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";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"version";s:3:"2.0";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"channel";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:61:"
	
	
	
	




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57:"WPTavern: Initiatives Being Developed Alongside WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=32296";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"http://wptavern.com/initiatives-being-developed-alongside-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6434:"<a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/OpportunityFeaturedImage.png" rel="prettyphoto[32296]"><img class="size-full wp-image-32335" src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/OpportunityFeaturedImage.png?resize=639%2C287" alt="Opportunity Featured Image" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/streamishmc/2340150187/">{Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}</a> &#8211; <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/">cc</a>
<p>While it&#8217;s easy to focus on WordPress core development, there are a handful of satellite projects to keep an eye on. There is so much happening around the WordPress project, it&#8217;s tough to keep up. This post highlights some of the satellite projects and initiatives that are being developed concurrently with WordPress.</p>
<h2>Feature Plugin: Improve Image Editing</h2>
<p>Led by Siobhan McKeown, the <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/ui/2014/07/07/feature-plugin-improving-image-editing/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/ui/2014/07/07/feature-plugin-improving-image-editing/">Image Flow project</a> is aimed at improving the image editing experience in WordPress. It&#8217;s a feature that will likely not be removed, so the team is doing what it can to improve it. In the most recent meeting, the group <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/ui/2014/10/21/image-flow-update-21st-october-wireframe-discussion/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/ui/2014/10/21/image-flow-update-21st-october-wireframe-discussion/">discussed various wireframes</a> and will be making changes based on community feedback. The group meets every Friday and uses Google Hangout to conduct meetings.</p>
<h2>Scalable Dropdowns</h2>
<p>Created by Helen Hou-Sandi, the scalable dropdowns project is focused on addressing some long-standing issues with dropdowns in WordPress, specifically for <a title="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/19867" href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/19867">users</a> and <a title="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/9864" href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/9864">pages</a>. An <a title="https://irclogs.wordpress.org/chanlog.php?channel=wordpress-dev&day=2014-10-08&sort=asc#m936665" href="https://irclogs.wordpress.org/chanlog.php?channel=wordpress-dev&day=2014-10-08&sort=asc#m936665">initial meeting</a> has taken place on IRC and as a result, several issues have been <a title="https://github.com/helenhousandi/wp-19867-9864/issues" href="https://github.com/helenhousandi/wp-19867-9864/issues">opened on Github</a> for work and discussion. If you&#8217;re interested, review the issues on Github and contribute where you&#8217;re able to. Questions related to the project can be <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/10/10/scalable-dropdowns-update/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/10/10/scalable-dropdowns-update/">asked here</a>.</p>
<h2>Meta, Date, and Taxonomy Query Improvements</h2>
<p>Boone Gorges is <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/10/02/meta-date-and-tax-query-improvements-in-wp-4-1/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/10/02/meta-date-and-tax-query-improvements-in-wp-4-1/">leading the way</a> towards improving <code>WP_Meta_Query</code>, <code>WP_Tax_Query</code>, and <code>WP_Date_Query</code>. The improvements are slated for WordPress 4.1. According to a recent <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/10/20/update-on-query-improvements-in-4-1/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/10/20/update-on-query-improvements-in-4-1/">project update</a>, most of the proposed changes Gorges listed in the initial post have been made.</p>
<h2>Inline Documentation</h2>
<p>Shortly after WordCamp San Francisco 2013, the <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/inline-docs/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/inline-docs/">inline docs team</a> began working on providing inline documentation to every hook in WordPress. The team successfully completed documented every action and filter hook as part of the release of WordPress 3.9. In a <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/09/29/were-discussing-js-docs-at-this-weeks-inline-docs-chat/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/09/29/were-discussing-js-docs-at-this-weeks-inline-docs-chat/">recent meeting</a>, the group discussed options for adopting a documentation standard for core JavaScript.</p>
<h2>WordPress Training</h2>
<p>The <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/training/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/">training initiative</a> is a proposed <a title="http://make.wordpress.org/training/theme-curriculum/" href="http://make.wordpress.org/training/theme-curriculum/">curriculum</a> that covers everything from explaining what a theme is, to creating and altering child themes. The group is working on various training modules that make up each class. In their <a title="https://irclogs.wordpress.org/chanlog.php?channel=wordpress-getinvolved&day=2014-10-14&sort=asc" href="https://irclogs.wordpress.org/chanlog.php?channel=wordpress-getinvolved&day=2014-10-14&sort=asc">most recent meeting</a>, the group discussed the status of modules in progress, infrastructure for testing modules, and a team training sign up form. If you&#8217;re interested in contributing to this project, the team has meetings every <strong>Tuesday 18:00 UTC</strong> in the<strong> #wordpress-getinvolved</strong> IRC channel.</p>
<h2>Opportunities to Contribute</h2>
<p>I&#8217;ve only scratched the surface with the number of initiatives available to contribute to. Whether you have a special interest in <a title="http://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/" href="http://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/">accessibility</a>, <a title="http://make.wordpress.org/ui/" href="http://make.wordpress.org/ui/">UI</a>, <a title="http://make.wordpress.org/mobile/" href="http://make.wordpress.org/mobile/">mobile</a>, <a title="http://make.wordpress.org/support/" href="http://make.wordpress.org/support/">support</a>, <a title="http://make.wordpress.org/themes/" href="http://make.wordpress.org/themes/">themes</a>, or <a title="http://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/" href="http://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/">translations</a>, there&#8217;s a project that could use your help. The best way to stay informed of new and existing initiatives is visit <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/">Make.WordPress.org</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 22 Oct 2014 04:06:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:19:"Matt: Retina 5k Mac";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44298";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/retina-5k-mac/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2378:"<p><img class="alignright  wp-image-44300" src="http://i1.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2014/10/imac-retina-step1-hero-2014.jpeg?resize=354%2C213" alt="imac-retina-step1-hero-2014" /> To me one of the most meaningful shifts in computing the past few years has been how the resolution of displays is getting higher and higher, and interfaces are starting to become resolution independent. I feel like when pixels disappear there&#8217;s less of a wall between people and the technology, it starts to blend a meld a bit more. It&#8217;s something I&#8217;ve been personally passionate about since the first retina iPhone, tirelessly beating the drum at <a href="http://automattic.com/">Automattic</a> to make everything we do shine on hi-DPI screens, or leading the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2013/12/parker/">WordPress 3.8 release</a> that brought in MP6 project to make WordPress&#8217; aesthetics cleaner and vector-based.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m sitting in front of a <a href="http://www.apple.com/imac-with-retina/">Retina 5k iMac</a> right now typing this to you. (It was supposed to arrive on Friday but came a few days early.)</p>
<p>It&#8217;s the most gorgeous desktop display I&#8217;ve ever seen, breathtaking at first and then like all great work becomes invisible and you forget that there was ever a time when displays weren&#8217;t this beautiful. (Until you look at some lesser monitor again.)</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been using 4k displays, <a href="http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00LFNDLVG/">the Sharp</a> and <a href="http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00DJ4BIKA/">the ASUS</a>, with Mac Pros for a few months now, and to be honest they come close, but this takes the cake in every possible way, including the design and aesthetics of the computer/display itself which is laptop-thin at the edges. If you&#8217;ve been on the fence, and you&#8217;re okay with the <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/retina-imac-review/">tradeoffs an iMac has in general</a>, get one. I can&#8217;t wait for them to do a 5k Thunderbolt display (but it sounds like it <a href="http://www.slashgear.com/an-apple-thunderbolt-5k-display-dont-hold-your-breath-17351284/">might be at least a year away</a>).</p>
<p>P. S. If you&#8217;re looking for a gift for the iMac that has everything, <a href="http://www.hardgraft.com/collections/extras-1/imac">consider a slipper to keep its feet warm</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 22 Oct 2014 00:42:59 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:2;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"WPTavern: Monster Widgets for bbPress and BuddyPress Make It Easy to Test Core Widgets";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=32267";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"http://wptavern.com/monster-widgets-for-bbpress-and-buddypress-make-it-easy-to-test-core-widgets";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3265:"<a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/monster.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[32267]"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/monster.jpg?resize=700%2C348" alt="photo credit: massdistraction - cc" class="size-full wp-image-32363" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sharynmorrow/3019436/">massdistraction</a> &#8211; <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>
<p>The original <a href="http://wptavern.com/monster-widget-a-useful-wordpress-theme-testing-tool" target="_blank">Monster Widget</a> plugin is a handy tool created by Automattic to assist theme developers with testing. Essentially, it allows you to quickly drop all core widgets into your sidebar at once, saving you the trouble of having to add them individually.</p>
<p>Now you can get the same for bbPress and BuddyPress, thanks to a two new plugins from <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mercime/" target="_blank">@mercime</a>, a contributor on both WordPress sister projects.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress-monster-widget/" target="_blank">BuddyPress Monster Widget</a> makes it easy to populate your sidebar with all of the BP core widgets, including the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Log In</li>
<li>Members</li>
<li>Who&#8217;s Online</li>
<li>Recently Active Members</li>
<li>Friends</li>
<li>Groups</li>
<li>Sitewide Messages</li>
<li>Recent Networkwide Posts</li>
</ul>
<p>The widgets are pre-configured to show a set number of blog posts, members, friends, etc. The list of widgets displayed can be altered by using the &#8216;buddypress-monster-widget-config&#8217; filter included in the plugin.</p>
<p><a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/buddypress-monster-widget.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[32267]"><img src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/buddypress-monster-widget.jpg?resize=501%2C299" alt="buddypress-monster-widget" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32353" /></a></p>
<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/bbpress-monster-widget/" target="_blank">bbPress Monster Widget</a> plugin allows you to add all of the bbPress core widgets to your sidebar in one instance, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Log In</li>
<li>Forum Views</li>
<li>Forum Search Form</li>
<li>Forums</li>
<li>Forum Topics</li>
<li>Forum Statistics</li>
<li>Forum Replies</li>
</ul>
<p>The bbPress Monster Widget also comes pre-configured with a set number of topics and replies displayed. The default list of widgets can be altered by using the &#8216;bbpress-monster-widget-config&#8217; filter.</p>
<p>When creating a theme for public distribution, it&#8217;s important to make sure you know how the core widgets are going to look with your theme applied. This is especially true for community-oriented sites that utilize bbPress and BuddyPress, because the widgets often play a big part in connecting members to recent activity on the site. Download the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/bbpress-monster-widget/" target="_blank">bbPress</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress-monster-widget/" target="_blank">BuddyPress</a> monster widgets from WordPress.org to make it quick and easy to test the core widgets.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 22 Oct 2014 00:00:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"WPTavern: Compass: A Free Starter Theme for WordPress Built with Hybrid Core, Bourbon, and Neat";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=32153";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:100:"http://wptavern.com/free-compass-starter-theme-for-wordpress-built-with-hybrid-core-bourbon-and-neat";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6576:"<a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/compass.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[32153]"><img src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/compass.jpg?resize=1023%2C487" alt="photo credit: Theresa Thompson - cc" class="size-full wp-image-32316" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/theresasthompson/7163227255/">Theresa Thompson</a> &#8211; <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>
<p>The life of a frontend developer has changed a great deal over the past few years, with the introduction of new technologies for authoring CSS and automating tasks. We&#8217;re starting to see that trickle down into every new WordPress starter theme.</p>
<p>These days you&#8217;ve got to <code>npm install allthiscrazystuff</code> just to get started on a project. Once you&#8217;ve gone through the setup, you&#8217;re ready to work more efficiently with many of the more boring tasks automated for you.</p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/FlagshipWP/Compass" target="_blank">Compass</a> is a new WordPress starter theme that incorporates a host of modern web development technologies to help you create themes faster while staying in line with WordPress coding standards. The folks at <a href="http://flagshipwp.com/" target="_blank">Flagship</a>, a soon-to-launch theme shop, released Compass for free earlier this month, claiming that it is <strong>&#8220;the most advanced WordPress starter theme in existence.&#8221;</strong></p>
<p><em>Note: The Compass theme name keeps with the company&#8217;s nautical vibe, but it&#8217;s not to be confused with the open source <a href="http://compass-style.org/" target="_blank">Compass</a> CSS framework built with Sass.</em></p>
<p>Out of the box, the theme is fairly plain but, thankfully, not hideous. Obviously, it&#8217;s a starter theme, so the point is to provide the basics for getting started on your own beautiful creation.</p>
<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/compass-starter-theme.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[32153]"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/compass-starter-theme.jpg?resize=690%2C375" alt="compass-starter-theme" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32319" /></a></p>
<h4>Sass, Bourbon, and Neat with Composer Support</h4>
<p>Similar to the <a href="http://wptavern.com/some-like-it-neat-a-free-wordpress-starter-theme-built-with-underscores-bourbon-and-neat" target="_blank">Some Like It Neat</a> starter theme, Compass features support for <a href="http://sass-lang.com/" target="_blank">Sass</a>, <a href="http://bourbon.io/" target="_blank">Bourbon</a>, and <a href="http://neat.bourbon.io/" target="_blank">Neat</a>. The theme uses <a href="https://getcomposer.org/" target="_blank">Composer</a> to manage dependencies for PHP, allowing you to declare the dependent libraries for your specific project to have them installed for you.</p>
<h4>Grunt</h4>
<p>The Flagship team has worked hard to create what they believe to be the most advanced and robust <a href="http://gruntjs.com/" target="_blank">Grunt</a> workflow available for WordPress theme development. You&#8217;ll need to install <a href="http://nodejs.org/" target="_blank">Node.js</a> to run the Grunt task runner with the Compass theme, although many theme developers will likely already have it installed. Some of the tasks will also require external command-line applications, which you&#8217;ll need to install as global Node.js packages.</p>
<p>Once you&#8217;re ready to roll, you&#8217;ll be able to automate an amazing number of tasks associated with theme development, including things like auto-prefixing CSS properties, tidying up style.css to match the WordPress Coding Standards, generating the RTL style sheet, optimizing images, and much more. Here&#8217;s a short sampling:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>grunt build:dependencies</code></li>
<li><code>grunt build:css</code></li>
<li><code>grunt build:font</code></li>
<li><code>grunt build:images</code></li>
<li><code>grunt build:js</code></li>
<li><code>grunt build:i18n</code></li>
<li><code>grunt check</code></li>
<li><code>grunt package</code></li>
</ul>
<p>Check out the documentation on GitHub for the comprehensive <a href="https://github.com/FlagshipWP/Compass#tasks" target="_blank">list of available tasks</a> included in the Compass theme.</p>
<h5>Hybrid Core</h5>
<p>Compass is built on top of Justin Tadlock&#8217;s <a href="http://themehybrid.com/hybrid-core" target="_blank">Hybrid Core</a>, one of the oldest and most developer-friendly frameworks for building WordPress themes. The Compass release post explains why Flagship went with Hybrid Core:</p>
<blockquote><p>There are so many things that are going to be necessary on nearly every project, and they’re regularly done poorly in many of the themes that we’ve used and tested. Justin has done an amazing job of doing things “the WordPress way” and has been building and iterating Hybrid Core for many years.</p></blockquote>
<p>The framework handles functionality that most themes commonly require, such breadcrumbs, grabbing media, integrating microdata like schema.org, pagination, theme layouts, and translation.</p>
<p>Like many other new starter themes, Compass also offers support for the <a href="https://github.com/zamoose/themehookalliance" target="_blank">Theme Hook Alliance</a> project in an effort to provide a common set of entry points for plugin and theme developers looking to extend the theme.</p>
<p>Although Flagship hasn&#8217;t yet officially launched, the site shows a preview of a few planned themes that were built using Compass as a starter theme.</p>
<p><a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/flagship-themes.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[32153]"><img src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/flagship-themes.jpg?resize=962%2C418" alt="flagship-themes" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32305" /></a></p>
<p>The theme shop will soon launch with a unique pricing model that doesn&#8217;t involve bundle or theme club pricing. Each theme is priced at $199, with a $99 annual fee for support. The Compass starter theme that they use to build all of their products is open source and available to developers for free on <a href="https://github.com/FlagshipWP/Compass" target="_blank">GitHub</a>. Check out the <a href="http://community.flagshipwp.com/t/getting-started/37" target="_blank">Getting Started</a> guide for documentation, including video tutorials on installing the tools and working with Compass.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 21 Oct 2014 19:40:51 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"WPTavern: Easily Edit a Post or Page Using The Slash Edit Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=32149";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"http://wptavern.com/easily-edit-a-post-or-page-using-the-slash-edit-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2060:"<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SlashEditFeaturedImage.png" rel="prettyphoto[32149]"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32264" src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SlashEditFeaturedImage.png?resize=650%2C200" alt="Slash Edit Featured Image" /></a></p>
<p>If you&#8217;re not a fan of the admin bar or it&#8217;s disabled and you want a shortcut to edit posts in WordPress, you might be interested in a new plugin called <a title="https://wordpress.org/plugins/slash-edit/" href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/slash-edit/">Slash Edit</a>. Developed by <a title="http://www.ronalfy.com/" href="http://www.ronalfy.com/">Ronald Huereca</a>, Slash Edit adds the ability to edit the following items by adding <strong>/edit</strong> to the end of a url.</p>
<ul>
<li>Posts</li>
<li>Pages</li>
<li>Custom Post Types</li>
<li>Author and Taxonomy Archives</li>
</ul>
<p>To load the appropriate editing interface, visit a post or page while logged into WordPress and add <strong>/edit</strong> to the end of the url. It can also be used as a shortcut to login to the backend of WordPress.</p>
<p>Huereca works in an environment where the admin bar is consistently disabled. He created the plugin to provide a convenient way to edit pages or posts without having to search for them in the backend. &#8220;I thought, wouldn&#8217;t it be cool to just add &#8220;/edit&#8221; to the end of a post or page and be redirected to the right place in the admin panel?&#8221;</p>
<p>Huereca doesn&#8217;t know what else could be added to the plugin to fulfill its basic purpose. &#8220;I&#8217;m not sure how much farther this plugin can go, but the WordPress community is ingenious as far as feature requests, so I&#8217;m eager to get feedback on the base feature set.&#8221; I tested the plugin on WordPress 4.0 and it works as advertised. To keep tabs on development, you can <a title="https://github.com/ronalfy/slash-edit" href="https://github.com/ronalfy/slash-edit">follow the project</a> on Github.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 21 Oct 2014 03:06:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"WPTavern: Jason Schuller to Re-Enter WordPress Theme Market with Niche Admin Designs";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=32202";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"http://wptavern.com/jason-schuller-to-re-enter-wordpress-theme-market-with-niche-admin-designs";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7575:"<p><a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/pickle-preview.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[32202]"><img src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/pickle-preview.jpg?resize=972%2C462" alt="pickle-preview" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32216" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://jason.sc/" target="_blank">Jason Schuller</a>, the original founder of the <a href="http://press75.com/" target="_blank">Press75</a> theme company, has been off the radar for a few years as he pursued experiments with alternative publishing platforms. He officially exited the commercial WordPress theme business earlier this year when <a href="http://wptavern.com/press75-acquired-by-westwerk-for-undisclosed-amount" target="_blank">Press75 was acquired by Westwerk</a>, following a sharp decline in the shop&#8217;s monthly revenue.</p>
<p>Prior to selling his company, Schuller had begun to focus more on his experimental projects, <a href="http://dropplets.com/" target="_blank">Dropplets</a>, <a href="https://leeflets.com/" target="_blank">Leeflets</a>, and <a href="https://cinemati.co/" target="_blank">Cinematico</a>. Over the years, he had become disillusioned with the software, as he watched WordPress become increasingly more complex. This frustration, coupled with the weight of complex frameworks that started devouring the WordPress theme market, essentially vaporized his passion for the software and pushed him out to make something new.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, in an <a href="http://wptavern.com/interview-with-jason-schuller-founder-of-press75-com" target="_blank">interview</a> with Jeff Chandler, Schuller expressed his dissatisfaction with trying to make WordPress do what he wanted and said that he wouldn&#8217;t be concentrating his efforts on WordPress in the immediate future.</p>
<h3>Video Preview of Custom WordPress Admin for the &#8220;Pickle&#8221; Project</h3>
<p>In his never-ending quest to simplify publishing online, Schuller has once again picked up WordPress to experiment with creating a radically simplified admin design for <a href="https://leeflets.com/templates?template=pickle" target="_blank">Pickle</a>, his restaurant-themed HTML template.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" width="550"><p>A short video preview of my <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordPress?src=hash">#WordPress</a> admin redesign for “Pickle”: <a href="http://t.co/lvQtgIaAWP">http://t.co/lvQtgIaAWP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/design?src=hash">#design</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Jason Schuller (@jschuller) <a href="https://twitter.com/jschuller/status/524235736166330368">October 20, 2014</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Traditionally, making a template like that editable in WordPress ends up being a complex thing for your average user to navigate in the admin. The <a href="http://jason.sc/pickle-preview" target="_blank">preview video</a> shows how Schuller has re-imagined the admin for his niche one page template.</p>
<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/pickle-admin.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[32202]"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/pickle-admin.jpg?resize=964%2C520" alt="pickle-admin" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32235" /></a></p>
<p>He has essentially removed the admin, de-registered all the styles and many of the components, in an effort to create a custom CMS for this particular template. The result is a better correlation between the content editing experience and the actual website, with simplified action buttons.</p>
<p>If you watch the preview, you&#8217;ll hear Schuller summarize why he created the simplified admin:</p>
<blockquote><p>This is my biggest issue with WordPress right now. It doesn&#8217;t scale backward for minimalist websites like this. The CMS should reflect, in my opinion, what you&#8217;re trying to accomplish with your website, and all of these unnecessary components of WordPress just really don&#8217;t need to be here unless you need them for what you&#8217;re trying to accomplish.</p></blockquote>
<p>Schuller said that it took him approximately two days to customize the WordPress admin to suit his template. <strong>&#8220;I&#8217;m nearly finished with it. It’s going to launch as a downloadable theme first and then I’ll be launching a hosted version as well,&#8221;</strong> he said.</p>
<p>The theme will not be launching on Leeflets but rather on a new domain, yet to be determined, bringing Schuller back into the WordPress theme market. Why is he returning?</p>
<p>&#8220;With this particular project, I really just wanted to get my vision out of my head as quick as possible,&#8221; he said. &#8220;With that in mind, I couldn&#8217;t see creating a custom CMS just for Pickle, so I figured WordPress would be the best way to do that quickly. Plus, you still can’t ignore WordPress’s reach.&#8221;</p>
<p>I asked Schuller if the Pickle admin theme is a one time project or if he plans to create more niche admin themes to accompany his designs. &#8220;If Pickle goes well, I have a few other niche admins in mind for specific templates,&#8221; he replied.</p>
<p><strong>&#8220;My goal is really simple &#8211; to help my customers/users create and manage websites. If WordPress helps me do that in an efficient way, I’m all for it. But I’ll be doing it my way this time around,&#8221;</strong> he emphasized.</p>
<p>Schuller&#8217;s minimalist approach to the WordPress admin is something that he hopes will be easier for his target market to wrap their brains around. The popularity of the Pickle template is what spurred him on to create an editable version using WordPress. &#8220;I wasn’t expecting much when I released the Pickle HTML template,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But it was an instant hit. There are quite a few people helping restaurants create websites with it. That’s what triggered the idea to make a WordPress version.&#8221;</p>
<p>At the moment Schuller is in touch with his market on a very small scale, but he hopes that it will expand with a successful launch of the Pickle theme. &#8220;My hope is that the WordPress version makes it even more enticing for businesses looking for a minimalist website/solution.&#8221;</p>
<p>Schuller has identified a problem that many developers are hoping to solve. WordPress core is moving towards bridging the separation between the editing experience and the display of the content, with improvements to the customizer and experimental projects like the frontend editor. Others hope that the new JSON REST API will make it easier for developers to create custom admins.</p>
<p>These changes cannot come soon enough, but will they be fully able to provide a more natural editing experience for users? Those, like Schuller, who have wrestled with dissatisfaction, have a decent shot at creating a revolutionary editing experience for the 10 year old platform. His inspiring work on the Pickle admin breaks WordPress out of the box and forces developers to look at the content editing experience in a new way.</p>
<p>A more modular admin that can easily be scaled back for minimalist websites is something that would allow developers to truly customize the CMS for any niche template or project. The WordPress admin then becomes a chameleon of sorts, able to disappear into its surroundings with the content in focus. Schuller&#8217;s <a href="http://jason.sc/pickle-preview" target="_blank">Pickle experiment</a> is a good example of this, and likely part of a trend that we&#8217;ll see more in the future.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 20 Oct 2014 22:14:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"WPTavern: The First “Rate and Review a Plugin Day” is a Success";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=32151";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"http://wptavern.com/the-first-rate-and-review-a-plugin-day-is-a-success";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7981:"<p>Thanks to everyone who participated in the first &#8220;<a title="http://wptavern.com/rate-and-review-a-wordpress-plugin-day-set-for-october-17th" href="http://wptavern.com/rate-and-review-a-wordpress-plugin-day-set-for-october-17th">Rate and Review a plugin day&#8221;</a>. After reviewing the #<a title="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wppluginreviewday?src=hash" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wppluginreviewday?src=hash">wppluginreviewday</a> hashtag on Twitter, it&#8217;s clear that a lot of people submitted reviews to their favorite plugins. Based on an <a title="https://twitter.com/richardtape/status/523331218973405184" href="https://twitter.com/richardtape/status/523331218973405184">estimate by Richard Tape</a>, 455 reviews were published on October 17th. When compared to 254 reviews on October 16th, that&#8217;s an increase of 180%. Here are a few noteworthy mentions of the hashtag in action.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" width="550"><p>Wrote a review for <a href="https://twitter.com/eddwp">@eddwp</a> here <a href="https://t.co/zvwWNJaGtu">https://t.co/zvwWNJaGtu</a> Awesome feeling! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wppluginreviewday?src=hash">#wppluginreviewday</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Bharath Mandava  (@_mandava) <a href="https://twitter.com/_mandava/status/523321112222900225">October 18, 2014</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" width="550"><p>So I delivered a plugin review on .org today. <a href="http://t.co/4ua0iG0XjQ">http://t.co/4ua0iG0XjQ</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wppluginreviewday?src=hash">#wppluginreviewday</a> /cc: <a href="https://twitter.com/stevengliebe">@stevengliebe</a> :)</p>
<p>&mdash; David Decker (@deckerweb) <a href="https://twitter.com/deckerweb/status/523217428311191552">October 17, 2014</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" width="550"><p>For Rate &amp; Review a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordPress?src=hash">#WordPress</a> Plugin Day I gave kudos to <a href="https://twitter.com/iThemesSecurity">@iThemesSecurity</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wppluginreviewday?src=hash">#wppluginreviewday</a></p>
<p>&mdash; BobWP (@bobWP) <a href="https://twitter.com/bobWP/status/523121578268041216">October 17, 2014</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h2>Observations I Made While Submitting Reviews</h2>
<p>It took 90 minutes to rate and review the plugins I&#8217;ve depended on for years. I noticed some of the plugins haven&#8217;t been updated since 2010. In some cases, the last review a plugin received was from 2012 or earlier.</p>
<p>When I announced the holiday, I asked users to browse to the bottom of the plugin’s description page and click on the <em>broken</em> or <em>works</em> box. As I submitted my reviews, I forgot about the compatibility box. When submitting a review, there is a drop down menu to select which version of WordPress I&#8217;m using. I used this in combination with my review to tell people if the plugin works or not.</p>
<a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WPPluginReviewSubmissionForm.png" rel="prettyphoto[32151]"><img class="size-full wp-image-32152" src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WPPluginReviewSubmissionForm.png?resize=752%2C502" alt="WordPress Plugin Review Submission Form" /></a>WordPress Plugin Review Submission Form
<p>Clicking the works or doesn&#8217;t work button is an easy task but it&#8217;s a <strong>separate action</strong> from submitting a review. It&#8217;s also the last widget on the description page and depending on the length of the description, may be hidden from view. I suggest merging the compatibility box into the process of submitting a review so it&#8217;s one action. Even though submitting compatibility information can be as simple as pressing a mouse button, not many do it.</p>
<h2>The Disconnect Between WordPress.org and The Backend of WordPress</h2>
<p>Your ratings, reviews, and compatibility checks are contributions to WordPress. It’s actionable data that millions of people use to determine whether or not to use a plugin. The backend of WordPress is an area millions of users interact with yet, the option to rate and review plugins as well as submit compatibility information doesn&#8217;t exist. The plugin details modal doesn&#8217;t show the compatibility box on the plugin&#8217;s description page and although you can read reviews, you can&#8217;t rate or review plugins.</p>
<a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/PluginDetailsModal.png" rel="prettyphoto[32151]"><img class="size-full wp-image-32173" src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/PluginDetailsModal.png?resize=684%2C723" alt="Current Plugin Details Modal" /></a>Plugin Details Modal
<p>The plugin management page in WordPress hasn&#8217;t seen a visual upgrade in a long time. Here&#8217;s what it looks like in WordPress 4.0.</p>
<a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/PluginManagementPage.png" rel="prettyphoto[32151]"><img class="size-full wp-image-32176" src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/PluginManagementPage.png?resize=1025%2C530" alt="WordPress 4.0 Plugin Management Page" /></a>WordPress 4.0 Plugin Management Page
<p>WordPress 3.9 <a title="http://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-0-benny-now-available-for-download" href="http://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-0-benny-now-available-for-download">revamped the theme browsing experience</a> while 4.0 introduced a refreshed <a title="http://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-0-benny-now-available-for-download" href="http://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-0-benny-now-available-for-download">plugin install and search experience</a>. Perhaps it&#8217;s time to refresh the plugin management page. One suggestion is to create two different list views. The management page in 4.0 could be the slim, detailed view. The enhanced view could use the card concept as seen on the Add Plugins page. Instead of displaying the crowd sourced information, you&#8217;d be able to rate and review the plugin and submit compatibility info from within the card.</p>
<a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WordPressAddNewPluginCards.png" rel="prettyphoto[32151]"><img class="size-full wp-image-32179" src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WordPressAddNewPluginCards.png?resize=1025%2C485" alt="WordPress 4.0 Plugin Cards" /></a>WordPress 4.0 Plugin Cards
<p>The problem with two different views is that a sub-set of users wouldn&#8217;t see the card view and stick with the default. In order to maximize the potential of obtaining crowd sourced data, the submission points have to be accessible by as many people as possible.</p>
<h2>Tighter Integration Between The Backend and WordPress.org</h2>
<p>In order to submit ratings and reviews, you need to be logged into a WordPress.org user account. I&#8217;m unsure on how to properly address this issue. One idea is for WordPress to provide a connection similar to Jetpack where I connect a WordPress powered site to my WordPress.org account. This could also act as an opt-in mechanism. Ultimately, I&#8217;d like to see better integration between the WordPress backend and the WordPress.org website.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not advocating that I be able to browse the WordPress.org website from the backend of WordPress, that&#8217;s what browsers are for. I see plenty of opportunities to connect certain actions on WordPress.org to the backend of WordPress, such as the ability to create a forum post to receive support.</p>
<h2>A New Annual Tradition</h2>
<p>While you don&#8217;t need a special day to review plugins, it&#8217;s a unique feeling to do something so many others across the world are doing at the same time. I&#8217;m encouraged to see so many people who have rated and reviewed their favorite plugins. Based on the feedback we&#8217;ve received, this will likely become an annual tradition.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 20 Oct 2014 18:54:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:101:"WPTavern: Some Like It Neat: A Free WordPress Starter Theme Built with Underscores, Bourbon, and Neat";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=32135";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:108:"http://wptavern.com/some-like-it-neat-a-free-wordpress-starter-theme-built-with-underscores-bourbon-and-neat";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6075:"<a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/bourbon-neat.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[32135]"><img src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/bourbon-neat.jpg?resize=1024%2C488" alt="photo credit: j03 - cc" class="size-full wp-image-32137" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/j03/2035547120/">j03</a> &#8211; <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">cc</a>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/some-like-it-neat" target="_blank">Some Like it Neat</a> is a new starter theme for WordPress, based on the popular ultra-minimal <a href="http://underscores.me" target="_blank">Underscores</a> theme. It also incorporates <a href="http://bourbon.io" target="_blank">Bourbon</a>, a lightweight mixin library for <a href="http://sass-lang.com/" target="_blank">Sass</a>. On top of that it adds <a href="http://neat.bourbon.io" target="_blank">Neat</a>, which applies a semantic grid framework for Sass and Bourbon, enabling you to build any responsive layout that you can dream up.</p>
<p>Since Some Like It Neat is a simple starter theme, there&#8217;s not much to see in the screenshot, apart from a relatively blank canvas, waiting to be shaped and styled.</p>
<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/some-like-it-neat.png" rel="prettyphoto[32135]"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/some-like-it-neat.png?resize=880%2C660" alt="some-like-it-neat" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32140" /></a></p>
<p>The power of this theme lies in the tools that it incorporates. Some Like It Neat expedites the creation of a modern frontend development workflow for WordPress theming with responsive grids and a few prepackaged styles. The theme offers support for the following tools:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bourbon.io/" target="_blank">Bourbon</a>: A simple and lightweight mixin library for Sass</li>
<li><a href="http://neat.bourbon.io" target="_blank">Neat</a>: A lightweight semantic grid framework for Sass and Bourbon</li>
<li><a href="http://bitters.bourbon.io/" target="_blank">Bitters</a>: Scaffold styles, variables and structure for Bourbon projects</li>
<li><a href="http://refills.bourbon.io/" target="_blank">Refills</a>: Prepackaged patterns and components, built on top of Bourbon, Bitters, and Neat</li>
<li><a href="http://bower.io/" target="_blank">Bower</a>: A frontend package manager</li>
</ul>
<p>This is essentially everything you need for a Bourbon-soaked development workflow. Developers starting with this theme should already be familiar with Sass, since it&#8217;s the foundation for using Bourbon and Neat. If you need a Sass primer, Sitepoint has a great <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/sass-for-wordpress-developers/" target="_blank">tutorial</a> on the basics. WP Beginner also has a <a href="http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/introduction-to-sass-for-new-wordpress-theme-designers/" target="_blank">quick introduction</a> to help WordPress theme designers get started with Sass.</p>
<p>Some Like It Neat also allows for <a href="http://gulpjs.com/" target="_blank">Gulp.js</a> task automation. <a href="http://alexhasnicehair.com/" target="_blank">Alex Vasquez</a>, the theme&#8217;s creator, says that this feature still has room for improvement. The theme currently includes support for the following tasks:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>gulp watch</code> &#8211; Starts up Gulp and watches your scss, js and php folder for changes, writes them out and refreshes the browser for you</li>
<li><code>gulp build</code> &#8211; Removes unnecessary files and packs up the required files into a nice and neat, installable, zip package</li>
</ul>
<p>Additionally, Some Like It Neat adds support for the <a href="https://github.com/zamoose/themehookalliance" target="_blank">Theme Hook Alliance</a> (THA), a community-driven project that offers a standardized set of third-party action hooks to theme developers to implement for more flexibility. THA has a growing list of <a href="https://github.com/zamoose/themehookalliance#tha-compatible-themes" target="_blank">compatible themes</a>. Vasquez opted for adding it to help keep things within the theme cleaner and easier to maintain.</p>
<h3>Why Use Bourbon and Neat?</h3>
<p>Incorporating Bourbon and its parallel projects into your WordPress theme is a matter of personal preference. In the past, Vasquez had used frontend frameworks such as Bootstrap and Foundation, but after discovering Bourbon+Neat, he found that it gave him a more efficient approach to theme creation:</p>
<blockquote><p>To achieve the responsiveness required of various projects, I would have to tear up my HTML, input my own selector classes and what have you, in addition to changing my CSS. I didn&#8217;t like it. I heard about <a href="http://neat.bourbon.io" target="_blank">Neat</a> and really liked its approach to a grid framework. You keep your HTML structure the way you like and all of the styling in your Sass files.</p></blockquote>
<p>If that sounds like a better workflow for you, then you may want to set aside some time to give this starter theme a try. It can be used  as a parent theme from which you create a highly customized child theme. Vasquez has outlined how to <a href="https://github.com/digisavvy/some-like-it-neat#getting-started" target="_blank">get started</a> in the documentation, which will walk you through installing Node, Sass, Gulp.js, etc. He also posted a handy <a href="https://github.com/digisavvy/some-like-it-neat#folder-structure" target="_blank">folder structure</a> as an example for how projects are structured with the starter theme.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/some-like-it-neat" target="_blank">Some Like It Neat</a> is <a href="http://alexhasnicehair.com/" target="_blank">Alex Vasquez</a>&#8216;s first submission to the official WordPress Themes Directory. You can download it via your admin theme browser or from its <a href="https://github.com/digisavvy/some-like-it-neat" target="_blank">GitHub</a> repository.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 20 Oct 2014 18:04:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:49:"Matt: Life and Work at the Distributed Wonderland";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44293";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/life-and-work-at-the-distributed-wonderland/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:229:"<p>Luca Sartoni writes <a href="http://lucasartoni.com/2014/10/14/how-i-fell-into-the-rabbit-hole-life-and-work-at-the-distributed-wonderland/">How I fell into the rabbit hole: life and work at the distributed wonderland</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 20 Oct 2014 16:26:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"Matt: Run Better";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44263";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/run-better/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:544:"<p>Joe Boydston, the self-described &#8220;crazy running guy&#8221; who runs as far as 90+ miles from the airport to WordCamps or meetups when he lands, has <a href="http://crazyrunningguy.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/run-better/">written a bit about how to run better</a>. At our <a href="http://ma.tt/2014/09/automattic-grand-meetup-2014/">company meetup</a> he ran running workshops and coached a lot of people including myself, and applying his suggestions <a href="http://ma.tt/2014/10/streak/">I&#8217;ve been able to do a lot better</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 19 Oct 2014 23:51:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"Matt: Pink Drill Bits";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44261";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:37:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/pink-drill-bits/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:335:"<p><a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/10/08/susan_g_komen_teams_up_with_fracking_company_introduces_pink_drill_bits_for_the_cure/">Fracking company teams up with Susan G. Komen, introduces pink drill bits for the cure</a>, presented without comment. <cite>Hat tip: <a href="http://spitfirestrategies.com/">Kristin Grimm</a>.</cite></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 18 Oct 2014 23:27:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"WPTavern: Themosis Object-Oriented Development Framework for WordPress Now Available";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=32082";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"http://wptavern.com/themosis-object-oriented-development-framework-for-wordpress-now-available";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4107:"<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/routes.png" rel="prettyphoto[32082]"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/routes.png?resize=1025%2C598" alt="routes" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-26649" /></a></p>
<p>Version 1.0 of the <a href="http://wptavern.com/themosis-object-oriented-development-framework-for-wordpress-now-in-beta" target="_blank">Themosis development framework</a> is now available. Belgium-based application developer <a href="http://jlambe.be/" target="_blank">Julien Lambé</a> created Themosis in order to accelerate object-oriented development with WordPress. It offers a routing system for managing WordPress behavior on an application level and also includes a Laravel-esque templating engine for view files. Last week Lambé announced that the framework is now out of beta and ready for public use.</p>
<p><a href="http://framework.themosis.com/" target="_blank">Themosis</a>, which Lambé describes as <strong>“a mix between WordPress best practices and a typical MVC framework,”</strong> has evolved considerably since its beta period. Version 1.0 includes dozens of improvements based on developer feedback.</p>
<p>The website has been updated to provide complete <a href="http://framework.themosis.com/docs/" target="_blank">documentation</a> and code examples to help developers get started. <a href="http://framework.themosis.com/docs/installation/" target="_blank">Installation</a> is quick and easy, as Themosis uses <a href="https://getcomposer.org/" target="_blank">Composer</a> for dependency package management, so you can install and update everything needed in a matter of seconds. The framework is designed with respect to WordPress best practices and should work seamlessly with its APIs and plugins.</p>
<p>Themosis comes with local and production environments pre-configured in order to facilitate collaboration. Once you register your database credentials and application URLS, you&#8217;ll be able to define the different environment configurations, making it easy to move between development and production.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://framework.themosis.com/docs/framework/" target="_blank">framework guide</a> contains everything you need to know to get started structuring and building your application. The <a href="http://framework.themosis.com/docs/routing/" target="_blank">route API</a> docs cover all the conditional tags available with code samples for basic routing methods. Lambé describes the route system as &#8220;an enhanced &#8216;if&#8217; statement,&#8221; which is essentially based on WordPress conditional template tags and a closure callback.</p>
<p>The framework includes classes for handling AJAX requests, custom post types, metaboxes, custom fields, taxonomies, options, validation, and more. It also adds a unique set of <a href="http://framework.themosis.com/docs/helpers/" target="_blank">Helpers</a> which act as framework utility functions that run on the global scope.</p>
<p>Lambé has now separated the <a href="http://www.themosis.com/" target="_blank">Themosis studio</a> from the framework, which can be found at <a href="http://framework.themosis.com" target="_blank">framework.themosis.com</a>. He is launching a Themosis web agency, specializing in WordPress design and development, in order to fund future development of the framework to ensure its future.</p>
<p>The Themosis framework is an interesting option that could be very helpful for new WordPress developers, especially those who are used to using Laravel or those who simply want to structure and organize their code like a typical MVC framework. It provides another avenue for getting started using a structure that may be more approachable for PHP developers who are new to working with WordPress.</p>
<p>Themosis is an open source tool that Lambé decided to share with the community, and it will remain free to use. If you want to contribute to the project or report any issues, the framework can also be found on <a href="https://github.com/themosis/" target="_blank">GitHub</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 17 Oct 2014 22:27:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"WPTavern: Watch The Q&amp;A Session Between Matt Mullenweg and Om Malik From WordCamp Europe";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=32059";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:97:"http://wptavern.com/watch-the-qa-session-between-matt-mullenweg-and-om-malik-from-wordcamp-europe";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1950:"<p>Some of the sessions recorded at <a title="http://wordpress.tv/event/wordcamp-europe-2014/" href="http://wordpress.tv/event/wordcamp-europe-2014/">WordCamp Europe</a> are now available to watch on <a title="http://wordpress.tv" href="http://wordpress.tv">WordPress.TV</a>. The rest of the sessions will be added in the coming weeks. Included in the first batch of videos is the <a title="http://wordpress.tv/2014/10/03/matt-mullenweg-om-malik-qa/" href="http://wordpress.tv/2014/10/03/matt-mullenweg-om-malik-qa/">question and answer session</a> between Matt Mullenweg and Om Malik.</p>
<p>The session is an hour long and includes Mullenweg&#8217;s thoughts on the current status of WordPress, the media library, and what the platform may evolve into. One of the questions asked during the session is the role of women in the WordPress ecosystem.</p>
<p>At the 47 minute mark, you can hear the infamous &#8220;we love women&#8221; comment from a member of the audience. Mullenweg responds with &#8220;come onnnnn&#8221; with applause from the audience. Helen Hou-Sandí, who lead the release of WordPress 4.0, explains why saying &#8220;we love women&#8221; can cause <a title="http://helenhousandi.com/2014/09/unintentional-destruction/" href="http://helenhousandi.com/2014/09/unintentional-destruction/">unintentional destruction</a>.</p>
<p>Near the 53:40 minute mark, Mullenweg is asked, &#8220;How much should WordPress businesses be contributing to WordPress and involved with the project?&#8221; This is the question that prompted the 5% figure and his post, <a title="http://ma.tt/2014/09/five-for-the-future/" href="http://ma.tt/2014/09/five-for-the-future/">Five for the Future</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This is a great session filled with information related to WordPress, Automattic, open source in general, and the future of the platform. If you attended the session live or watched the video, let us know your thoughts in the comments.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 17 Oct 2014 18:36:57 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"Matt: Moving into Management";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44170";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:44:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/moving-into-management/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:384:"<p>&#8220;The biggest misconception engineers have when thinking about moving into management is they think it&#8217;s a promotion.&#8221; &#8212; Lindsay Holmwood writes <a href="http://fractio.nl/2014/09/19/not-a-promotion-a-career-change/">It&#8217;s not a promotion &#8211; it&#8217;s a career change</a>. <cite>Hat tip: <a href="http://pento.net/">Gary Pendergast</a>.</cite></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 17 Oct 2014 18:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"WPTavern: New Plugin Adds Open Source Emoji One Support to WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31456";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"http://wptavern.com/new-plugin-adds-open-source-emoji-one-support-to-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4669:"<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/emoji-one.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[31456]"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/emoji-one.jpg?resize=831%2C376" alt="emoji-one" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31461" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://emojione.com/" target="_blank">Emoji One</a> is a new open source emoji set that is the first of its kind, designed specifically for the web. The set boasts more than 840 emoji. It was created to solve the perennial problem of translating emoji code from mobile devices while legally displaying the corresponding emoji icon on the web. The idea is to avoid displaying those ugly blank squares that you see so often, as illustrated on the Emoji One website:</p>
<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/emoji-one-problem-1.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[31456]"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/emoji-one-problem-1.jpg?resize=795%2C392" alt="emoji-one-problem-1" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32029" /></a></p>
<p>Emoji One was also created to provide consistency across various mobile and web platforms. As things currently stand, you tend to get a slight variation in display depending on the mobile platform used to input the emoji.</p>
<p><a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/emoji-one-problem-2.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[31456]"><img src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/emoji-one-problem-2.jpg?resize=824%2C464" alt="emoji-one-problem-2" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32033" /></a></p>
<p>Emoji One is tackling both of these problems head on with its new open source emoji set. It&#8217;s released under the MIT license, which is GPL-compatible. Check out a <a href="http://emojione.com/demo" target="_blank">live demo</a> of Emoji One to see the set in action.</p>
<h3>WP Emoji One</h3>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-emoji-one/" target="_blank">WP Emoji One</a> is the first plugin to bring Emoji One support to WordPress posts and pages. It is based on work from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/typepad-emoji-for-tinymce/" target="_blank">TypePad Emoji For TinyMCE</a> plugin. The emoji chooser can be launched via a button added to the visual editor.</p>
<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/visual-editor-emoji-one.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[31456]"><img src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/visual-editor-emoji-one.jpg?resize=822%2C264" alt="visual-editor-emoji-one" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32047" /></a></p>
<p>Clicking on the button opens a modal window with the Emoji One library, along with the option to choose the pixel size of the emoji inserted into the content.</p>
<p><a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/emoji-one-modal.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[31456]"><img src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/emoji-one-modal.jpg?resize=818%2C598" alt="emoji-one-modal" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32049" /></a></p>
<p>You don&#8217;t have to install anything on your mobile device to use Emoji One; just continue to use emoji as you have been. The WordPress plugin simply provides a more consistent experience for displaying emoji on the web.</p>
<p>I checked with the WP Emoji One plugin author to inquire about using the emoji in comments. He plans to add them to comments in the next release. BuddyPress and bbPress integration would also be very handy, as social sites are likely to derive greater benefits from offering emoji support.</p>
<p>Emoji One only recently launched on September 11, 2014. The team is currently working on creating the 250 new emojis that <a href="http://www.unicode.org/" target="_blank">Unicode</a> approved in June 2014, and will make those available soon.</p>
<p>You may have already seen Emjoi One icons in the wild here and there. The WordPress-powered Emoji One blog recently highlighted <a href="http://www.emojione.com/blog/slack-adds-emoji-one-gets-more-awesome/" target="_blank">Slack&#8217;s integration of Emoji One</a> as one of its default emoji options. As more companies and services begin to recognize the need for a universal emoji set, you can expect to see Emoji One popping up around the web in more places.</p>
<p>Better emoji support may someday find its way into WordPress core with enough popular support. In the meantime, you can use <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-emoji-one/" target="_blank">WP Emoji One</a> to extend WordPress&#8217; capabilities to provide a more consistent and colorful emoji display on your site.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 17 Oct 2014 17:06:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:25:"Matt: Dave Winer’s 20th";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44291";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:38:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/dave-winers-20th/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:352:"<p>The Observer writes <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/12/happy-20th-anniversary-dave-winer-inventor-of-the-blog">Happy 20th anniversary to Dave Winer – inventor of the blog</a>. I&#8217;ve gotten a huge amount of inspiration, help, and feedback from Dave over the years, and I&#8217;m really happy he&#8217;s still at it.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 16 Oct 2014 22:37:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:87:"Post Status: Postmatic wants to revitalize your WordPress email, starting with comments";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"http://www.poststat.us/?p=7197";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:49:"http://www.poststat.us/postmatic-wordpress-email/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4912:"<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-7200" src="http://www.poststat.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/postmatic-752x307.gif" alt="postmatic" width="627" height="255" /></p>
<p><a href="http://gopostmatic.com/">Postmatic</a> is a new WordPress plugin that I think is quite promising. It&#8217;s aim is to eventually change the way you utilize WordPress email in many ways, but its comment functionality is what intrigued me immediately.</p>
<p>Postmatic currently allows users to subscribe to comments and posts by email; but what sets it apart is that it enables <em>reply by email</em> functionality as well. That&#8217;s something that has been high on my list of wants for a WordPress plugin for a long time, and I wanted it without switching to a third party system like Disqus.</p>
<p>All in all &#8212; aside from enabling replies by email &#8212; the current feature set is quite similar to Jetpack&#8217;s Subscriptions module. Postmatic has widgets for post subscriptions and will send subscribers new posts and allow them to get emailed comment notifications as well.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I asked Jason Lemieux, a co-founder of Postmatic, if they were considering a way to import from Jetpack or otherwise integrate with it, and they are. They&#8217;re working now to make it so that your old posts using Jetpack&#8217;s subscription module for comment notifications will still work, and your new posts will use Postmatic.</p>
<p>I had a pretty thorough conversation with Jason and got to see Postmatic in action. For a free plugin especially, the functionality is quite impressive. I tested subscribing to comments, replying by email, and opting into subscriptions, and it is all very smooth. Here&#8217;s a sample reply notification to my email.<span id="more-7197"></span></p>
<div id="attachment_7201" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-7201 size-large" src="http://www.poststat.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/postmatic-email-752x816.gif" alt="postmatic-email" width="627" height="680" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Sample Postmatic notification email</p></div>
<p>Postmatic is already in beta with their API as well. With a little legwork, you can utilize Postmatic for a variety of custom use cases. I know I&#8217;d love to play with it to see if I could create email campaigns for custom post types or multiple lists. They also intend to monetize the plugin via a few avenues &#8212; including ensuring mail delivery and functionality add-ons.</p>
<p>Postmatic &#8212; available for <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/postmatic/">download on WordPress.org</a> &#8212; is and will remain completely free. At some point they&#8217;ll exit beta and they will offer paid delivery of outgoing mail for larger sites. They understand the limitations of sending email through your own server and are using Mailgun to ensure delivery. They also have an extensive &#8212; and for now private &#8212; list of features they aim to introduce to Postmatic.</p>
<p>The product is definitely version 1.0. Advanced list management, and more advanced campaign delivery is still not ready. But I was impressed by how good of a 1.0 Postmatic is, and how much effort Jason and his business parter, Dylan Kuhn, have clearly invested heavily into the product. For instance, subscriber importing is already possible, so you could move to Postmatic for post delivery right away. They <a href="http://gopostmatic.com/setup/">have videos show how to do that and more</a> already available.</p>
<p>They tell me as well that Postmatic is in very early stages. Right now they are working on more advanced template building and other features to help tame your WordPress emails. I think they definitely have other services like <a href="http://jetpack.me">Jetpack&#8217;s</a> Subscriptions and <a title="WYSIJA is now MailPoet" href="http://www.poststat.us/wysija-now-mailpoet/">MailPoet</a> in their sights.</p>
<p>I think WordPress email is ripe for disruption. Imagine, currently, all the ways users can get emails from a website, with little continuity: WordPress itself, Mailchimp or other newsletter provider, Jetpack / WordPress.com, eCommerce solutions, form solutions. Each of these sends email and each has their own quirks, look and feel, and otherwise.</p>
<p>I&#8217;d love to see a service like <a href="http://gopostmatic.com/">Postmatic</a> help tame WordPress email as a whole, and offer a more seamless experience for my website visitors that receive email from me.</p>
<p>In the short term, I doubt any service will be able to do this perfectly. But I think as WordPress sites send more and more mail, continuity in this arena will be very important. I know, for me, as I prepare to enable <a title="The future of Post Status" href="http://www.poststat.us/radical/">club memberships on Post Status</a>, it&#8217;s top of my mind to provide a quality email experience to my members.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 16 Oct 2014 21:51:47 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Brian Krogsgard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 166 – Interview With The Project Lead For XWP, Frankie Jarrett";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:44:"http://wptavern.com?p=32015&preview_id=32015";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"http://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-166-interview-with-the-project-lead-for-xwp-frankie-jarrett";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4393:"<p>Back in September, <a title="http://wptavern.com/stream-morphs-from-a-plugin-into-a-service" href="http://wptavern.com/stream-morphs-from-a-plugin-into-a-service">Stream 2.0 was released</a> with some significant changes. The most notable change is the transition from a plugin into a service.</p>
<p>In this episode of WordPress Weekly, <a title="http://marcuscouch.com/" href="http://marcuscouch.com/">Marcus Couch</a> and I are joined by the project lead For <a title="https://xwp.co/" href="https://xwp.co/">XWP</a>, <a title="http://frankiejarrett.com/" href="http://frankiejarrett.com/">Frankie Jarrett</a>. Jarrett goes in-depth on the decision to turn Stream into a service. He also explains why it needs to be connected to a WordPress.com ID, what the team is doing regarding the enterprise, and why record data is stored in the cloud. Near the end of the interview, we discuss the lessons learned from how the plugin was shipped and communicated to customers.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a title="http://wptavern.com/webdesign-com-is-now-ithemes-training" href="http://wptavern.com/webdesign-com-is-now-ithemes-training">WebDesign.com Is Now iThemes Training</a><br />
<a title="http://wptavern.com/troubleshooting-handbook-for-new-wordpress-support-forum-volunteers-is-live" href="http://wptavern.com/troubleshooting-handbook-for-new-wordpress-support-forum-volunteers-is-live">Troubleshooting Handbook For New WordPress Support Forum Volunteers Is Live</a><br />
<a title="http://wptavern.com/how-to-obtain-the-total-download-count-for-plugins-attached-to-a-wordpress-org-username" href="http://wptavern.com/how-to-obtain-the-total-download-count-for-plugins-attached-to-a-wordpress-org-username">How to Obtain The Total Download Count For Plugins Attached to a WordPress.org Username</a><br />
<a title="http://wptavern.com/rate-and-review-a-wordpress-plugin-day-set-for-october-17th" href="http://wptavern.com/rate-and-review-a-wordpress-plugin-day-set-for-october-17th">Rate and Review a WordPress Plugin Day Set For October 17th</a><br />
<a title="http://wptavern.com/twenty-fifteen-officially-added-to-the-development-version-of-wordpress" href="http://wptavern.com/twenty-fifteen-officially-added-to-the-development-version-of-wordpress">Twenty Fifteen Officially Added to The Development Version of WordPress </a><br />
<a title="http://wptavern.com/loopconf-a-conference-catered-to-wordpress-developers" href="http://wptavern.com/loopconf-a-conference-catered-to-wordpress-developers">LoopConf: A Conference Catered to WordPress Developers </a></p>
<h2>Plugins Picked By Marcus:</h2>
<p><a title="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wc-vendors/" href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wc-vendors/">WC Vendors</a> is a WooCommerce extension that lets you create your own Etsy or Amazon style marketplace, allowing multiple vendors to sell their goods. This allows other users to sell tangible products, virtual products or downloads on your site. Vendors receive the commissions you set on products they sell from your store.</p>
<p><a title="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-comment-fields/" href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-comment-fields/">WordPress Comments Fields</a> is a plugin that allows admins to add custom fields to the comment area. These fields are saved as comment meta and are displayed under the comment. The plugin support four different field types: Drag and drop, text, radio, radio and select inputs.</p>
<p><a title="https://wordpress.org/plugins/comic-sans-roulette/" href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/comic-sans-roulette/">Comic Sans Roulette</a> randomly changes all fonts on your site to Comic Sans. You have a 10% chance that all of the fonts will be Comic Sans!</p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, October 22nd 9:30 P.M. Eastern</p>
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<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Stitcher Radio: </strong><a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #166:</strong><br />
</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 16 Oct 2014 17:41:04 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"WPTavern: LoopConf: A Conference Catered to WordPress Developers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=32006";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"http://wptavern.com/loopconf-a-conference-catered-to-wordpress-developers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2653:"<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LoopConfFeaturedImage.png" rel="prettyphoto[32006]"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-32007" src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LoopConfFeaturedImage.png?resize=650%2C200" alt="LoopConf Featured Image" /></a>Scheduled to take place <strong>May 7-8th, 2015</strong> at Westin Lake in Las Vegas, NV, <a title="http://loopconf.io/" href="http://loopconf.io/">LoopConf</a> is a conference dedicated to WordPress developers. The two-day event has six speakers confirmed with more on the way. They include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Joost de Valk</li>
<li>Jenn Schiffer</li>
<li>John O&#8217; Nolan</li>
<li>Helen Hou-Sandí</li>
<li>Andrew Nacin</li>
<li>Syed Balkhi</li>
</ul>
<p>LoopConf is a single track conference where a bulk of the content will consist of 30 minute sessions and 60 minute developer work shops. It gives developers an opportunity to dive deep into advanced engineering and development topics in a relaxed atmosphere surrounded by like-minded individuals.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re interested in speaking at the event, LoopConf is <a title="http://loopconf.io/apply/" href="http://loopconf.io/apply/">calling for speakers</a>. The deadline to submit a speaker application is November 4th, 2014. If you&#8217;re interested in financially supporting the event, there&#8217;s a <a title="http://loopconf.io/sponsor/" href="http://loopconf.io/sponsor/">sponsor application available</a>.</p>
<p>Like <a title="http://prestigeconf.com/" href="http://prestigeconf.com/">PrestigeConf</a>, LoopConf is not a WordCamp or associated with the WordPress foundation. Even though it&#8217;s an independent event, there is at least one trait similar to WordCamps. One of the rules to be a speaker is to embrace the open source spirit.</p>
<blockquote><p>We want all of our speakers to show up with an attitude to give freely. This isn’t an opportunity to pitch your company, it’s the chance to share knowledge that you’ve picked up as you’ve perfected your craft.</p></blockquote>
<p>Event organizer, Ryan Sullivan, says the plan is to &#8220;sell 600-700 tickets in two rounds&#8221;. He also told the Tavern, &#8220;we&#8217;ll have an exclusive deal with the hotel for attendees to take advantage of. For those who can&#8217;t make it or would like to attend virtually, the event will be <strong>streamed live for free</strong>.&#8221;</p>
<p>Tickets have yet to go on sale as the organizing team works to complete the details. However, those who sign up to the LoopConf email list will be the first to know when tickets go on sale.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 15 Oct 2014 21:58:41 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: Twenty Fifteen Officially Added to The Development Version of WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31991";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"http://wptavern.com/twenty-fifteen-officially-added-to-the-development-version-of-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5572:"<p>The default theme slated to ship with WordPress 4.1 dubbed &#8220;<a title="http://wptavern.com/first-look-at-designs-for-the-twenty-fifteen-default-wordpress-theme" href="http://wptavern.com/first-look-at-designs-for-the-twenty-fifteen-default-wordpress-theme">Twenty Fifteen</a>&#8221; has <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/10/14/twenty-fifteen-is-here/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2014/10/14/twenty-fifteen-is-here/">officially been added</a> to the development version of WordPress. In sharp contrast to <a title="https://wordpress.org/themes/twentyfourteen" href="https://wordpress.org/themes/twentyfourteen">Twenty Fourteen</a>, Twenty Fifteen is a simple, two column, blog focused theme. The typography features Google’s Noto Serif and Sans, a font family designed to be visually harmonious across many of the worlds languages.</p>
<p><a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/twenty-fifteen.png" rel="prettyphoto[31991]"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-30226" src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/twenty-fifteen.png?resize=1024%2C825" alt="twenty-fifteen" /></a></p>
<p>Here&#8217;s what the Tavern looks like with Twenty Fifteen activated. In the screenshot, you&#8217;ll notice a scrollbar between the sidebar and content. Being able to scroll the sidebar separate from the content reminds me of the Visual Editor in WordPress 3.9. I&#8217;d like to see both columns be a cohesive unit for a better experience and to eliminate the <strong>ugly</strong> scrollbar. <em>This issue has already been <a title="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/29979" href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/29979">reported</a>.</em></p>
<a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TwentyFifteenTavernHomepage.png" rel="prettyphoto[31991]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31993" src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TwentyFifteenTavernHomepage.png?resize=1025%2C718" alt="Twenty Fifteen Tavern Home Page" /></a>Twenty Fifteen Tavern Home Page
<p>In Twenty Fifteen, the comment reply link is aligned to the left. While not a deal breaker, I prefer the comment link to be aligned to the right.</p>
<a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TwentyFifteenCommentReplyLink.png" rel="prettyphoto[31991]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31994" src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TwentyFifteenCommentReplyLink.png?resize=660%2C258" alt="Comment Reply Link on The Left" /></a>Comment Reply Link on The Left
<p>On the Tavern, we routinely use the featured image as the first image in a post. This works well since the Tavern theme is configured to show only the excerpts and featured image on the homepage. The Twenty Fifteen homepage displays full posts which shows the same image twice, creating a <em>post title sandwich</em>. Keep this in mind if you use featured images and are thinking of switching to Twenty Fifteen in the future.</p>
<a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TwentyFifteenSandwhich.png" rel="prettyphoto[31991]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31995" src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TwentyFifteenSandwhich.png?resize=750%2C887" alt="A Featured Image Sandwich" /></a>A Post Title Sandwich
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Each post on the homepage is separated by blank space. Featured images that are not at least 826 pixels wide are padded by an equal amount of blank space on each side. Similar to Twenty Fourteen, images that span the entire width change the visual look and feel of the theme. Posts on the homepage look great when the image is more than 826 pixels wide, while smaller images don&#8217;t have the same visual pop.</p>
<p>Since featured images touch the top of the content box, smaller images give me the impression that something is broken. For example, maybe there&#8217;s an alignment issue where the top of the image is being cut off. It&#8217;s not, but that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m thinking when I see it. This is all a moot point though if you use a full width featured image.</p>
<a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TooSmallOfaFeaturedImage.png" rel="prettyphoto[31991]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31997" src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TooSmallOfaFeaturedImage.png?resize=789%2C905" alt="Featured Image is Too Small" /></a>Featured Image is Too Small
<h2>It&#8217;s Still Early</h2>
<p>There is a long way to go before Twenty Fifteen is ready for prime time. Initial feedback I&#8217;ve seen so far labels Twenty Fifteen as a breath of fresh air. Twenty Fifteen goes back to the blogging roots of WordPress, but it does so in a modern, elegant way. Once the bugs have been squashed and the theme polished, I think a lot of people will either switch to or use Twenty Fifteen when WordPress 4.1 is released. If you&#8217;d like to see Twenty Fifteen in the wild, check out <a title="http://www.brandonkraft.com/" href="http://www.brandonkraft.com/">Brandon Kraft&#8217;s personal site</a>.</p>
<h2>How You Can Help Improve Twenty Fifteen</h2>
<p>The Twenty Fifteen development team is holding meetings on IRC, every Tuesday at 15:30 UTC, in the #wordpress-dev channel. The meetings are opportunities to discuss all things Twenty Fifteen and to <a title="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=!closed&component=Bundled+Theme" href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=!closed&component=Bundled+Theme">collaborate on tickets</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 15 Oct 2014 20:49:46 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"WordPress.tv Blog: The Future of WordPress: Great videos from Matt Mullenweg and Andrew Nacin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"http://blog.wordpress.tv/?p=400";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:110:"http://blog.wordpress.tv/2014/10/15/the-future-of-wordpress-great-videos-from-matt-mullenweg-and-andrew-nacin/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1936:"<p>Here are some recent videos from <a href="http://wordpress.tv/event/wordcamp-europe-2014/" target="_blank">WordCamp Europe 2014</a> covering the past, present, and future of WordPress development.</p>
<h2>Matt Mullenweg: Q&amp;A with Om Malik</h2>
<div id="v-xBhclaAc-1" class="video-player">
</div>
<p>Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress, in conversation with tech writer Om Malik on the WordPress past and present, as well as where we are going for the future.  </p>
<p><a href="http://wordpress.tv/2014/10/03/matt-mullenweg-om-malik-qa/" target="_blank">View on WordPress.tv</a></p>
<h2>Andrew Nacin: Post-Modern WordPress</h2>
<div id="v-4Lx4dIRH-1" class="video-player">
</div>
<p>Andrew Nacin, lead developer for the WordPress open source project, discusses the philosophy of WordPress development, and the course it should and will take to keep growing.</p>
<p><a href="http://wordpress.tv/2014/10/13/andrew-nacin-post-modern-wordpress/" target="_blank">View on WordPress.tv</a></p><br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/wptvblog.wordpress.com/400/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/wptvblog.wordpress.com/400/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=blog.wordpress.tv&blog=5310177&post=400&subd=wptvblog&ref=&feed=1" width="1" height="1" /><div><a href="http://blog.wordpress.tv/2014/10/15/the-future-of-wordpress-great-videos-from-matt-mullenweg-and-andrew-nacin/"><img alt="Matt Mullenweg & Om Malik: Q&A" src="http://videos.videopress.com/xBhclaAc/video-b445f277f2_scruberthumbnail_1.jpg" width="160" height="120" /></a></div><div><a href="http://blog.wordpress.tv/2014/10/15/the-future-of-wordpress-great-videos-from-matt-mullenweg-and-andrew-nacin/"><img alt="Andrew Nacin: Post-Modern WordPress" src="http://videos.videopress.com/4Lx4dIRH/video-ed23aaca26_scruberthumbnail_3.jpg" width="160" height="120" /></a></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 15 Oct 2014 19:29:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Jerry Bates";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23:"Matt: Listen Completely";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44245";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:39:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/listen-completely/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:441:"<blockquote><p>Listen now . When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe. You should be able to go into a room and when you come out know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling. Try that for practice.</p></blockquote>
<p>&#8212; Ernest Hemingway</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 15 Oct 2014 15:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:24:"Matt: Among the Marchers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44254";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:40:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/among-the-marchers/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:231:"<p>Bill McKibben writes from <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/among-marchers">Among the Marchers of the climate change march</a> the other week. <cite>Hat tip: <a href="http://grist.org/">Chip Giller</a>.</cite></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 14 Oct 2014 22:46:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"Post Status: LoopConf: A new WordPress conference that’s only for developers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"http://www.poststat.us/?p=7188";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"http://www.poststat.us/loopconf-new-wordpress-conference-thats-developers/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3300:"<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-7191" src="http://www.poststat.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/loopconf1-752x295.png" alt="loopconf" width="627" height="245" /></p>
<p>Early May 2015 will be the first ever <a href="http://loopconf.io/">LoopConf</a>, a WordPress conference that&#8217;s geared solely toward developers. Ryan Sullivan, the owner of <a href="http://wpsitecare.com">WP Site Care</a>, is hosting the conference that is to be held in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>LoopConf describes itself like this:</p>
<blockquote><p>LoopConf is the greatest conference ever created for WordPress developers. LoopConf came about as we heard technically-minded folks talk about wanting to get together and dive deep into advanced engineering and development topics. We&#8217;ve assembled an amazing group of speakers to get this inaugural event started off on the right foot, and we&#8217;re excited to share our excitement and passion for WordPress with all of you in an exciting two-day event. We hope that you join us to celebrate the software we love, enjoy each other&#8217;s company, and learn from one another.</p></blockquote>
<p>There are already six speakers confirmed:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://nacin.com">Andrew Nacin</a>: WordPress lead developer, works at Audrey Capital</li>
<li><a href="http://helenhousandi.com/">Helen Hou-Sandí</a>: Lead developer of WordPress 4.0, works at 10up</li>
<li><a href="http://ghost.org">John O&#8217;Nolan</a>: Founder of Ghost and former WordPress contributor</li>
<li><a href="http://www.balkhis.com/about/">Syed Balkhi</a>: Owner of Awesome Motive, the parent company for WP Beginner, List 25, OptinMonster, and others</li>
<li><a href="http://jennmoney.biz/">Jenn Schiffer</a>: Open web engineer at Bocoup</li>
<li><a href="http://yoast.com">Joost de Valk</a>: owner of Yoast and maker of the WordPress SEO plugin, amongst others</li>
</ul>
<p>The initial speaker line-up is pretty fantastic. I&#8217;d love to learn more from each one of them.</p>
<p>LoopConf is not a WordCamp or associated with the WordPress foundation. It&#8217;s an independent WordPress conference, and Ryan says it&#8217;s the first in-person developer only WordPress conference he knows of. Most WordCamps are very catered to a diverse audience.</p>
<p>This could be a good way for people to have more developer centric conversations. I&#8217;m certainly interested to see how it goes, and would like to make it myself. They are seeking sponsors and speaker submissions now. I don&#8217;t know how much the tickets will be exactly, but Ryan tells me he hopes for LoopConf to have a prestige and quality similar to An Event Apart events, but for WordPress &#8212; so I imagine the tickets won&#8217;t be cheap.</p>
<p>As the WordPress conference ecosystem continues to blossom, I&#8217;m sure this isn&#8217;t the only one we&#8217;ll see like this. Non-WordCamp, niche events like <a href="http://pressnomics.com">PressNomics</a> helped lead the way for those that are happening now, and I think generally it&#8217;s been good to have a diverse array of options for people to attend and learn from one another.</p>
<p>You can keep up with <a href="http://twitter.com/loopconf">@LoopConf</a> on Twitter or <a href="http://loopconf.io">via the website</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 14 Oct 2014 18:22:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Brian Krogsgard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"WPTavern: Rate and Review a WordPress Plugin Day Set For October 17th";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31977";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"http://wptavern.com/rate-and-review-a-wordpress-plugin-day-set-for-october-17th";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3065:"<p><a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RateReviewPluginDayFeaturedImage.png" rel="prettyphoto[31977]"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31979" src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RateReviewPluginDayFeaturedImage.png?resize=666%2C211" alt="Rate Review Plugin Day Featured Image" /></a></p>
<p>Mark your calendars and schedule some free time on <strong>Friday, October 17th</strong> for the first &#8220;<strong>Rate and Review a WordPress Plugin Day</strong>&#8220;. On October 17th, visit the page of your favorite plugin in the <a title="https://wordpress.org/plugins/" href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/">WordPress.org plugin directory</a>, give it a star rating, and write a review.</p>
<h2>Why The Special Day?</h2>
<p>If you&#8217;re anything like me, you get caught up in the day-to-day activities without getting around to rating and reviewing the plugins you depend on. Some of the plugins I rely on have served me well for years, but I&#8217;ve yet to rate or review them. The only time I stop by a plugin&#8217;s page after installing it is to visit the support forum. Since disgruntled users are more vocal than those with positive experiences, this day is an excuse to share those positive experiences with the community and the plugin author.</p>
<h2>Quick Tip</h2>
<p>Since you can&#8217;t rate and review plugins from the backend of WordPress, here is a quick tip. Login to your WordPress.org account and navigate to the installed plugins page in the backend of WordPress. Each plugin should have a view details link that will load the plugin details modal. On the details screen, open the link to the WordPress.org Plugin Page in a new browser tab. These steps save you the trouble of manually browsing to each plugin&#8217;s page on WordPress.org.</p>
<a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WPPluginPageNewTab.png" rel="prettyphoto[31977]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31978" src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WPPluginPageNewTab.png?resize=761%2C576" alt="Open The WordPress.org Plugin Page In A New Browser Tab" /></a>Open The WordPress.org Plugin Page In A New Browser Tab
<h2>An Easy Way to Contribute Back to WordPress</h2>
<p>Start with your favorite plugin. Review it based on your experience and try to write more than one-five words. As an additional courtesy, browse to the bottom of the plugin&#8217;s description page and click on the <em>broken</em> or <em>works</em> box. This helps determine which versions of the plugin are compatible with WordPress. Your ratings, reviews, and compatibility checks are indirect contributions to WordPress. It&#8217;s actionable data that millions of people will use to determine whether or not to use a plugin.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is that ratings and reviews are not set in stone. If you&#8217;d like to change the content or star ratings, find your review and scroll to the bottom of the page. From there, you&#8217;ll be able to change the text and rating.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 14 Oct 2014 16:39:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:52:"Alex King: WordPress vs. a Roll-Your-Own Blog Engine";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"http://pinboard-9c824ddfe7946cbde24dbe9eb552eb42";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"http://alexking.org/blog/2014/10/14/do-you-need-a-new-blog-engine";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6167:"<p>Inspired by Brent&#8217;s <a href="http://inessential.com/2014/10/02/need_new_blog_engine">consideration of an off-the-shelf blog engine</a>, Santiago Valdarrama has written a post outlining <a href="https://blog.svpino.com/2014/10/03/do-you-need-a-new-blog-engine">the problems he has with off-the-shelf blog engines</a>. What was so interesting to me about this was that a self-hosted WordPress site addresses nearly every one of his concerns.</p>
<blockquote><p>
  1) You don&#8217;t have to deal with updates to the platform. Updates and new features are nice, unless they break all the custom code you&#8217;ve developed over time.
</p></blockquote>
<p>WordPress has well abstracted APIs that make it easy for your custom code to live alongside the WP core code. I can&#8217;t remember the last time I needed to make a change to code I&#8217;d written for this site because of a WP core update.</p>
<blockquote><p>
  2) You can&#8217;t control when bugs are fixed or new features released. If there&#8217;s something missing, the only thing you can do is file a request and wait.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Fiddlesticks. You can <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/">submit a patch</a>, you can hack your local copy, and you can write plugins to add any features you feel are missing.</p>
<blockquote><p>
  3) There&#8217;s always a learning curve. Every platform is different, specially when you want to fine tune your layout and deviate from the provided templates.
</p></blockquote>
<p>This one strikes me as a bit silly. There is a learning curve when building your own system too &#8211; especially if you haven&#8217;t written your layout/templating system yet.</p>
<blockquote><p>
  4) Sometimes there&#8217;re things you can&#8217;t do. Period. (I wanted to use a specific format to display the date of my posts but Blogger doesn&#8217;t support it. I had to settle with something else.)
</p></blockquote>
<p>Using a hosted service and using an off-the-shelf blog engine are <em>not</em> the same thing. Self-hosting WordPress removes all of the hosted service restrictions.</p>
<blockquote><p>
  5) You have to deal with features you don&#8217;t need. Comments? Related posts? Search? Templating engine? Image carousel? I don&#8217;t need these, but I&#8217;d have to pay the price anyway.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Just as you can customize WordPress to add features, you can also customize it to hide features. Don&#8217;t use comments? An included setting and couple of lines of CSS will make it so you never know they were there. And WordPress doesn&#8217;t include bloated features out of the box; it wisely leaves that to plugins so that you add what you want instead of removing things you don&#8217;t.</p>
<blockquote><p>
  6) You can always export your content (sometimes you can&#8217;t), but even when the option is right there, the exported format is so messed up that you can&#8217;t use it again without a huge clean up. (One time I got my posts exported in a text file with no formatting.)
</p></blockquote>
<p>Again &#8211; this is only a problem with hosted solutions. With a self-hosted WordPress site you have full access to your MySQL database, as well as the built-in export features of WordPress.</p>
<blockquote><p>
  7) What&#8217;s true today might change tomorrow. What you like about the platform might go away some day. They won&#8217;t ask for your opinion.
</p></blockquote>
<p>WordPress is Open Source. Anyone can create a fork based on their own needs and preferences.</p>
<blockquote><p>
  8) It will never be as fast as you want it to be. If it&#8217;s hosted, your traffic will be shared. If you host it yourself, you might never be able to fine tune it to perfection.
</p></blockquote>
<p>WordPress powers around 20% of the internet &#8211; you don&#8217;t grow that big if you can&#8217;t handle scale. Dedicated WordPress hosts will solve these problems for you, and installing a few simple plugins (caching, CSS and JS concatenation and optimization, etc.) will do a ton to optimize a site on an server that isn&#8217;t tuned for WordPress.</p>
<blockquote><p>
  9) I will never be sure what my content is being used for. I know it&#8217;s public anyway, but it&#8217;s also in somebody else&#8217;s database I don&#8217;t control.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Another assumption of a hosted platform. NA for a self-hosted WordPress site.</p>
<blockquote><p>
  10) You&#8217;ll never get to experience the satisfaction of engaging in a conversation about how you developed your own platform from scratch.
</p></blockquote>
<p>As someone who has hacked on WordPress and related code for the last 12 years, I find this statement absurd. There are plenty of &#8220;from scratch&#8221; opportunities within the WordPress community, even now. And if what you want is engagement then joining a bountiful and vibrant community of developers is a much bigger opportunity than the potential for a conversation with another NIH hacker.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not saying that there is anything wrong with building your own X. Every time you do that it&#8217;s a great learning experience. I&#8217;m saying I don&#8217;t think it is necessary to get pride of ownership.</p>
<blockquote><p>
  There might be something out there that offsets all my concerns, I&#8217;m not sure (but I don&#8217;t believe so.) My blog is my hobby, and I think I&#8217;d never give control again. Every single bit you see here was a labor of love, and I&#8217;m not ready to stop thinking about it that way.
</p></blockquote>
<p>I think a self-hosted WordPress site is really close. And I feel exactly the same about my site &#8211; it&#8217;s mine and I am in control of it. Even though I&#8217;ve released much of the code for this site as Open Source, no one else has a site that&#8217;s exactly like mine. I&#8217;ve made the decisions about how to present my content, how to distribute it to Twitter and Facebook, how to integrate with the responses on those platforms, and how I represent myself online. And I do so while building on a robust base platform that allows me to concentrate on building just the features that are unique to my site.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 14 Oct 2014 15:10:32 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Alex";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:97:"WPTavern: How to Obtain The Total Download Count For Plugins Attached to a WordPress.org Username";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31955";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:107:"http://wptavern.com/how-to-obtain-the-total-download-count-for-plugins-attached-to-a-wordpress-org-username";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3818:"<p>Over the weekend, the <a title="https://easydigitaldownloads.com/" href="https://easydigitaldownloads.com/">Easy Digital Downloads</a> team launched a new side project called <a title="http://wptally.com/" href="http://wptally.com/">WP Tally</a>. WP Tally is a tool that displays the total download count for plugins attached to a WordPress.org username. The project is the result of a conversation about the lack of an easy way to determine the total amount of plugin downloads a WordPress.org user has.</p>
<a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WPTallyHomePage.png" rel="prettyphoto[31955]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31956" src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WPTallyHomePage.png?resize=736%2C568" alt="WP Tally Home Page" /></a>WP Tally Home Page
<p><a title="http://ghost1227.com/" href="http://ghost1227.com/">Daniel Griffiths</a>, who worked on the backend of the project, tells the Tavern, &#8220;it only took 10 minutes to come up with a name.&#8221; <a title="http://seandavis.co/" href="http://seandavis.co/">Sean Davis</a>, a full-time support manager and theme developer for EDD, is credited with the name. The founder of Easy Digital Downloads, <a title="https://pippinsplugins.com/" href="https://pippinsplugins.com/">Pippin Williamson</a>, asked Griffiths if he was interested in creating a new plugin, &#8220;I&#8217;m always looking for a new pet project, so I happily agreed.&#8221; The first version of WP Tally took about an hour and a half of development time. Due to other things going on throughout the day, the estimated time to complete the project is half a day.</p>
<h2>The WP Tally API</h2>
<p>While the site didn&#8217;t have an <a title="http://wptally.com/api-docs/" href="http://wptally.com/api-docs/">API initially</a>, one was added after being suggested by Williamson. Griffiths says the API is public and passes the same data that is displayed on WP Tally. While the extent of what the API can do is small, the team is open to suggestions. &#8220;We&#8217;ve already had someone express interest in writing a widget to allow users to display their personal data on their own website.&#8221;</p>
<h2>WP Tally in Action</h2>
<p>Since Scott Reilly known as <a title="https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/">Coffee2Code</a> on WordPress.org, has 70 plugins attached to his account, I used his name as an example. According to WP Tally, he has <a title="http://wptally.com/?wpusername=Coffee2Code" href="http://wptally.com/?wpusername=Coffee2Code">911, 256 total downloads</a>. Meanwhile, <a title="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joostdevalk/" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joostdevalk/">Joost de Valk</a> has a total of <a title="http://wptally.com/?wpusername=joostdevalk" href="http://wptally.com/?wpusername=joostdevalk">22.3 million downloads</a> from 29 different plugins. Results are displayed in a vertical list without a way to sort them.</p>
<a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Coffer2CodeTotalPluginDownloads.png" rel="prettyphoto[31955]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31958" src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Coffer2CodeTotalPluginDownloads.png?resize=723%2C405" alt="Coffee2Code Total Download Count" /></a>Coffee2Code Total Download Count
<p>It would be nice to be able to sort through the list by the most downloads, most popular based on ratings, and alphabetical order. I&#8217;d also like to see the total number of plugins displayed in the same area as the total download count. As an added bonus, it would be neat if the information could be embedded into a text widget as a badge.</p>
<p>What do you think of the site and is there anything else you&#8217;d like to see it tally?</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 14 Oct 2014 01:21:04 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"Lorelle on WP: You’re Invited: Vancouver WordPress Social Meetup October 19";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:37:"http://lorelle.wordpress.com/?p=11966";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:99:"http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/youre-invited-vancouver-wordpress-social-meetup-october-19/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:504:"The last WordPress Social Meetup in Vancouver, Washington, was such a success, we&#8217;re going forward with these monthly meetings. Vancouver, Washington, is just a few minutes from downtown Portland, and our next meeting is this Sunday, October 19, from 4-7PM. Please arrive by 4:15PM to be allowed into the building. It is normally closed on [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=lorelle.wordpress.com&blog=72&post=11966&subd=lorelle&ref=&feed=1" width="1" height="1" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 14 Oct 2014 00:30:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17:"Lorelle VanFossen";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"WPTavern: Troubleshooting Handbook For New WordPress Support Forum Volunteers Is Live";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31953";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"http://wptavern.com/troubleshooting-handbook-for-new-wordpress-support-forum-volunteers-is-live";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5370:"<p>Providing WordPress support is an important but often, thankless job. From <a title="https://wordpress.org/support/" href="https://wordpress.org/support/">support forums</a> to <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/other-support-locations/introduction-to-irc/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/other-support-locations/introduction-to-irc/">IRC</a>, there&#8217;s no shortage of people who need help with WordPress. However, participating in the various support channels is one of the easiest ways to contribute back to WordPress. In particular, if you&#8217;re interested in becoming a volunteer on the support forums, there&#8217;s a new guide available that walks you through the process.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s called the <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/support/trouble/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/trouble/">Troubleshooting Handbook</a>. It explains how the forum works and teaches volunteers how to troubleshoot common WordPress issues they&#8217;re likely to see in the forum. In the second section of the handbook, there are several items known as <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/support/trouble/section-2-breakfix-lessons/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/trouble/section-2-breakfix-lessons/">Break/Fix lessons</a>. Break/Fix is meant to be a hands-on guide to troubleshooting broken WordPress sites. Each lesson represents a common problem you may come across when helping others in the WordPress.org support forums.</p>
<a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TroubleShootingHandbookHomePage.png" rel="prettyphoto[31953]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31964" src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TroubleShootingHandbookHomePage.png?resize=753%2C578" alt="Troubleshooting Handbook Home Page" /></a>Troubleshooting Handbook Home Page
<h2>How to Contribute</h2>
<p>For the past several months, volunteers have been working hard to get the handbook in tip-top shape. On <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2014/10/support-team-update-for-october-2nd/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2014/10/support-team-update-for-october-2nd/">October 2nd</a>, the project reached a point where it was ready for public viewing. Since it&#8217;s still a work in progress, I asked <a title="http://macmanx.com/" href="http://macmanx.com/">James Huff</a>, a member of the support team, how others can contribute. &#8220;At the moment, contributing to the handbook is limited. If you see anything that needs to be changed, please leave a comment at the bottom of the page with the problem.&#8221;</p>
<h2>The Potential Merge of Handbooks</h2>
<p>The <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/">Support Handbook</a> is a secondary project used primarily by forum moderators. Since moderators make up a small portion of the people who provide support, the initial plan is to merge the Troubleshooting handbook into the Support Handbook. Then, replace or combine the sections that overlap and relegate the moderator-only resources to a small Moderators Only section. Much of the work is planned to happen at the <a title="http://2014.sf.wordcamp.org/schedule/contributor-team-meetups/" href="http://2014.sf.wordcamp.org/schedule/contributor-team-meetups/">WordPress Contributor Team Meetup</a> during <a title="http://2014.sf.wordcamp.org/" href="http://2014.sf.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp San Francisco 2014. </a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Solid Foundation For New Support Volunteers</h2>
<p>The Troubleshooting Handbook is a welcome addition to both moderators and volunteers. While attending a WordCamp contributor day last year, I along with a few others sat in a group and plowed through several threads on the support forum. <a title="http://halfelf.org/" href="http://halfelf.org/">Mika Epstein</a>, who contributes a lot of her time to the WordPress support forums, guided us along the way. If it were not for her guidance, we may have ended up causing more problems than solving them.</p>
<a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TroubleShootingHandbookFeaturedImage.png" rel="prettyphoto[31953]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31966" src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TroubleShootingHandbookFeaturedImage.png?resize=638%2C411" alt="TroubleShootingHandbookFeaturedImage" /></a>photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkpurse/5282398538/">pinkpurse</a> &#8211; <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>
<p>Providing support on WordPress.org is an intimidating experience. It seems like new threads are created every second. I made a few mistakes by not having a set of canned responses or knowing how to handle certain question in the forums. By having this information in an easy to read format, new volunteers should have an easier time providing support without feeling like they&#8217;re doing something wrong.</p>
<p>If you want to contribute back to WordPress by providing support, I encourage you to read through the <a title="https://make.wordpress.org/support/trouble/" href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/trouble/">Troubleshooting Handbook</a>. Not only is it information you can use, it&#8217;s also a helpful guide for employees who provide customer support through forums.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 14 Oct 2014 00:27:04 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"Matt: New Yorker on WP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44251";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:40:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/new-yorker-on-wp-2/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1029:"<blockquote><p>With the relaunch, <a href="http://newyorker.com/">NewYorker.com</a> runs on WordPress, a more robust, user-friendly CMS. &#8220;We&#8217;re looking at almost total upside there,&#8221; Thompson tells me. Because the tools are no longer getting in the way of producers doing their job, NewYorker.com is now able to publish a greater volume of stories every day. The site used to top out at 10 or 12 stories each day: now, it publishes around 20 per day. &#8220;It&#8217;s a lot easier to be productive now, and we can now make the site fresh a lot more quickly than we used to,&#8221; says Thompson.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/3035381/how-the-new-yorker-finally-figured-out-the-internet-3-lessons-from-its-web-redesign">How The New Yorker Finally Figured Out The Internet in Fast Company</a>. Still my favorite magazine in the world. Also the reason I started spending more time in New York. <cite>Hat tip: <a href="http://kellychoffman.wordpress.com/">Kelly Hoffman</a>.</cite></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 13 Oct 2014 20:27:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:30;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:49:"Matt: Beats Studio Wireless vs Samsung Level Over";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44275";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/beats-studio-wireless-vs-samsung-level-over/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7474:"<p>I listen to music pretty much constantly, and it&#8217;s not unusual to see me on the road with just a carry-on and still have 3 or 4 headphones on me that I&#8217;m testing.</p>
<p>First off, Bluetooth changes everything. It&#8217;s so nice to not ever worry about cables, or even proximity for the most part, like having your phone charging by the laptop and still able to walk around the room. Audio quality is great now, only downside is having to charge something, but they&#8217;re all pretty good about battery now.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been enjoying a category I&#8217;ll call: Bluetooth, over ear headphones that let people know not to bother you, that you feel kind of cool wearing, that are great for planes, and cost around $300-400. The pioneer in this category is Beats, and I bought a pair of their Studio Wireless (in <a href="http://www.beatsbydre.com/headphones/studio-wireless/titanium/900-00199-01.html" title="Like a bosse.">matte titanium</a>, natch) after <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/28/apple-buys-beats-electronics-for-3b/" title="Apple has made a series of interesting buys and hires this year.">Apple bought them</a> because I wanted to see what the fuss is about. More recently I got some horribly named but well-reviewed <a href="http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones-accessories/EO-AG900BWESTA" title="Oh, Samsung.">Samsung Level Overs</a>, so this is a comparison of those two. (Another contender in this category would be the <a href="http://www.parrot.com/zik/usa/" title="I wanted to love these.">Parrot Zik ones</a>, but just skip those. Great idea, annoying in practice.)</p>
<p><img class="alignleft wp-image-44276" src="http://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2014/10/overear-studio-wireless-titanium-standard-thrqrtleft-O.png?resize=256%2C298" alt="Beats Studio Wireless" />Let me start with how the Beats are better: they fold up, look cool, sound pretty decent on calls, and everything works nicely with the iPhone. For me they have two fatal flaws: comfort and noise. The earcups are kind of small, or my ears are kind of huge; whichever it is, sometimes after wearing them for a few hours my left ear starts to become quite sore. Second is they have active noise cancellation (ANC) that causes what can only be described as a constant hiss you can hear both while music is playing and while it&#8217;s off, it&#8217;s like like noise addition rather than noise cancellation. The fit and finish of the Beats are nice, as well as the accessories like cables, how it indicates how much power is left, et cetera.</p>
<p><img class="alignright  wp-image-44277" src="http://i1.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2014/10/71joq-txpaL._SL1500_.jpg?resize=272%2C360" alt="Samsung LEVEL over" />The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KGGK738/" title="Reviews on Amazon are pretty good too.">LEVEL overs</a> (wow that&#8217;s awkward to write) are big, and they don&#8217;t fold, but they float around in my backpack pretty much the same as the Beats, especially if you don&#8217;t use the included case. The battery seems to go forever. The ANC can be turned on and off (battery goes longer with it off), and when it&#8217;s on it&#8217;s <em>good</em>, like miss-the-announcement-for-your-flight good. For me this is the deal-maker &#8212; I didn&#8217;t realize what I was missing with mediocre ANC before on the Beats, I&#8217;m now able to concentrate and relax much better on planes. I&#8217;ve flown every third day in the past month, so this is a big deal to me. They also feel like they&#8217;re better made &#8212; less plastic feeling than the Beats. The have a <a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/316Rt2g8EEL.jpg" title="Pretty intuitive.">touch gesture control</a> on the right cup like on the Zik, but it actually works well. The cups fit completely over my ears and in general it feels more comfortable on my head, I can wear it for hours at a time and it&#8217;s totally comfortable. I don&#8217;t think they look as cool, but that&#8217;s probably because I haven&#8217;t been conditioned with pictures of my favorite musicians and athletes wearing them. (<a href="http://recode.net/2014/10/04/nfl-bans-beats-headphones-on-camera/" title="Why is the NFL a non-profit, again?">Though not in football anymore</a>.)</p>
<p>Main downsides: the cable it comes with doesn&#8217;t &#8220;work&#8221; with an iPhone or Mac as a mic or control device, and is also clunky. (Bluetooth control works fine.) This is apparently because <a href="http://shaddack.twibright.com/projects/reveng_RemoteControlHeadphones/">the remote control resistor on Apple-targeted cables</a> work <a href="http://www.androidcentral.com/head-headphones-samsung-level-over-vs-beats-studio-wireless">differently from everyone else&#8217;s</a>, which I think we can all agree in 2014 is ridiculous for both sides. My fix for this was to use the cable from the Beats, which you <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ILV7VGG/" title="This one might be not-real, but look around.">can also buy online</a>, which looks cooler, is smaller, and works great with my Mac for G+ Hangouts and Skype calls. Perhaps related to this is when the Beats or many other Bluetooth headsets I&#8217;ve used are connected to the iPhone there&#8217;s a battery indicator and the Samsung doesn&#8217;t support this, but since the battery life is so good I don&#8217;t worry about this too much.</p>
<p><strong><img class=" wp-image-44278 alignleft" src="http://i0.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2014/10/720311395_5520467755400174836.jpg?resize=190%2C190" alt="Matt with Samsungs" />Too long; skipped to the end:</strong> The Samsung sounds better, is more comfortable, and is better made. Try it out if you&#8217;re considering buying headphones in this category. I don&#8217;t expect this to be a long-term advantage because I&#8217;m fairly certain Apple will do amazing things with Beats in the future, even if that just means a lightning connector, but I&#8217;m guessing that&#8217;s a 2015 thing.</p>
<p><strong>Extra credit:</strong> What headphones do I use in other categories? (An update to <a href="http://ma.tt/2009/07/headphone-recommendations/" title="Oldie but goodie.">my 2009 post</a>.) For in-ear wired I use <a href="http://pro.ultimateears.com/en-us/home/18-Pro" title="Best sound, best comfort, but my ears get waxy when I wear them too much.">Ultimate Ears 18 Pro Custom</a> molded to my ears, but I also recommend <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003WV391Q/" title="This is the one with the remote mic, the newer 80s don't, for no good reason.">Sennheiser IE 8i</a> for friends who don&#8217;t want to go to audiologist, for running/exercise or when being discreet like on a subway I use the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DIOAM4Y/" title="Been putting a lot of miles on these.">Plantronics BackBeat GO 2 with charging case</a>, at home I like <a href="http://www.audeze.com/products/headphones/lcd-3" title="Indefensible.">the Auduze LCD3</a> usually with a <a href="http://redwineaudio.com/" title="Cavier on the kobe.">Red Wine Audio</a> amp. I agree with many of the assessments in <a href="http://www.marco.org/headphones-closed-portable" title="I love how obsessed Marco gets.">Marco Arment&#8217;s mega-review</a>, and I got turned on to the Samsung&#8217;s by <a href="http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-noise-cancelling-headphones/" title="For the record, I was an OG Wirecutter supporter.">Wirecutter&#8217;s noise cancelling review</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 12 Oct 2014 17:15:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Matt: Oculus";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44265";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/oculus/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:767:"<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2014/10/oculus.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-44268" src="http://i2.wp.com/ma.tt/files/2014/10/oculus.jpg?resize=206%2C238" alt="" /></a> I got a chance to try the <a href="http://www.oculus.com/dk2/">Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 (DK2)</a> the other day, specifically <a href="http://www.roadtovr.com/sightline-the-chair-oculus-rift-dk2-vr-reference-demo/">Sightline: The Chair</a>. I&#8217;m not sure what to say except it was magical. I don&#8217;t think it replaces screens, but Oculus-style VR is definitely the future of entertainment. Thanks to (the <a href="http://www.ea.com/news/a-goodbye-to-john-vechey">newly retired</a>) <a href="http://johnvechey.wordpress.com/">John Vechey</a> for sharing it with me.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 11 Oct 2014 21:02:01 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:36:"Jen Mylo: Site Setup Journal: Act II";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"http://jenmylo.com/?p=4587";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"http://jenmylo.com/2014/10/11/site-setup-journal-act-ii/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17922:"<h2>Act II: Setting Up WordPress</h2>
<p><em>Previously in Site Setup Journal: <a href="http://jenmylo.com/2014/10/05/site-setup-journal-prologue/">Prologue</a> and <a href="http://jenmylo.com/2014/10/11/site-setup-journal-act-i/%20">Act I: Domains and Hosting</a>.</em></p>
<h3>One-Click Install Attempts</h3>
<p>1-click installs are totally the way to go, right? I mean, 1-click sounds faster and easier than <em>the famous 5-minute install</em> that you get if you do it manually over FTP (according to the Codex). I immediately go into the Dreamhost control panel and went for a 1-click.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4584" src="https://jenmylo.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/screen-shot-2014-10-05-at-6-36-55-am.png?w=520&h=132" alt="Screen shot 2014-10-05 at 6.36.55 AM" width="520" height="132" /></p>
<p>Okay, so 1-click, but 10 minutes. That doesn&#8217;t seem right, that it should take twice as long for the automated 1-click install as for a manual one. Well, too late now, right? Guess I&#8217;ll go feed the cats while I wait.</p>
<p>I have to kill a little more time than just feeding the cats, but eventually I get an email from Dreamhost telling me my WordPress install is ready for me, and linking me to install.php to set up an admin user and get going. I click the link and get a white screen. Hm. Try again. Hm. Open up FTP to see if the files are there, and they are. Start wondering if maybe 1-clicks can&#8217;t handle being in a subdirectory (where I&#8217;d put it), so think I&#8217;ll try another one in the root. Same thing, the 10-minute notice. Set up web email for the domain and send a test email so I can see if it&#8217;s just the website, or if it&#8217;s everything on the domain. Webmail is also whitescreened. Hm. Status on Dreamhost says my server is going to be getting some software updates and will be offline during this maintenance, but it doesn&#8217;t look like I&#8217;m in that time window. I get a 2nd automated email saying the 2nd 1-click has failed. I head into the support section.</p>
<p>The Live Chat support option shows as available, but when I click it it says that due to heavy activity there will be a 5-hour wait. Come on, just take down the Live Chat option when it&#8217;s 4am and you don&#8217;t have people on staff. I send an email, then another (first one re white screen, 2nd re install failure). In the meantime I start scrubbing through the Dreamhost support wiki.</p>
<p>I find the answer to the 2nd install failure before support gets back to me. Apparently, 1-clicks don&#8217;t work if there is anything in there already. So since I already have a subfolder in the root domain (from the 1st 1-click), trying to do a 1-click into the root won&#8217;t work. I have to empty it out first. That doesn&#8217;t make sense to me, but whatever. I wind up deleting everything via FTP and doing a manual install instead. Two, actually.</p>
<h3>Manual Install</h3>
<p>Well, then, back to the WordPress.org!</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4589" src="https://jenmylo.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/screen-shot-2014-10-11-at-8-04-50-am.png?w=520&h=185" alt="Screen shot 2014-10-11 at 8.04.50 AM" width="520" height="185" /></p>
<p>The &#8220;handy guide&#8221; is the Codex&#8217;s installation instructions page. Let&#8217;s take a look.</p>
<h4>Before You Start</h4>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4591" src="https://jenmylo.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/screen-shot-2014-10-11-at-8-22-15-am.png?w=520&h=212" alt="Screen shot 2014-10-11 at 8.22.15 AM" width="520" height="212" /></p>
<p><strong>1. Minimum server requirements</strong>. As it happens, I had checked the php version stuff when I re-upped the hosting account for this domain, and had upped the version of PHP. Someone setting things up without my account gymnastics wouldn&#8217;t have encountered that, though, so I set out to find my hosting versions as specified in the ask-for-it text on the requirements page on wordpress.org:</p>
<ul>
<li>PHP 5.2.4 or greater</li>
<li>MySQL 5.0 or greater</li>
<li>The mod_rewrite Apache module</li>
</ul>
<p>I log into the Dreamhost control panel. I look for a navigation label that says something like hosting environment, version information, about, etc. Don&#8217;t see anything. Click into <em>Manage Account</em>, nothing. Click into <em>Manage Domains</em>. Oh ho!</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4592" src="https://jenmylo.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/screen-shot-2014-10-11-at-8-28-41-am.png?w=520" alt="Screen shot 2014-10-11 at 8.28.41 AM" /></p>
<p>Clearly I&#8217;d only upped the version on the one domain, not both on that account, but even so, I can see that the php versions are both above the minimum requirement to run WordPress.</p>
<p>Next up, MySQL version. Clicking the <em>MySQL Databases</em> navigation item seems the most likely, so I do. Nope. No information shown here about MySQL versions. You&#8217;d really think you would see that on the page labeled MySQL Databases, wouldn&#8217;t you? There is a link on that screen to <em>phpMyAdmin</em>, so maybe I can find it there. Wait &#8212; Authentication Required!</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4593" src="https://jenmylo.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/screen-shot-2014-10-11-at-8-39-09-am.png?w=520" alt="Screen shot 2014-10-11 at 8.39.09 AM" /></p>
<p>Bah, which username and password combination does it want? The hosting account (server?) or a database user? A note here saying which password is needed would be helpful. I can&#8217;t get in with the ones I know off the top of my head so I close out of that and go back to the main Dreamhost control panel (the phpMyAdmin attempt had bumped me into a new tab). In the search box at the top, I type &#8220;MySQL version&#8221; and hit enter. The page refreshes, but I&#8217;m still on the MySQL Databases page where there is no version info displayed. I think maybe there&#8217;s some documentation with version info, so I look for support.</p>
<p>Now, having been around a long time, I know that Wiki, a small link in the upper right corner, means documentation. But a lot of people don&#8217;t (I doubt my mom &#8212; the most recent person to ask me to set up a site &#8212; would), so for the sake of the experiment I go looking for a Help or Docs or Support link. I find it (Support) in the bottom left navigation after scrolling down (below the fold), because for some reason the &#8220;Goodies&#8221; navigation section is open. Why? Because apparently that&#8217;s where the MySQL Databases page actually lives, despite being in the navigation up above as a top-level item. Come on, Dreamhost, who&#8217;s your information architect, and what are they doing?</p>
<p>Anyway, I click on Support. It drops a layer with 3 options. Contact, History, and Data Centers. Why not have a link here for Wiki (or better, Documentation, which is less jargony)? Hmph. If you do click on Contact Support, it takes you into a form. There&#8217;s a live chat button, but no links here to documentation either. Hm, what&#8217;s this &#8220;Help is Off&#8221; button?</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4594" src="https://jenmylo.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/screen-shot-2014-10-11-at-8-48-09-am.png?w=520&h=167" alt="Screen shot 2014-10-11 at 8.48.09 AM" width="520" height="167" /></p>
<p>I decide to click it. Then I see this:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4595" src="https://jenmylo.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/screen-shot-2014-10-11-at-8-48-47-am.png?w=520&h=169" alt="Screen shot 2014-10-11 at 8.48.47 AM" width="520" height="169" /></p>
<p>Oh, how handy, a link to documentation and forums. Why it&#8217;s even optional to hide that text is ridiculous. Anyway, to the wiki!</p>
<p>On the Wiki Home there is a nice little menu, and MySQL is listed there, so I click it. I come to another list of topics. None of them say Version, so I start clicking them in the order that makes the most sense. <em>MySQL and</em> PHP does not have version info. Neither does <em>phpMyAdmin</em>, but it does tell me that the authentication password request was for the database user password. <em>Upgrading from MySQL 4.1 to 5.0 </em>tells me that, &#8220;DreamHost is currently slowly upgrading your MySQL servers from version 4.1 to 5.0. You can also email support and request they upgrade your databases. There are some incompatibilities between versions 4.1 and 5.0, particularly with JOINs. This upgrade could cause some breakage of your application(s).&#8221; It does not say how to tell which version you are currently on. At this point, some people might email support, but I think a lot would just shrug and decide to take a chance and hope they were already on 5.0. So I do that. Because let&#8217;s face it, any host that is listed on wordpress.org/hosting had better be running the minimum requirements, right?</p>
<p>Mod_rewrite! Since I&#8217;m already in the wiki, I do a search for &#8220;mod_rewrite Apache module,&#8221; the last item in the &#8216;email your host&#8221; list. The 4 search results are not helpful in any way. I remove &#8220;Apache module&#8221; from the search term and try again. Lots of results, none of them helpful. I decide again to shrug and assume, because this documentation is for the birds when it comes to confirming minimum requirements, and who has time to wait for support emails? Not me!</p>
<p>Around now I get an email from support about my earlier white screen issue. They say that it&#8217;s because the DNS hasn&#8217;t finished replicating. I might add that there&#8217;s a &#8220;works for me&#8221; comment in there that makes me purse my lips. But I stop to think about DNS. Yes, in the past I&#8217;ve had to set up a temp site on a dreamhosters subdomain if I wanted to work on a site before DNS caught up. Pain in the ass, yeah? Having to then do a move once the real domain is showing up? I hadn&#8217;t thought about that this time because the GoDaddy registration of the domain had been pointing at Dreamhost servers all along. I guess the hosting being down and then up created a DNS interruption. It was not explained to me satisfactorily, but I move on. Specifically, to step 2 of preparing for the install.</p>
<p><strong>Step 2. Download the latest release of WP. </strong>Easy. Go to wordpress.org, click the big Download button. Oh, okay. That wasn&#8217;t really a download button, that was a navigation link to a download page. Okay. I skim the content in the middle and go to click on the&#8230; oh, that button at the bottom of the content area is to find a mobile app, and goes to a site at get.wp.com. That&#8217;s not right. Oh, there&#8217;s the real download button up in the sidebar. It seems like those should have been switched, but whatever. Click! Download! 6.3MB, it takes 7 seconds.</p>
<p><strong>Step 3. Unzip the file.</strong> Also easy. Do <em>Show in Finder</em> from the download bar on the bottom of my browser, double click the file, see the <em>wordpress</em> folder appear. 3 seconds.</p>
<p><strong>Step 4. Secure password for secret key. </strong>Click on the link to read about it. Get distracted by the big-ass blue-i information icon alert at the top that says, &#8220;Interested in functions, hooks, classes, or methods? Check out the new <a class="external text" title="http://developer.wordpress.org/reference" href="http://developer.wordpress.org/reference">WordPress Code Reference</a>!&#8221; Why is that following me around on every page of the Codex? For someone installing WordPress for the first time, that is not helpful. At all. Further, there&#8217;s no <em>x</em> to dismiss the box, so if I&#8217;m not interested, I still have to scroll past it every time, and it pushes the content farther down on the page, not to mention making me feel like I&#8217;m probably not in the right place because they obviously think I am way technical. (Tangent: People keep saying that the fold is dead, but I think they are wrong.) Anyway, I&#8217;m already confused. I clicked on a link that said  <em>Secure password for secret key, </em>but I don&#8217;t see that language on this page. It doesn&#8217;t anchor link me to the specific section I needed, so I guess I have to read this whole page? With multiple mentions of passwords but no headlines that say secret key? I command+f to do a search for text on the page, which shows that &#8220;secret key&#8221; is mentioned in the section titled <em>Security Keys</em>. Hmph. Would a little consistency here be so much to ask?</p>
<p>Read the section. Questions that should be answered in this section <strong>before</strong> jumping into the history of adding stuff.</p>
<ul>
<li>What is a key?</li>
<li>What is a salt?</li>
</ul>
<p>Then it shows what secret keys look like from the online generator. Cool, I like online generators. But the wording all over is inconsistent and confusing &#8212; is it one secret key, or four, or eight? And where do I set a secure password for the key (or keys)? I don&#8217;t understand this! So! Many! Words! Used! Indiscriminately!</p>
<p>I cheat and use the fact that I know what all that confusing language means, and what it wants, which is simply the block of generated keys and salts, not a password for them.</p>
<p><strong>Step 5. Print this page. </strong>So I have it handy during installation? I&#8217;m thinking this list was written in the days before browser tabs, because why would I print it when I can just keep a tab open? Silly directions. But! On to the actual install!</p>
<h4>Famous 5-Minute Install</h4>
<p>That sure was a lot to do before doing the install, but I&#8217;m ready now!</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4590" src="https://jenmylo.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/screen-shot-2014-10-11-at-8-06-30-am.png?w=520&h=381" alt="Screen shot 2014-10-11 at 8.06.30 AM" width="520" height="381" /></p>
<p><strong>Download and unzip &#8212; check.</strong> This step, which was 2 of the steps in the <em>Before You Install</em> list, took under a minute total, about 20% of a 5-minute install.</p>
<p><strong>Create a database and a MySQL user &#8212; check.</strong> This takes a couple of minutes. I have to log in to the hosting panel, locate <em>MySQL Databases</em> in the menu, and scan the resulting page to orient myself. The first thing on the page is creating a new hostname, and the WP instructions didn&#8217;t say anything about creating a new hostname. Below that is create a database, which has fields to create the first user at the same time. There&#8217;s no instruction on the difference between a database user, an ftp user, and an account user. I go ahead and made new host, db, and user (and while I&#8217;m in there I delete the databases left from the aborted 1-clicks), but I think it would intimidate someone who hadn&#8217;t done it before and didn&#8217;t really know what a database was in relation to a hosting account or a website. This takes me a minute or two, but would probably take someone who&#8217;d never done something like this a little longer, maybe up to 5 while they tried to grok the setup page on the host panel.</p>
<p><strong>Edit wp-config.php &#8212; check. </strong>This step is labeled optional, but I&#8217;m not sure why. If you click the <em>Editing wp-config.php</em> link, it says WP will create the config file for you from info you enter, and that turning wp-config-sample.php into a real wp-config.php file is for advanced users. If it works fine to have it be auto-generated, then why have this step in there at all? If it&#8217;s really better to do it manually, then why have the auto-create version? In any case, I&#8217;m used to editing the config file at this step, so I do it. Takes a couple of minutes because I had to go back and forth between tabs and copy/paste stuff. I happen to have Coda installed so the file opened in that program, but normally I&#8217;d have used textedit.</p>
<p>At this point I&#8217;ve passed 5 minutes.</p>
<p><strong>Upload files via FTP &#8212; check. </strong>I open Transmit and start the transfer. It takes <strong>twelve</strong> minutes. Why? My first guess is that it is shipping with 3 default themes now, all with retina-ready images. But I don&#8217;t know, I could be wrong. I know I don&#8217;t need all those themes, so I delete Twenty Fourteen and Twenty Thirteen while I&#8217;m in FTP, and plan to start out with Twenty Twelve.</p>
<blockquote><p>Tangent: Why do I want to start with Twenty Twelve? I think Twenty Thirteen is really aimed at bloggers and it has an overwhelming brand/design to it. The site I&#8217;m making is for a class, and needs to be chill. Twenty Fourteen I just personally don&#8217;t like, for the same reasons I don&#8217;t like the general mp6 coloring/style, which I&#8217;ve posted about elsewhere before.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>Run the script at the URL where you installed &#8212; screeech! </strong>Screech to a halt here, because I wind up on another white screen. Side note: the wordpress.org instructions say to go right to the root URL, not to install.php directly (like the 1-click email tells you). Are they two different locations? Does install.php automatically load at root? Bah.</p>
<p>I go ahead and do a second manual install, so now I have one in root and one in a subdirectory. White screens on both. So it seems that the DNS stuff is really going to hold things up. I decide to go to school and finish it off when I get home that night.</p>
<h4>INTERMISSION</h4>
<p>Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion in Act III, which will cover finishing the WP install, installing BuddyPress and other plugins, and setting up BuddyPress.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p><img alt="" border="0" src="http://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=jenmylo.com&blog=45389656&post=4587&subd=jenmylo&ref=&feed=1" width="1" height="1" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 11 Oct 2014 20:04:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8:"Jen Mylo";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"WPTavern: HostingReviews.io – Webhosting Reviews Without The Affiliate Links";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31873";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"http://wptavern.com/hostingreviews-io-webhosting-reviews-without-the-affliate-links";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3738:"<p>How many times have you found reviews of webhosting companies only to discover they&#8217;re filled with affiliate links? The presence of an affiliate link leaves the validity of content in question. <a title="http://hostingreviews.io/" href="http://hostingreviews.io/">HostingReviews.io</a> by Steven Gliebe, hopes to solve this problem by documenting micro reviews without any affiliate links attached.</p>
<a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/FarAboveAverage.png" rel="prettyphoto[31873]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31926" src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/FarAboveAverage.png?resize=778%2C397" alt="The Far Above Average Hosts Per Customer Reviews" /></a>The Far Above Average Hosts Per Customer Reviews
<p>HostingReviews.io works by documenting what people say about their webhosting provider on social media sites such as Twitter. These micro reviews are stored in a queue that Gliebe and his helpers process. Tweets that clearly express happiness or dissatisfaction are marked as such.</p>
<h2>The Technical Details</h2>
<p>Gliebe collects tweets matching certain keywords into a database using Twitter&#8217;s stream API. There are keywords setup to cover each host as best as possible. For example, Site Ground, SiteGround, and @siteground. This process means there is nothing special people have to do other than mention their host.</p>
<p>It is not really a submissions site where someone can say &#8220;I want what I say to be there&#8221; which can be abused. Gliebe describes the process being similar to a researcher taking a sample large enough to draw conclusions from. &#8220;I want to cover a lot of hosts eventually and that would be expensive to human-process so again that means not everything will be included, but whatever is excluded, will always be done so across the board at random as not to unfairly affect scoring.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Some people have asked me to add specific tweets. I decided not to do that because it will skew results (ie. someone submits only good or only bad ones for specific hosts). I&#8217;m sticking with the data Twitter themselves automatically roll in 24/7.&#8221;</p>
<p>If the user&#8217;s statement is in regard to a specific aspect of hosting (support, uptime, etc.), that is noted too. The micro-reviews and the data derived from them are presented on the site. Since users are more likely to Tweet dissatisfaction with their webhost, the overall scores are low. Gliebe notes that comparison is key.</p>
<a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/FlyWheelHostingReviews.png" rel="prettyphoto[31873]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31927" src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/FlyWheelHostingReviews.png?resize=1025%2C635" alt="FlyWheel Reviews With Pretty Charts" /></a>FlyWheel Reviews With Pretty Charts
<p>The site is relatively new so there isn&#8217;t a lot of data to work with but what I&#8217;ve seen so far matches what I&#8217;ve noticed in my Twitter feed. Flywheel leading the pack doesn&#8217;t surprise me as I&#8217;m consistently reading tweets raving about their service and support.</p>
<p>In the past few months, there&#8217;s been more positive tweets about Pagely than I can remember. So being the number two webhosting company on HostingReviews matches what I&#8217;ve seen.</p>
<p>The site is a great resource as long as it keeps its promise of not using affiliate links. While 140 character tweets leave out a lot of context, I still think they have value. If you&#8217;re looking for webhosting reviews without an agenda, consider browsing <a title="http://hostingreviews.io/" href="http://hostingreviews.io/">HostingReviews.io</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 10 Oct 2014 20:59:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WPTavern: WebDesign.com Is Now iThemes Training";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31920";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57:"http://wptavern.com/webdesign-com-is-now-ithemes-training";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1569:"<p><a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/iThemesTrainingImage.png" rel="prettyphoto[31920]"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31921" src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/iThemesTrainingImage.png?resize=598%2C148" alt="iThemes Training Image" /></a>iThemes <a title="https://ithemes.com/webdesign-has-moved/" href="https://ithemes.com/webdesign-has-moved/">has announced</a> that WebDesign.com is now called <a title="http://training.ithemes.com" href="http://training.ithemes.com">iThemes Training.</a> According to the announcement, this change will lessen confusion and place everything under the iThemes umbrella.</p>
<blockquote><p>We&#8217;re making this transition in order to bring everything we do at iThemes under one roof (themes, plugins &amp; training) and eliminate confusion caused by having multiple domain names and two separate brands.</p></blockquote>
<p>If you&#8217;re a member of WebDesign.com, not much changes. You&#8217;ll be able to use the same credentials to login to iThemes Training and access the same content as before.</p>
<p>If you have any questions concerning the move, iThemes is <a title="https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/392183786" href="https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/392183786">hosting a webinar</a> on Monday, October 13th at 1PM CDT. You can also stop by the iThemes Training <a title="https://ithemes.com/forum/topic/64915-ithemes-training-webdesigncom/" href="https://ithemes.com/forum/topic/64915-ithemes-training-webdesigncom/">member forum</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 10 Oct 2014 19:37:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:37:"WPTavern: First PodsCamp Is a Success";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31900";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"http://wptavern.com/first-podscamp-is-a-success";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3614:"<a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/PodsDevTeamFeaturedImage.png" rel="prettyphoto[31900]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31901" src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/PodsDevTeamFeaturedImage.png?resize=663%2C300" alt="PodsCamp Dev Team Featured Image" /></a>Image Courtesy of <a title="http://podscamp.org/" href="http://podscamp.org/">PodsCamp</a>
<p>October 3rd, 2014 will live in the history books as the day when the <a title="http://podscamp.org/" href="http://podscamp.org/">first conference</a> devoted to <a title="http://pods.io/" href="http://pods.io/">Pods</a> took place. Organized by Scott Kingsley Clark, <a title="http://podscamp.org/" href="http://podscamp.org/">PodsCamp</a> not only focused on the Pods plugin, but it was also the first time the development team was in the same physical location. In the following interview, Clark tells me how he thinks it went and whether it will become an annual event.</p>
<p><strong>Overall, what is your impression for how the first ever PodsCamp went?</strong></p>
<p>It was awesome! It could have only been made better by perhaps more tickets being available for WCDFW which was a barrier for folks coming from out-of-town. When tickets ran out for WCDFW, people couldn&#8217;t justify just coming out for PodsCamp, but could justify it if they were able to go to WCDFW that weekend too. Almost all (if not every single one) of our attendees went to WCDFW the next day.</p>
<p><strong>What was accomplished by having the entire Pods development team under the same roof?</strong></p>
<p>This was the first time we were together and it gave us an opportunity to have face to face conversations. We talked about all sorts of things like where we&#8217;ve been, where we&#8217;re going, and ideas on what we want to improve upon. One killer idea that came out of the weekend was from Joshua Pollock. We&#8217;re nailing down the specifics right now and should have an announcement post published as soon as we get things in place.</p>
<p><strong>Do you have any initial feedback concerning the event?</strong></p>
<p>We didn&#8217;t make enough from sponsors, Tilt, or ticket sales to cover the cost of the event. Our highest expense was bringing in four people from out-of-town and covering their accommodations. I hope in the future we can secure enough to at least break even.</p>
<p><strong>Is PodsCamp something you&#8217;ll try to turn into an annual event?</strong></p>
<p>Yes, we&#8217;re going to do this again next year just before WCDFW and will go over new topics now that we have established a baseline. We&#8217;re also considering 1-3 smaller meetup-based events near where our team members are located. One of which may be a mini-PodsCamp type of event in Austin, TX. I think that PodsCamp DFW will be our flagship one, which we would bring the whole crew out for, but the smaller ones could be more workshop and less camp.</p>
<p>I just want to again thank everyone who made this possible, especially Chris Lema, Jake Goldman, Tom McFarlin, WPEngine, and SiteGround. I’m so stoked we could pull this off!</p>
<h2>Let Us Know if You Attended PodsCamp</h2>
<p>If you attended PodsCamp, let us know about your experience in the comments! Slides from each presentation can <a title="http://www.slideshare.net/podsframework/" href="http://www.slideshare.net/podsframework/">be found here</a>. Sessions recorded at the event will be added to the Pods Framework <a title="https://www.youtube.com/user/podsframework" href="https://www.youtube.com/user/podsframework">YouTube channel</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 10 Oct 2014 18:32:04 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"Matt: Chicago FAA Fire";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44243";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:38:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/chicago-faa-fire/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:430:"<p><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-02/contact-lost-with-planes-one-by-one-as-faa-center-fire-spread.html">This story about how a man sabotaged a FAA facility is terrifying and inspiring in how people worked together to overcome it</a>, and also includes this unintentionally funny line, &#8220;He had worked at the Chicago Center for eight years, according to an FBI affidavit. The company has fired him.&#8221;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 10 Oct 2014 15:33:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 165 – Contributions Galore";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:44:"http://wptavern.com?p=31903&preview_id=31903";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:61:"http://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-165-contributions-galore";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3083:"<p>Since there is no guest this week, <a href="http://marcuscouch.com/" title="http://marcuscouch.com/">Marcus Couch</a> and I used this opportunity to spend more time than usual with the news. We spend a considerable amount of time discussing WordPress contributions and I provide insight into my distinction between<strong> direct</strong> and <strong>indirect</strong> contributions. I share my experience of attending the first WordCamp event for Ann Arbor, MI. Last but not least, we end the show with a shout-out to <a href="http://hostingreviews.io/" title="http://hostingreviews.io/">HostingReviews.io</a>, a resource filled with webhosting reviews from current or past customers without affiliate links.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="http://wptavern.com/my-experience-at-wordcamp-ann-arbor-2014" title="http://wptavern.com/my-experience-at-wordcamp-ann-arbor-2014">My Experience at WordCamp Ann Arbor 2014</a><br />
<a href="http://wptavern.com/contributing-back-to-wordpress" title="http://wptavern.com/contributing-back-to-wordpress">Contributing Back to WordPress</a><br />
<a href="http://wptavern.com/webdevstudios-acquires-wordpress-support-services-company-maintainn" title="http://wptavern.com/webdevstudios-acquires-wordpress-support-services-company-maintainn">WebDevStudios Acquires WordPress Support Services Company, Maintainn</a><br />
<a href="http://www.poststat.us/pagely-growth-wordpress-hosting/" title="http://www.poststat.us/pagely-growth-wordpress-hosting/">5 years into business, Pagely is growing faster than ever</a></p>
<h2>Plugins Picked By Marcus:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicate-title-validate/" title="https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicate-title-validate/">Duplicate Title Validation</a> looks for posts and pages with the same name and prevents you from using the same title twice.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/flexible-widget-title/" title="https://wordpress.org/plugins/flexible-widget-title/">Flexible Widget Title</a> enables you to hide widget titles in the frontend of WordPress, while the widget title is still visible in the backend.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-double-protection/" title="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-double-protection/">WP Double Protection</a> adds the ability to have a second password option. Instead of needing one password to login, you&#8217;ll need two.</p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, October 15th 9:30 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: </strong><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via RSS: </strong><a href="http://www.wptavern.com/feed/podcast" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Stitcher Radio: </strong><a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr" target="_blank">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #165:</strong><br />
</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 10 Oct 2014 04:53:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"WPTavern: New WordPress Plugin Prevents Duplicate Titles From Being Published";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31892";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:87:"http://wptavern.com/new-wordpress-plugin-prevents-duplicate-titles-from-being-published";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1686:"<p>By default, if a post or page uses a title that&#8217;s already been used, WordPress appends a -2 to the end of the slug to prevent conflicts. Not only do duplicate titles cause conflicts, they&#8217;re not good for SEO. Developed by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/wallfa_hm/">wallfa_hm,</a> the <a title="https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicate-title-validate/" href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicate-title-validate/">Duplicate Title Validation</a> plugin checks the title and displays a notice if it&#8217;s considered a duplicate.</p>
<a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/DuplicateTitleDetected.png" rel="prettyphoto[31892]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31893" src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/DuplicateTitleDetected.png?resize=941%2C358" alt="Duplicate Title Detected" /></a>Duplicate Title Detected
<p>I tried to publish a post with a duplicate title but the plugin prevented it from being published and saved it as a draft instead. This is a nice touch and forces the writer to use a unique title.</p>
<a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/DuplicatePostSavedAsDraft.png" rel="prettyphoto[31892]"><img class="size-full wp-image-31895" src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/DuplicatePostSavedAsDraft.png?resize=924%2C407" alt="Duplicate Post Saved as a Draft" /></a>Duplicate Post Saved as a Draft
<p>It&#8217;s not difficult to determine what the plugin is doing but the notices could be improved so they&#8217;re easier to understand. If you publish a lot of content, this plugin is an easy way to make sure each post or page has a unique title.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 10 Oct 2014 03:23:07 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:75:"WPTavern: A Simple Way to Hide Widget Titles From The Frontend of WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31876";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"http://wptavern.com/a-simple-way-to-hide-widget-titles-from-the-frontend-of-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1019:"<p>Developed by <a title="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hyyan/" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hyyan/">Hyyan</a>, <a title="https://wordpress.org/plugins/flexible-widget-title/" href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/flexible-widget-title/">Flexible Widget Title</a> is a new plugin that enables users to hide widget titles from the frontend of WordPress. When activated, apply brackets to the titles you want to hide. For example,<strong> [A Text Widget Title].</strong></p>
<a href="http://wptavern.com/a-simple-way-to-hide-widget-titles-from-the-frontend-of-wordpress#gallery-31876-1-slideshow">Click to view slideshow.</a>
<p>Although the same effect can be accomplished by leaving the title field blank, it makes administering several text widgets in the backend of WordPress more difficult. This plugin allows you to keep the titles in the backend for easier administration but still be able to hide them on the frontend.</p>
<p>I tested the plugin on WordPress 4.0 and didn&#8217;t experience any issues.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 10 Oct 2014 01:27:14 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:40;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33:"Matt: Most Fascinating Newsletter";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44241";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:49:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/most-fascinating-newsletter/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:388:"<p><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/03/the-internets-most-fascinating-newsletter-writer-dave-pell/">The Internet&#8217;s Most Fascinating Newsletter Writer, Dave Pell</a>. Still one of my favorite reads, though I don&#8217;t look at it every day because it&#8217;d make me lazy about blogging and you all would get tired of seeing &#8220;Hat tip: Dave Pell&#8221; on every post.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Oct 2014 13:47:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:24:"Matt: Players’ Tribune";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44257";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:37:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/players-tribune/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:794:"<blockquote><p>Introducing The Players’ Tribune, a new media platform that will present the unfiltered voices of professional athletes, bringing fans closer to the games they love than ever before. Founded by Derek Jeter, The Players’ Tribune aims to provide unique insight into the daily sports conversation and to publish first-person stories directly from athletes. From video to podcasts to player polls and written pieces, The Tribune will strive to be “The Voice of the Game.”</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.theplayerstribune.com/">The Players&#8217; Tribune, powered by WordPress</a>. <a href="http://www.theplayerstribune.com/introducing-derek-jeter/">Here&#8217;s Jeter&#8217;s intro</a>. <cite>Hat tip: <a href="http://daringfireball.net/">John Gruber</a>.</cite></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Oct 2014 06:09:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Matt: Become a Longreads Member";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44247";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/become-a-longreads-member/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:766:"<blockquote><p>Our goal is to create a sustainable membership with a large enough base that it will fund reporting and writing at rates that are competitive with the best print magazines in the world.</p></blockquote>
<p>You might not have heard of a <a href="http://longreads.com/member">Longreads Membership</a> yet &#8212; you join for a monthly fee and 100% of that goes to independent publishers and writers. <a href="http://blog.longreads.com/2014/10/06/the-longreads-membership-is-now-twice-as-powerful/">We&#8217;re announcing an update to the program to match every dollar in, so it doubles your contribution</a>. I just joined Longreads at $10/mo, about what I pay for Netflix, and I can&#8217;t wait to see what comes out from the editorial team next.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 08 Oct 2014 20:22:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:43;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"Post Status: 5 years into business, Pagely is growing faster than ever";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"http://www.poststat.us/?p=7174";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"http://www.poststat.us/pagely-growth-wordpress-hosting/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9862:"<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7177" src="http://www.poststat.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/pagely.png" alt="pagely" width="640" height="220" /></p>
<p><a href="http://pagely.com">Pagely</a> is celebrating their fifth year of business right now. They have just launched their newly designed website (<em>note to early readers</em>: it&#8217;s in process of launching at this moment, so some links may not work until later today) to reflect some of the ways they&#8217;ve changed over the years. They are also growing, rapidly.</p>
<p>The new website is a complete rebrand. They&#8217;ve tweaked their logo many times over the years, but they&#8217;ve completely changed it now. It&#8217;s much more modern and can be used in a variety of ways.</p>
<p>The new website is flat, geometric, modern, and as sassy as ever (like with their <a href="https://pagely.com/about-us/investors/">Investors page</a> they are quite proud of). In all, the redesign attempts to showcase happy customers and what makes them different.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.poststat.us/pagely-growth-wordpress-hosting/pagely-new-homepage/" rel="attachment wp-att-7181"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-7181" src="http://www.poststat.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/pagely-new-homepage-752x547.png" alt="pagely-new-homepage" width="627" height="456" /></a></p>
<p>They are introducing <a href="https://pagely.com/ambassadors/">brand ambassadors</a> &#8212; a kind of super testimonial &#8212; that includes names you&#8217;ll surely recognize from the WordPress community.</p>
<p>Additionally, they are giving other managed hosts a bit of a sting with what they call <a href="https://pagely.com/turnthepage/">#turnthepage</a>, a dedicated page to highlight that they don&#8217;t charge for pageviews, something that most managed WordPress hosting companies do.<span id="more-7174"></span></p>
<p>Pagely has implemented the new branding and design elements across most of their platform, including their Support sub-site.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-7176" src="http://www.poststat.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/support-pagely-752x491.png" alt="support-pagely" width="627" height="409" /></p>
<p>In addition to branding and a web redesign, Pagely is attempting to showcase that they were first to market with managed WordPress hosting, but also that they are best in class. The strategy &#8212; and particularly their recent all-in <a title="Pagely has new plans, a new dashboard, and a new Amazon Web Services infrastructure" href="http://www.poststat.us/pagely-wordpress-hosting-amazon/">move to being an AWS-based service</a> &#8212; appear to be working.</p>
<h3>Record growth</h3>
<p>I discussed the Pagely redesign and their recent growth with Joshua Strebel, Pagely co-founder and CEO. He told me that they&#8217;ve seen an enormous amount of growth this year.</p>
<p>Revenue is up 28% in the last month alone and between 40-45% quarter over quarter. This means that Pagely is on pace to more than double in size between this summer and next.</p>
<p>To some this may seem a surprise, but it&#8217;s part of some slow and steady investments Pagely has made in recent years.</p>
<p>They certainly did not scale at the pace of other players in the market &#8212; most notably <a href="http://wpengine.com">WP Engine</a>. They also (as noted above with the Investors page) have bootstrapped their company from the beginning.</p>
<p>Noone knows exactly how big Pagely is today, and that&#8217;s part of what you get with their owners. Though I&#8217;m told they are &#8220;more than 10 people but fewer than 50.&#8221;</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-6550" src="http://www.poststat.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/pagely-team-752x378.jpg" alt="pagely-team" width="627" height="315" /></p>
<p>The Strebel&#8217;s (on the left of the picture above) own the company &#8212; only sharing equity with some key employees &#8212; and they are proud of their independence.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s nearly impossible to be a Pagely customer without feeling the presence of Josh and Sally Strebel&#8217;s own personalities. And while Josh is an opinionated figure in the WordPress community, Pagely customers seem quite happy with that.</p>
<h3>Managed host customer satisfaction</h3>
<p>Steven Gliebe started a new project recently called <a href="http://hostingreviews.io/">HostingReviews.io</a>, a website that attempts to collect non-biased reviews from social media about various hosting solutions. Pagely has a 94% happiness rating according to HostingReviews.io &#8212; matched only by <a href="http://getflywheel.com">Flywheel&#8217;s</a> 95% rating.</p>
<p>I like Steven&#8217;s project because he is not using affiliates at all with this project, an aspect that spoils most hosting review websites. Here&#8217;s a breakdown of some others:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.poststat.us/pagely-growth-wordpress-hosting/hosting-reviews-io/" rel="attachment wp-att-7175"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-7175" src="http://www.poststat.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/hosting-reviews-io-752x757.png" alt="hosting-reviews-io" width="627" height="631" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Changes in managed WordPress hosting markets</h3>
<p>It&#8217;s been an interesting time to analyze the managed WordPress hosting market. For one, the term &#8220;managed WordPress hosting&#8221; is here to stay. Nearly every large player &#8212; including the likes of GoDaddy, Bluehost, Dreamhost, and more &#8212; offer a managed WordPress hosting product.</p>
<p>The differences between these large company products and the original smaller players &#8212; players like Pagely, WP Engine, Pressable, and later entrants like Flywheel, Siteground, and Pantheon &#8212; are beyond the name of the product. You really have to dig into each service and business model to get a full grasp of how they are unique.</p>
<p>And this is really hard.</p>
<p>For one, you can find positive and negative things about every host in the world. But also, these companies are often targeting different audiences. For instance, GoDaddy and the other large hosts pretty clearly want the smaller website audience, but to upsell them with a more WordPress-specific package. And that&#8217;s fine; they can offer some great functionality for that.</p>
<p>But Pagely, Pantheon, and some others are going after bigger fish; and they are marketing themselves appropriately.</p>
<h3>Going after WordPress.com VIP</h3>
<p><a href="http://vip.wordpress.com/">WordPress.com VIP</a> is the king of the big-WordPress mountain. They have the promise of infinite scale and excellent reliability. It&#8217;s Automattic&#8217;s own product and an excellent business model for them.</p>
<p>They are able to charge big companies big dollars (relative to other WordPress hosting, not compared to some enterprise software these companies are used to) to get the assurance that their website is hosted safely and reliably.</p>
<p>WordPress.com <a href="http://vip.wordpress.com/stats/">serves billions of pageviews every month</a>. It&#8217;s simply a massive platform and a comfortable place for companies to take their WordPress hosting needs.</p>
<p>Pagely wants to be an alternative to WordPress.com VIP. They see themselves as a viable and attractive alternative. For one, they&#8217;ll tell you that you can run anything on Pagely; whereas WordPress VIP has a restricted ecosystem that involves approved-only plugins and stringent code reviews for any custom code, that often requires one of their VIP service partners to perform the work.</p>
<blockquote><p>VIP is a great service. However it is no longer the only service capable of serving clients at scale. We are winning more of those high-caliber clients that need the extra flexibility our stack offers.</p>
<p>&#8211; Joshua Strebel, Pagely CEO</p></blockquote>
<p>Pagely and others seeking the high end market are still relatively early on in their efforts; WordPress.com VIP is a behemoth in that market.</p>
<h3>A changing tide</h3>
<p>I&#8217;ve noticed &#8212; and I&#8217;m sure some of you have too &#8212; a change in tide of WordPress managed hosting. This year has no doubt been a very tough one for some managed hosts.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s been painful to see customers that were once happy with their service &#8212; to the point of being huge brand ambassadors themselves &#8212; to quietly leaving and moving on to something else, now with warranted skepticism.</p>
<p>Personally, I try to stay pretty host-agnostic. It is a very difficult market to say anything about, due to its incredibly competitive nature. However, I think it&#8217;s obvious that Pagely &#8212; accompanied by the likes of <a href="http://siteground.com">SiteGround</a> and <a href="http://getpantheon.com">Pantheon</a> &#8212; is on the rise while some of the other early entrants to WordPress managed hosting are struggling to consistently deliver on their promises.</p>
<p>However, with new-found popularity and fast growth, Pagely too can be susceptible to some of the same growing pains of their competition. But they say they&#8217;re ready for it.</p>
<p>They&#8217;ve invested heavily in AWS and put all their technology chips in Amazon&#8217;s basket. And they assure me that they have been hiring some of the best support techs and engineers in the business. Additionally, they tell me that because they aren&#8217;t investing a ton of money into marketing, their customer influx is more natural and less likely to strain more linear growth levels.</p>
<p>Time will tell if <a href="http://pagely.com">Pagely</a> is ready to scale with players that have more money and resources than they do, but they&#8217;re definitely excited about the recent growth, the new brand and website, their brand ambassadors, and the challenges ahead.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 08 Oct 2014 19:41:57 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Brian Krogsgard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:44;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:50:"WPTavern: My Experience at WordCamp Ann Arbor 2014";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31846";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"http://wptavern.com/my-experience-at-wordcamp-ann-arbor-2014";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9897:"<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WordCampAnnArbor2014.png" rel="prettyphoto[31846]"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-31783 size-full" src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/WordCampAnnArbor2014.png?resize=680%2C265" alt="WordCamp Ann Arbor 2014 Header" /></a></p>
<p>After a <a title="http://wptavern.com/5-wordpress-conferences-taking-place-this-weekend" href="http://wptavern.com/5-wordpress-conferences-taking-place-this-weekend">busy weekend of WordPress conferences</a>, among those that took place is the first ever <a title="http://2014.annarbor.wordcamp.org/" href="http://2014.annarbor.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp Ann Arbor</a>. Situated on the University of Michigan campus at the <a title="http://uunions.umich.edu/league/" href="http://uunions.umich.edu/league/">Michigan League</a>, nearly 150 people from all walks of life gathered to learn about WordPress.</p>
<h2>Beginner&#8217;s Guide to WordCamps</h2>
<p>I started the day with a session by <a title="http://serverpress.com/" href="http://serverpress.com/">Marc Benzakein</a> entitled &#8220;<a title="http://2014.annarbor.wordcamp.org/session/how-to-rock-a-wordcamp-even-if-youre-a-total-noob/" href="http://2014.annarbor.wordcamp.org/session/how-to-rock-a-wordcamp-even-if-youre-a-total-noob/">How to Rock a WordCamp Even if You’re a Total n00b</a>.&#8221; When Benzakein asked how many in the room were attending their first WordCamp, the majority raised their hands. After attending more than a dozen WordCamps, Benzakein offers advice to first-time attendees and explains how to get the most out of the event.</p>
<a href="http://wptavern.com/my-experience-at-wordcamp-ann-arbor-2014#gallery-31846-2-slideshow">Click to view slideshow.</a>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>I&#8217;d like to see more WordCamps incorporate the same or a similar session at the beginning of the event, especially if it&#8217;s the first one for the area. It breaks the ice and gives attendees a realistic expectation of what a WordCamp is all about. Those who attended the presentation had the opportunity to meet Benzakein&#8217;s son, Eli.</p>
<p>His son contributed to the conversation and helped break the ice with his humorous questions and commentary. He contributed so much that if he <del>registers an account on WordPress.org</del>, I&#8217;d like to see the speakers badge added to <a title="https://profiles.wordpress.org/Elijahbenzak" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/Elijahbenzak">his profile</a>. If you&#8217;d like more information on how to survive your first WordCamp, Carrie Dils has an excellent <a title="http://www.carriedils.com/wordcamp-tips/" href="http://www.carriedils.com/wordcamp-tips/">survival guide</a> available.</p>
<h2> Child Themes and Theme Frameworks</h2>
<p>Next up, I sat in on <a title="http://philhoyt.com/" href="http://philhoyt.com/">Phil Hoyt&#8217;s</a> presentation on using <a title="http://2014.annarbor.wordcamp.org/session/using-frameworks-and-child-themes/" href="http://2014.annarbor.wordcamp.org/session/using-frameworks-and-child-themes/">Frameworks and Child Themes</a>. He described the benefits of what a theme framework offers and the proper way of editing themes via child themes. His theme framework is called <a title="https://wordpress.org/themes/generic-framework" href="https://wordpress.org/themes/generic-framework">Generic</a> and is available for free on the WordPress Theme Directory.</p>
<a href="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/156.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[31846]"><img class="size-large wp-image-31860" src="http://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/156.jpg?resize=500%2C375" alt="Child Themes and Theme Frameworks" /></a>Learning about Child Themes and Theme Frameworks
<h2>Be The Peacock</h2>
<p>My favorite session of the day was &#8220;<a class="wcpt-session-title" href="http://2014.annarbor.wordcamp.org/session/be-the-peacock-creating-and-loving-your-online-brand/">Be the Peacock: Creating and Loving Your Online Brand</a>&#8221; by <a title="http://www.web-savvy-marketing.com/" href="http://www.web-savvy-marketing.com/">Rebecca Gill</a>. The idea behind her presentation is that a peacock has beautiful, vibrant colors, and is not afraid to strut them. Likewise, individuals need to stand out and make themselves and their brand distinguishable. In the presentation, she tells the story of how she was once a shy individual, afraid to strut her colors and diagnosed with <a title="http://wordpress.tv/2014/02/14/chris-lema-escaping-the-impostor-syndrome/" href="http://wordpress.tv/2014/02/14/chris-lema-escaping-the-impostor-syndrome/">Imposter Syndrome</a>. After receiving a pep talk from <a title="http://chrislema.com/" href="http://chrislema.com/">Chris Lema</a>, she embraced her inner peacock.</p>
<a href="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/157.jpg" rel="prettyphoto[31846]"><img class="size-large wp-image-31862" src="http://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/157.jpg?resize=500%2C375" alt="Be The Peacock Not The Peahen" /></a>Be The Peacock Not The Peahen
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Wise Words From a Mentor</h2>
<p>When <a title="http://3.7designs.co/" href="http://3.7designs.co/">Ross Johnson</a> put the wheels in motion to organize WordCamp Ann Arbor, he didn&#8217;t have a reference level of interest. Although the Ann Arbor area has a <a title="http://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Ann-Arbor/" href="http://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Ann-Arbor/">monthly meetup group</a> with 40-50 rotating attendees, he didn&#8217;t know if people would feel compelled to travel from Detroit. Because of the uncertainty, attendance for the event was capped at 150 tickets. &#8220;We ended up selling out early and having nearly seventy people on the waiting list. We of course had made all of our accommodations based on 150 people,&#8221; Johnson told the Tavern.</p>
<p>John Hawkins who organized WordCamp Las Vegas 2013 and is putting together <a title="http://2014.vegas.wordcamp.org/" href="http://2014.vegas.wordcamp.org/">the event for 2014</a> mentored Johnson along with a few other first-time organizers. Hawkins suggested to Johnson that he should release more tickets and that 10-15% of people wouldn&#8217;t show up. &#8220;As predicted, a large group of people didn&#8217;t show up and we were able to accommodate everyone without issue.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Finding a Venue</h2>
<p>Finding a venue can be one of the more challenging aspects of organizing a WordCamp. Most speakers appreciate being able to walk to the venue from their hotel room. After ruling out corporate venues due to cost, Johnson was left to choose between donated office space, public space, or the University of Michigan.</p>
<p><a title="http://www.lyndsayjohnson.com/" href="http://www.lyndsayjohnson.com/">Lyndsay Johnson</a> who studied at the University recommended that he try contacting the <a title="http://uunions.umich.edu/league/" href="http://uunions.umich.edu/league/">Michigan League</a> event services department. &#8220;After touring the facilities we knew it was the spot we wanted to try. It was central to downtown and had an incredible classic vibe to it which brought an interesting contrast for a tech event.&#8221; Another benefit to using the League is the on site catering as well as a strong technology team to help keep technical hiccups to a minimum.</p>
<h2>Lessons Learned From a First Timer</h2>
<p>Johnson recommends that organizers start early. While WordCamp Ann Arbor took place on October 14th, he sent out the first email related to the event in early February. &#8220;On paper it doesn&#8217;t look like there is <i>that</i> match to do, but it&#8217;s more than it seems.&#8221; Second and third time organizers have the luxury of building off of previous experience. That&#8217;s a luxury first timers don&#8217;t have. &#8220;When starting from scratch you have to design a new website, new badges, new logo, etc.&#8221;</p>
<p>One of the most important aspects of managing a large event such as a WordCamp is the team surrounding you. &#8220;Get a group of organizers that you can really trust and don&#8217;t be afraid to delegate to them.&#8221; In addition to Johnson, the organizing team includes: Justin Ferriman, Kloe Ferriman, Rebecca Gill, Lyndsay Johnson, Kyle Maurer, and Declan O&#8217;Neill. Despite having help, Johnson feels as though he took on too much work and will do a better job next year of asking for help.</p>
<h2>Will There be a WordCamp Ann Arbor 2015?</h2>
<p>Johnson tells me that they&#8217;ll likely have a second WordCamp in Ann Arbor next year and planning will begin sometime in February or earlier.</p>
<h2>Can&#8217;t Wait For Round Two</h2>
<p>For a first time event, WordCamp Ann Arbor didn&#8217;t experience many hiccups. The WiFi speeds at the League were fantastic with a consistent 20Mb up and down throughout the day. Attendees had to fend for themselves at lunch, but the setup offered an opportunity to exercise with a short walk to main street. Downtown Ann Arbor is filled with great places to eat but many of the locations are small, not being able to handle 10 or more people per table.</p>
<p>With only 150 attendees, the atmosphere was relaxed and there was ample opportunity to meet each other. Attending WordCamp Ann Arbor reaffirms my feeling of enjoying smaller WordCamps versus those with 300 or more attendees. Last but not least, the University of Michigan is a beautiful campus, especially this time of year. If you live in or around the Ann Arbor area, keep tabs on the <a title="http://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/" href="http://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/">WordCamp Central schedule</a> and consider attending WordCamp in 2015.</p>
<a href="http://wptavern.com/my-experience-at-wordcamp-ann-arbor-2014#gallery-31846-3-slideshow">Click to view slideshow.</a>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 08 Oct 2014 19:32:09 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"Lorelle on WP: WordPress and Blogging Workshop in Forest Grove, Oregon";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:37:"http://lorelle.wordpress.com/?p=11958";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/wordpress-and-blogging-workshop-in-forest-grove-oregon/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:458:"On Friday, October 10, 2014, from 1-5PM I will be presenting a WordPress and Blogging Workshop in Forest Grove, Oregon, at the Forest Grove Senior and Community Center as a fundraiser for the center and part of the Writers in the Grove group. The price for this 4 hour event is $30 ($5 discount with [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=lorelle.wordpress.com&blog=72&post=11958&subd=lorelle&ref=&feed=1" width="1" height="1" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 08 Oct 2014 05:06:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17:"Lorelle VanFossen";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"WPTavern: WebDevStudios Acquires WordPress Support Services Company, Maintainn";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://wptavern.com/?p=31827";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:87:"http://wptavern.com/webdevstudios-acquires-wordpress-support-services-company-maintainn";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4189:"<p><a href="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/webdevstudioslogo.png" rel="prettyphoto[31827]"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-533" src="http://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/webdevstudioslogo.png?resize=405%2C81" alt="webdevstudioslogo" /></a></p>
<p>WordPress development agency, <a title="http://webdevstudios.com/" href="http://webdevstudios.com/">WebDevStudios</a>, has acquired <a title="https://maintainn.com/" href="https://maintainn.com/">Maintainn</a> for an undisclosed amount. According to the <a title="http://webdevstudios.com/2014/10/07/webdevstudios-acquires-maintainn-to-bring-wordpress-support-and-maintenance-services-in-house/" href="http://webdevstudios.com/2014/10/07/webdevstudios-acquires-maintainn-to-bring-wordpress-support-and-maintenance-services-in-house/">announcement</a>, the acquisition enables WebDevStudios to provide better maintenance and support to clients. Founded in 2012 by <a title="https://maintainn.com/team/shayne-sanderson/" href="https://maintainn.com/team/shayne-sanderson/">Shayne Sanderson</a>, Maintainn provides maintenance services including 24/7 security monitoring, daily off-site backups, weekly updates to WordPress core, themes and plugins, a dedicated WordPress support desk and custom development.</p>
<p>Sanderson, once an employee for WebDevStudios as a Technical Project Manager, <a title="http://shaynesanderson.com/2013/11/15/on-the-road-again/" href="http://shaynesanderson.com/2013/11/15/on-the-road-again/">left the company in late 2013</a> to work on Maintainn full-time. What started as an individual endeavor, turned into a five person company.</p>
<h2>The Retainer Arm of WebDevStudios</h2>
<p>On paper, the acquisition makes sense. WebDevStudios is able to focus on attracting new clients knowing they have a foundation in place to offer support and maintenance packages to new and existing clients. Maintainn is essentially the retainer arm of WebDevStudios. Retainers are defined as, &#8220;a fee paid in advance to someone, especially an attorney, in order to secure or keep their services when required.&#8221; When applying the definition to development agencies, it&#8217;s not hard to see why most have a retainer program in place.</p>
<p>Brian Krogsgard, who works for WordPress design and development company <a title="http://ran.ge/" href="http://ran.ge/">Range</a>, explains why retainers can be an important part of an agency&#8217;s business model.</p>
<blockquote><p>Retainers can be an excellent business tool for financing growth and forming long-term client relationships. Retainers offer consistent, reliable income that makes financing new hires less scary. They also allow the firm to really get to know the client and their needs over time, versus being limited to a single project scope. An existing retainer also puts the firm in great position to get lump sum projects from the client when those opportunities come up.</p></blockquote>
<p>Not only do clients receive maintenance and support for WordPress, they also have access to a great team of developers. This gives WebDevStudios a competitive edge against companies such as <a title="http://www.wpsitecare.com/" href="http://www.wpsitecare.com/">WP Site Care</a>, <a title="http://wpcurve.com/" href="http://wpcurve.com/">WP Curve</a>, and <a title="http://wpmaintainer.com" href="http://wpmaintainer.com">WP Maintainer</a> that mostly focus mostly on maintenance and support.</p>
<h2>MattReport Interview With Both Parties</h2>
<p>I encourage you to read <a title="http://mattreport.com/webdevstudios-acquires-maintainn/" href="http://mattreport.com/webdevstudios-acquires-maintainn/">this interview</a> published on MattReport.com containing insight from both parties involved in the deal. Communication and keeping financial books in order are just two pieces of advice given within the interview. It also shines a light on the future of Maintainn and what its role will be within the company.</p>
<p>What are your thoughts on the acquisition and will we see other WordPress maintenance companies acquired in the near future? If so, use the comments and give us your best guess.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 07 Oct 2014 23:15:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"Matt: Tavern Interview";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44238";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:38:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/tavern-interview/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:276:"<p>Sarah Gooding of the WordPress inside baseball blog <a href="http://wptavern.com/">WP Tavern</a> has an interview with me she titled <a href="http://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-on-ensuring-the-future-of-wordpress">Matt Mullenweg on Ensuring the Future of WordPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 07 Oct 2014 13:55:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:46:"Post Status: Is WordPress right for eCommerce?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"http://www.poststat.us/?p=7165";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:49:"http://www.poststat.us/wordpress-right-ecommerce/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11868:"<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-7170" src="http://www.poststat.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/wordpress-ecommerce-discussion-752x352.jpg" alt="wordpress-ecommerce-discussion" width="627" height="293" /></p>
<p>I&#8217;m going to take a leaf out of <a href="http://www.chrislema.com/">Chris Lema&#8217;s</a> book right now to answer whether WordPress should be used for eCommerce: <strong>It depends</strong>.</p>
<p>There are camps of thought that think WordPress isn&#8217;t right for eCommerce, and there are people that think it&#8217;s the only way to go. Having worked with and used several different eCommerce platforms (both hosted and self-hosted), I&#8217;ve definitely developed the mindset that there are use cases for each. WordPress can be the right choice in a lot of circumstances, but not all.</p>
<h3>Hosted vs. self-hosted</h3>
<p>If you&#8217;re not sure about the major differences between hosted vs self hosted platforms, I recommend reading <em>Patrick Rauland&#8217;s</em> <a href="http://speakinginbytes.com/2014/08/hosted-vs-self-hosted-e-commerce/">overview of the major differences</a>. WordPress eCommerce usually falls under self-hosted eCommerce (I don&#8217;t count WordPress.com since it uses external eCommerce solutions). Forbes also <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2014/09/26/which-e-commerce-platform-is-the-best-choice-for-your-online-store/">recently wrote about this</a>, though I don&#8217;t necessarily agree with their conclusions.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/70101-When-to-Avoid-WordPress-Ecommerce">typical viewpoint</a> is that WordPress plugins like WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads are great for small stores or people that just want to quickly and easily sell a few items, while hosted platforms like Shopify and Bigcommerce are for &#8220;serious&#8221; stores.</p>
<p>This viewpoint is actually pretty backwards, not to mention the fact that the number of items is a poor way of determining which platform you should use.</p>
<h3 id="give-each-its-due">Give each its due</h3>
<p>Is WordPress the best platform on which to build apps? I don&#8217;t always think so, but it <strong>could be</strong>. Is it always a good choice for eCommerce? Nope. However, it&#8217;s the <strong>right one</strong> for lots of stores, and it&#8217;s the <strong>wrong one</strong> for lots of stores.</p>
<p>There are a few major strengths and weaknesses of both WordPress and hosted solutions. I&#8217;ve worked most with <a href="http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce/">WooCommerce</a>, <a href="http://easydigitaldownloads.com/">Easy Digital Downloads</a>, and <a href="http://www.shopify.com/">Shopify</a>, but have tried lots of other eCommerce solutions for comparison. Some of the knocks against WordPress aren&#8217;t valid, but we should note that some are.</p>
<h3>WordPress eCommerce weaknesses</h3>
<p>Everyone loves to talk about how easy certain WordPress plugins are to use. When you compare WordPress plugins to something like Shopify, this just <strong>isn&#8217;t true</strong>. They may be easy to use for people that are familiar with WordPress, but not for the average user who wants to start selling online with no experience.</p>
<p>WordPress requires a domain name purchase, hosting setup, installation, plugin installation and setup, theme installation and setup, blah blah blah, you get the drift. With hosted solutions, you don&#8217;t worry about this (though solutions like <a href="http://evermo.re/">Evermore</a> &#8212; which was <a title="Evermore, hosted WordPress with power and ease of use" href="http://www.poststat.us/evermore-interview/">covered by Post Status</a> when it launched &#8212; make this interesting). You pay your monthly bill, and you&#8217;re handed a store website &#8211; you just pick the name and get rolling. You can start adding products right away, and then you might get into changing your theme or other setup.<span id="more-7165"></span></p>
<div id="attachment_7167" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-7167 size-medium" src="http://www.poststat.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/easy-300x258.jpg" alt="easy" width="300" height="258" /><p class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3181/3086827283_e9e762331c.jpg">Image Credit</a></p></div>
<p>Some of the site tweaks or setup with hosted solutions aren&#8217;t easy, but the learning curve for a solution like Shopify is far gentler than the learning curve for something like WooCommerce.</p>
<p>There are also <strong>WP Cron</strong> issues for some sites, as it&#8217;s not a perfect system for scheduling actions, like recurring payments. It can work pretty well, but other platforms can make this far easier to implement and more reliable than Cron.</p>
<p>WordPress store owners are also <strong>responsible</strong> for their own hosting, software updates, and security. For many site owners, these are huge responsibilities. Hosted solutions roll all of this into their package so that users don&#8217;t have to know how their website is powered. They just have to use it.</p>
<p>Both WordPress and hosted solutions will scale, but there are considerations with WordPress that users need to be aware of. Database issues (like backups or memory with massive amounts of customers and orders) should be addressed, hosting has to be optimized, and plugins need to scale with the site. With a hosted solution, none of this is your problem as a user.</p>
<h3>WordPress eCommerce strengths</h3>
<p>Bearing these weaknesses in mind, it&#8217;s a bit crazy to me that WordPress is sometimes referred to as the &#8220;easy solution&#8221; or the right tool for &#8220;small stores&#8221;. It&#8217;s not. In many cases, it&#8217;s like bringing a tank to the eCommerce playground.</p>
<p>So what does WordPress do well?</p>
<p>First, WordPress offers the most all-in-one website solution available. WordPress can offer the eCommerce aspects of the website, in addition to its many other CMS features. The ability to create a single, seamless CMS experience for a multi-purpose website makes it quite compelling and more budget-friendly than more &#8220;eCommerce first&#8221; platforms.</p>
<p>Second, it&#8217;s optimized for <strong>SEO</strong>. Your content is crucial here, and WordPress is built for content. More importantly, if you&#8217;ve tried to blog on another platform, you know how painful it can be (don&#8217;t start with me Squarespace fans, that thing is difficult to use). WordPress doesn&#8217;t encourage you to avoid blogging to avoid headache: it&#8217;s built for <strong>complete websites</strong>, and is not simply focused on eCommerce.</p>
<p>WordPress also contains functionality that you can&#8217;t always get with different platforms. There&#8217;s a massive selection of plugins, themes, and all sorts of solutions for WordPress that are readily available. Since it&#8217;s open source, it&#8217;s far easier to find ways to customize it when compared to closed platforms like Bigcommerce.</p>
<p>Speaking of customizations, your ability to customize WordPress or plugins is <strong>far</strong> easier than with hosted solutions. There&#8217;s lots of functionality that can be achieved with WordPress that&#8217;s not even possible in hosted solutions. For example, developers have no control over the Shopify checkout process, but this can be entirely customized with WordPress.</p>
<p>You can also usually find a plugin that will provide a &#8220;starting point&#8221; for a customization project. Even if you find a Shopify or Bigcommerce app that gets <em>close</em> to what you need, but not quite, you&#8217;ll need to create a completely custom solution anyway &#8211; there&#8217;s no &#8220;extending&#8221; there.</p>
<p>Along with customization is the <strong>control over your environment</strong>. You can spin up your eCommerce site on something like Digital Ocean, and you&#8217;ve got control over the entire site, from server to theme.</p>
<h3>Product type</h3>
<p>The biggest difference for me between hosted solutions and self-hosted actually isn&#8217;t usability or scalability &#8211; it&#8217;s <strong>product type</strong>. Can almost every eCommerce platform sell tee shirts? Yes. Even EDD can do that, and it&#8217;s made for digital products.</p>
<p>However, selling complex products becomes infinitely more difficult on hosted platforms, as you&#8217;re restricted to what the API offers for product changes, which isn&#8217;t always a lot. For example, if you&#8217;ve ever tried to add pricing changes for customization options in Shopify, you know that it literally takes some wizardry, black magic, and possibly bubble gum used as tape to do so.</p>
<p>WordPress plugins make this far easier, because the entire platform is open, not just an API. Most eCommerce plugins have more than enough actions or filters to change products, product pages, checkout forms, or any other part of your site.</p>
<h3>Recap</h3>
<p>Hosted eCommerce solutions are typically easy to use, and can provide some customization options via apps or other add-on services. However, it&#8217;s like renting a house versus owning. With a rented house, you can&#8217;t go knocking down walls or completely remodeling &#8211; you&#8217;ve got to work inside of a framework you&#8217;re given. This is exactly how a hosted solution works.</p>
<p>The benefit to this is that you absolve yourself of a lot of responsibility and worry. The entire experience is managed and supported, and is typically very easy to work with.</p>
<p>However, WordPress eCommerce is like buying the house. You can do whatever you want &#8211; add-on, rebuild sections of the house, change layouts around, add tunnels to other houses, you name it. However, when the water heater blows up, it&#8217;s your responsibility.</p>
<p>WordPress also affords the opportunity to sell complex products, such as measurement based products like corks by the pound, that simply can&#8217;t be sold on other platforms. The same ability to customize WordPress so thoroughly lets you customize the eCommerce plugin you&#8217;re using.</p>
<p>You gain the flexibility that comes with the platform, as well as the benefits like tons of plugins, themes, a great content structure, and a consistently maintained and updated core solution. However, the Frankenstein site that you build is your baby, and yours alone &#8211; you need to host it, maintain it, and care for it.</p>
<p>WordPress lets you create advanced functionality via plugins and customizations, but isn&#8217;t right for users looking for an easy, basic shop setup. If you want a move-in ready house or a beautiful rental, you should look at hosted solutions. If you&#8217;re willing to make your dream house from great bones and foundation, or you need to sell fairly complex products, then WordPress might be it for you. It&#8217;s not the &#8220;easy&#8221; solution, but it can be a great one.</p>
<div id="single-hcard-beka" class="loop-meta vcard"><h4 class="author-bio fn n">Beka Rice</h4><div class="author-description"><img alt="Beka Rice" src="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/5ea957b08d0cf6a1e5e5cf5681519537?s=150&d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D150&r=G" class="avatar avatar-150 photo" height="150" width="150" /><div class="user-bio author-bio">Beka is the content manager for <a href="http://skyverge.com">SkyVerge</a>, where she writes sales copy, documentation, and website content. She also runs <a href="http://sellwithwp.com">Sell with WP</a>, which is a site devoted to eCommerce using WordPress. When she’s not furiously writing, she’s playing music or leveling up her movie trivia knowledge.</div><!-- .user-bio .author-bio --></div><!-- .loop-description --></div><!-- .loop-meta -->";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 06 Oct 2014 19:03:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9:"Beka Rice";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"Matt: Gambino Mixtape STN MTN";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"http://ma.tt/?p=44227";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:45:"http://ma.tt/2014/10/gambino-mixtape-stn-mtn/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:640:"<p>The ever-creative <a href="http://childishgambino.com/">Childish Gambino</a> has released a <a href="http://stonemounta.in/">new mixtape STN MTN</a> (<a href="http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/childish-gambino-stn-mtn-new-mixtape.115505.html">track by track</a>) which is part of a longer EP Kauai <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/kauai/id925162758">that was just released on iTunes</a>. Donald is a friend and an artist whose work fluently spans much more than music. And I&#8217;m not just saying that because, as Techcrunch noted, he shouts out to <a href="http://krutal.wordpress.com/">Krutal</a> and I at the end of Go DJ.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 06 Oct 2014 15:49:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";a:10:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Wed, 22 Oct 2014 08:39:12 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:14:"content-length";s:6:"222330";s:10:"connection";s:5:"close";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Wed, 22 Oct 2014 08:15:16 GMT";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:4:"x-nc";s:11:"HIT lax 250";s:13:"accept-ranges";s:5:"bytes";}s:5:"build";s:14:"20130911040210";}