 7:00pm AEST | 2:30pm IST | 11:00am CEST
• Thurs Apr 27 at 9:30pm IST | 6:00pm CEST | 12:00pm EDT | 9:00am PDT

Don’t miss these opportunities to level up your WordPress skills and create a website that reflects your vision. Our WordPress.com webinars are incredibly popular, and for good reason. Register now for these free webinars, and bring your questions for our live Q&A sessions.

We can’t wait to help you bring your website to life!

Executive Summary

LUBUS, a development agency specializing in WordPress and Laravel, faced challenges with variable hosting costs and maintenance for their clients. They needed a solution that offered fixed costs, high performance, secure web hosting, and reliable service and support. LUBUS decided to test WordPress.com and, after witnessing positive results, confidently recommended it to their clients.

The migration to WordPress.com led to faster site load times, improved stability during traffic surges, and significant cost savings of 50-90% for clients. This allowed LUBUS to concentrate on its core services and offer a more straightforward solution to its clients without the need for DevOps budgets or ongoing maintenance costs. WordPress.com provided an all-in-one solution, ensuring a stable, secure, and cost-efficient experience for LUBUS’s clients.

Introduction

We recently spoke with Ajit Bohra, the Founder and WordPress Engineer of LUBUS, a development agency specializing in WordPress and Laravel. LUBUS, established in 2008, creates high-quality websites for clients in India and across the globe. They have experience building a wide variety of websites, including healthcare, renewables, publishers, telecommunications, music news, online stores, and more. 

Their commitment to delivering “friendly solutions” in WordPress website development led them to seek a solution that provides their clients with:

• A website with fixed costs and no hard limits
• A high-performance, secure web hosting platform
• A host managed and maintained by WordPress experts
• Reliable service and support

LUBUS chose to test WordPress.com and, after witnessing positive results, confidently recommended it to many of their clients.

The LUBUS Story

LUBUS has a team of 12 WordPress designers and developers, serving 8 to 10 new clients annually. About 60% of their clients retain LUBUS’s maintenance and consulting services after the initial site development and launch.

Previously, they hosted clients on AWS (Amazon Web Services) and similar cloud hosting services. While these solutions were suitable for clients who required more complex control, they presented difficulties for many others.

The Challenges and Needs of Various WordPress Website Clients

LUBUS aimed to provide the best service to their clients while keeping their workload focused on core offerings.

Stable Costs and Hosting

For many clients, particularly those in emerging markets or with smaller budgets, the variable billing costs of providers like AWS were often disruptive. These clients needed to budget for exact costs without unexpected charges at the end of a pricing period. Some clients experienced large traffic spikes that either caused their websites to crash or resulted in increased costs to cover additional resources. Neither scenario supports effective growth and scaling.

Ajit Bohra, the LUBUS founder, shared an example where they migrated a heavy metal client’s website to WordPress.com. When the band Metallica shared one of the client’s articles, the site effortlessly handled the traffic surge without incurring additional costs or experiencing any performance issues.

Maintenance and Worry-Free Hosting

In the absence of managed hosting, clients either had to maintain the environment themselves or pay LUBUS for maintenance. This extra time and cost were prohibitive to clients and diverted LUBUS from its primary focus.

“We needed to move away from DevOps and concentrate on our core services. We searched for a straightforward solution that clients could manage themselves without DevOps budgets or ongoing maintenance costs. We aimed to provide clients with a reliable hosting service we could endorse without hesitation, ultimately resulting in satisfied clients. We found that service with WordPress.com,” explained Ajit Bohra, LUBUS founder.

Why LUBUS Chose to Migrate Clients to WordPress.com

Ajit and his team members often attended WordCamps, where they conversed with WordPress.com representatives. Eventually, Ajit felt confident enough to trial WordPress.com with a budget client who wanted to manage their site independently in the future. Factors that contributed to his decision to test WordPress.com included:

• Eliminating security concerns for both LUBUS and the client
• Removing worries about performance or speed
• The platform’s development by the same team behind the open-source WordPress application
• Clients feeling confident enough to manage their own site, knowing they’re protected by Jetpack backups, activity logs, and backed up by excellent WordPress.com support
• Giving clients an option for a lower and more reliable cost model. 

The Migration Process

LUBUS found the migration process smooth and cost-effective, significantly reducing DevOps and maintenance expenses.

As LUBUS migrated more clients to WordPress.com, they continued to experience smooth, error-free migrations. Even in challenging situations, the WordPress.com Happiness Engineers (support team) resolved issues efficiently, providing a positive experience for LUBUS.

The Results: Speed, Stability, and Cost Savings

We were eager to learn LUBUS’s thoughts on their experience with migrating clients’ sites to WordPress.com. Here’s what we discovered.

Faster Sites

Although LUBUS focuses on well-developed sites optimized for fast load times, developers cannot control the server’s TTFB (Time to First Byte). TTFB measures the time it takes for the first byte of the page to load in the client’s browser, reflecting the server’s responsiveness. On average, LUBUS observed a 60-70% improvement in TTFB speed after migrating sites to WordPress.com. This improvement can mean the difference between users staying on the site or leaving due to frustration with load times.

Stability

Some hosting providers hinder a client’s website success and growth. When a site experiences a traffic surge due to a successful marketing or social campaign, some hosts either fail to allocate the necessary resources to keep the site running or charge substantial fees for the extra resources. In both cases, the client’s potential gains from the traffic surge are negatively impacted.

LUBUS clients appreciate that WordPress.com aims to help them succeed rather than penalize them for their success. With high-performance CPUs and automated burst scaling, clients can trust that their sites will withstand traffic surges without incurring additional costs.

Cost Savings

LUBUS founder Ajit Bohra stated, “Many of our clients saved a considerable amount of money, ranging from 50% to over 90%, on hosting charges after moving to WordPress.com. This significant savings offers a tremendous boost for clients, especially in countries like India, or those with basic sites, blogs, webzines, mid-level traffic eCommerce sites, and startups.”

The End Result

WordPress.com + Your Agency = Satisfied Clients

WordPress web design and development agencies are discovering the power of WordPress.com hosting and the benefits it offers to their clients. With full-stack performance, robust security, and developer-friendly features, WordPress.com provides agencies with a platform they can confidently recommend to their clients. Discover what we can do for your agency.

Looking for a development agency focused on providing friendly solutions to big or small ideas? See how Lubus can help you.

Named after the multi-instrumentalist Eric Allan Dolphy Jr., WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy”‘s high notes are riffed on by WordPress’s Executive Director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, in this 53rd episode of the WordPress Briefing.

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

Credits

Editor: Dustin Hartzler
Logo: Javier Arce
Production: Chloé Bringmann
Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

Show Notes

• WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy”
• Introducing the WordPress Developer Blog
• WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program
• Call for Volunteers: Contributor Working Group
• Why Jazz
• Make Slack channels #kidscamp and #sustainability

Transcript

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00]

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]

The latest version of WordPress has shipped. WordPress 6.2, which was named after Eric Dolphy, was released on March 29th. And as is the way with software, there’s already a minor release underway to catch a few errant issues that folks like you have reported to us.

It’s a big release that refines a lot of our design tools, but some of the most important changes are actually to the inserter. If you haven’t had a chance to get in there and play with it yet, here are the three things that I think you should know.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:08]

First, the pattern browser. We’re all aware of the block inserter by now, and a lot of us probably use the quick options, the keyboard shortcuts, or that kind of inline inserter, that little black box that’s in the middle of your post.

If you use the main inserter, that’s a blue square in the top left of the screen. If you use that to add a block, you can still add individual blocks as usual. But there’s a new way to browse patterns, and in my opinion, it is so much better. It now brings out this drawer that has like thumbnails of patterns that will work with your theme.

And if you, like me, know what you want your site to look like, but could not in a million years figure out how to build it from scratch out of individual blocks, then this is the area for you. It was like shopping, but you don’t have to go through a checkout process at the end, and you still have what you want. It’s great. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:00] 

That’s also available when you’re working on templates or template parts, so you can make changes everywhere instead of going page by page. The second thing that I think you should know is about the media browser in that same area where you browse your patterns; you can also now browse for media.

It lets you look through the images you’ve already added to your site, but it also lets you search for openly licensed images from Openverse. And if you choose one of those images from Openverse, it inserts the proper attribution for you. You still have to add your own alt text, but that’s the fun part anyway, right?

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:35] 

And number three, a Style Book. So this thing is available in the template editing area, specifically, as is appropriate, given what it actually does. So if you’re in the template area, toward the top right of the screen is like a half moon day mode, night mode looking icon. If you click on that, you can make changes to things inside your blocks.

But if you click on the little eyeball icon that’s just underneath it, it pulls up a style book where you can also see and edit the styles globally. If that didn’t make sense to you, don’t worry. I’ve got you. I’m about to tell you a bunch of things you can do in here. You can edit the way headings and lists and tables, quotes, and code looks all across the site. You can edit the way images, galleries, files, and videos look using custom CSS.

Yes. Also, all across the site. And you can edit buttons, separators, and individual blocks. Say it with me — all across the site. That is not a comprehensive list. There is a ton of stuff. You can see the styles that you have applied across the whole site. You can see them in context, and you can make any changes that you need globally, which means all across the site.

Yeah. Style Books. What will we think of next?

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:54] 

So those are my three things I think you should know about WordPress right now. As a former WordPress builder who was never really super great with the code, this stuff makes me feel powerful. I just love these changes, and I hope you do too.

 [00:04:07]

Which brings us now to our small list of big things. First, we just launched the Developer Blog. It’s over at developer.wordpress.org/news. It has a bunch of content on it that not only is geared specifically toward developers that are using WordPress but especially the folks who are extending WordPress. It gives you kind of an in-depth look at various changes and projects, and implementations and what goes into each one of them.

So it gives you a bit of like this aspirational overview of stuff that you could do with WordPress and then also gives you an inside look at how you would accomplish it yourself. It’s very cool. I like it a lot. Head on over there, but we’ll have a link to the show notes below.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:00] 

The second thing is that we have an MVP of our new mentorship program that is underway.

It should be debuting for essentially testing any day now, a link to the posts detailing that work, just in case you want to join that important initiative. But it is an important thing for me. I think that mentorship is a key element of many of our successful contributors’ onboarding journeys, a part of their story of coming to us.

And so, creating a mentorship program that is a bit sustainable and looks toward the health of the overall project, I think, is an excellent plan. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:38] 

The third thing on our small list of big things is that Matt put out a nice little post about kind of the history of why jazz has this strong background in the WordPress project. It’s a brief read. I’ll put a link to that in the show notes as well. But suffice it to say that he’s saying that jazz has a little bit of learned processes and rules but that the primary expectation is that you’re able to make of the jazz what you want. Like you get to make your own thing out of it. You get to be extemporaneous. You get to be very measured, whatever it is, that expresses what you are trying to do and what you are trying to say with it.

That’s why he feels like jazz is such an important part of the DNA of the WordPress project. Like I said, it’s a short read. I’ll put a link to it in the show notes.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:30] 

And finally, there are a few working groups that folks can contribute to right now. We don’t always have working groups. We generally just kind of do stuff inside individual teams. But right now, we’ve got like the kids camp group, the sustainability group, and of course, that mentorship working group that I mentioned earlier in our list.

So if you’re wanting a little change of pace, I’d drop by their areas in the Making WordPress Slack to see if they have anything that’s up your alley.

And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks.

The earlier reported outage has been resolved. Twitter is working again for Jetpack Social and all other functionalities that depend on Twitter. All Jetpack Social connections to Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be used as usual. 

We are working with Twitter directly to ensure this service keeps running without interruption.

On April 3, Twitter suspended WordPress.com’s access to the Twitter API without warning. As a result, Jetpack Social — the built-in tool that we use to auto-share your posts to social media — is currently broken for Twitter. This means that auto-posting to Twitter via WordPress.com is not actively working. 

Thankfully, this issue is isolated to Twitter, which means that Jetpack Social connections to other platforms are unaffected. Rest assured that you can continue sharing to Tumblr, Facebook, and LinkedIn without interruption.

You’re most likely to encounter this when publishing a new post. You’ll see this alert in the pre-publish sidebar:

Reconnecting won’t work at this time, nor will trying to establish a new connection.  

We want you to know that we’re on top of this and working hard to find a solution. We’ll keep this post updated as we get more information. 

In the meantime, if you haven’t checked out Tumblr recently, now is a great time to do so! While some social media companies have made recent decisions that adversely affect users’ experience, we’re constantly adding great new features and amping up what’s possible on Tumblr. 

We know that social sharing is vitally important for spreading the word about your work, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience this causes. Thank you for your patience as we work to get everything back up and running.

March saw the arrival of the first major release of 2023, WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy.” Planning for the project’s 20th anniversary continues with new celebratory updates and commemorative swag. Read on for the latest happenings in the WordPress space.

Meet WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy”

WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy” was released on March 29, 2023. Named after the acclaimed jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer Eric Allan Dolphy Jr., the latest version of WordPress further enhances the site editing experience with significant updates.

Highlights include a reimagined Site Editor interface, a more intuitive way to manage menus, and a distraction-free writing mode. A new Block Inserter design adds integration with Openverse, allowing you to easily browse and insert free, openly-licensed images and audio files into your content.

Whether you’re a content creator, designer, or developer, WordPress 6.2 has something for you. Check out the full announcement post for an overview of what’s new and the Field Guide for detailed developer notes.

WordPress 6.2 is one of the last major releases planned for Phase 2 of the project’s development roadmap and was made possible thanks to more than 600 contributors.

Download WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy.”

WP20 swag is here

Show your WordPress excitement with limited edition 20th anniversary merchandise—now available at the official WordPress Mercantile store. If you prefer to create your own swag, you can use these WP20 downloadable assets.

The 20th anniversary website lists celebrations as organizers announce and schedule them. Check back regularly to see if there’s an event in your area to join or help organize one to celebrate this milestone with your local community.

Enter the Wapuu Coloring Giveaway by April 17, 2023, for a chance to win some commemorative WP20 swag!

New in the Gutenberg plugin

Two new versions of the Gutenberg plugin have shipped in the last month:

• Gutenberg 15.3 was released on March 13, 2023. This version polishes the Site Editor experience, includes a new “Time to Read” block for displaying estimated read time to posts, and enhances the Duotone design tool.
• Gutenberg 15.4 is available for download as of March 22, 2023, and focuses primarily on bug fixes and testing improvements. Other additions include color and layout support for the Cover block, improved descriptions to help you understand the purpose of each template in the Site Editor, and the ability to turn paragraph blocks into columns.

Follow the “What’s new in Gutenberg” posts to stay on top of the latest enhancements.

Team updates: Phase 3 planning, WordPress Developer Blog launch, and more

• Gutenberg Lead Architect Matías Ventura outlined the focus areas for Phase 3 of the WordPress development roadmap, known as Collaboration or Collaborative Editing.
• Last month, the WordPress Developer Blog officially launched (removing the “beta” label). Subscribe to keep up with the latest features, tutorials, and learning resources in the WordPress development space.
• The Documentation Team seeks volunteers to help with WordPress 6.2 end user documentation.
• Are you looking to broaden your knowledge and improve your WordPress skills? See what’s new on Learn WordPress in March 2023, including the latest course on Converting a Shortcode to a Block.
• A new Community Themes initiative aims to bring together a group of contributors to collaborate and build block themes.
• The Training Team is looking for assistance in creating content to complete this WordPress Development syllabus.
• The newly formed Contributor Working Group hosted an inaugural chat to kick off work on the WordPress Mentorship Program.
• The Polyglots Team is testing AI systems to help with translation work.
• The WordPress.org redesign project has a new dedicated Making WordPress Slack channel to coordinate work: #website-redesign.
• The March 2023 editions of the Polyglots monthly newsletter and the Meetup Organizer newsletter are available for reading.
• The Mobile Team announced a new support forum for the WordPress mobile app.

Tune in to Episode 52 of WP Briefing to learn more about the visioning behind Phase 3, Collaboration.

Feedback & testing requests

• A new Full Site Editing (FSE) Program exploration looks into the Site Editor as a design tool in light of the recent WordPress 6.2 release. Participants are asked to create a block theme without coding using the current editor tools. Share your experience by April 26, 2023.
• A group of Core contributors is working on a new Interactivity API proposal to provide a better developer experience for building interactive blocks.
• Version 22.0 of the WordPress mobile app for iOS and Android is ready for testing.

Members of the Core Team are looking for user experience (UX) feedback on the Plugin Dependencies feature plugin.

WordPress events updates

• WordCamp Asia 2024 is calling for organizers. Apply by April 15, 2023.
• Registration for the WordCamp Europe 2023 Contributor Day is now open.
• Want to create diverse and inclusive WordPress events? Mark your calendars for the upcoming #WPDiversity workshops.
• Four WordCamps are taking place this month:
  • WordCamp Torino, Italy, on April 14-15, 2023
  • Wordcamp Vienna, Austria, on April 15-16, 2023
  • WordCamp Paris, France, on April 21, 2023
  • WordCamp Sofia, Bulgaria, on April 22-23, 2023

Join WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy as she discusses the benefits of routine and what role it plays in the WordPress project.

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The following folks contributed to this Month in WordPress: @bsanevans, @cbringmann, @eidolonnight, @rmartinezduque, @sereedmedia.