I will no longer be posting on Twitter. Though I've valued it as a source to watch the assault on my beloved #WordPress community, I can't stay in unsafe spaces. Please find me elsewhere: Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/bethsoderbe… LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bethsoderber…

🚨 NEW PLUGIN ALERT 🚨 Introducing the Block Usage Tracker for WordPress® The free plugin lists each block type used in posts, counting the total occurrences and shows direct links to each post where a block appears. This functionality helps teams optimize content, understand block usage patterns, and maintain consistency 🔥 ✅ Lists all active blocks across posts and their usage counts. ✅ Displays links to each page/post where blocks are used. ✅ Excludes duplicate links for better readability. ✅ Caches block usage data for efficient, optimized performance. ✅ User-friendly modal interface for viewing detailed block usage by post. Get it on GitHub 🤘💯 github.com/robertdevore/bloc… #NeverNotWorking #WordPress

The Figma library for WordPress has a new version which rocks: make.wordpress.org/design/20…. It also is a step towards the true design system needed. Figma is a part of the system, but an important piece when updated regularly, so kudos to everyone involved.

Just released version 1.0.1 of my new #WordPress privacy plugin. This version strips out data sent to WP.org for plugins that are hosted off-site. Currently wp.org receives information about every plugin on your system, including "private" and off-site ones. At this point, I'm only looking for devs to install this and help flush it out. But if you don't mind doing some testing, I'd appreciate it. I'm going to keep adding some privacy options over the next few days to limit that amount of data leakage that seems to be happening with a default install. You can find the plugin here if you want to test it out: github.com/wp-privacy/wp-api…

kid wisdom: "want to know when forever ends? when the sun explodes"

I thought so much better of you, America.

This article about Masonry in CSS by @shadeed9 is fantastic. He created several examples, going through the code needed to create layout variations at breakpoints while still supporting older browsers. What would it be like to use each in the real world? ishadeed.com/article/css-gri…

Some people seem to have forgotten how bad a president Trump was, so I made a list of the 100 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency, in no particular order. Please share and add anything I missed. 🧵

If you have SSH access, no need to pay for image optimization plugins. You can simply write a bash script and convert images right on the command line. Here is how I did that recently for a large site on Kinsta: anchor.host/converting-wordp…

Groups are immutable. When someone leaves the group, it’s not the same group minus one person. It’s a new group.

You know when folks say, 'Yeah, the Block Editor is great and all, but good luck making that look good on mobile!' Well, here's how you can fix it, all within the Block Editor 👇👇👇👇👇 Mobile Fix for Complex Layouts in the #WordPress Block Editor youtu.be/lTMo5yy2M_I?si=4Nwu…

We need more women involved in the WordPress community not less. WordCamp attendance skews 2x more men than women. Tara is one of those amazing community members who makes WC welcoming to women. See our interview with her on our second episode: womeninwp.com/podcast/episod…

“I’ve been thinking about how difficult it is to gather and point people in the same direction. It’s invisible work that unaware leaders readily discount.”

I wish more of my recent (work) life was this way. Just hopped off a 13 min call with a client's tech person and the call was extraordinarily efficient. I love talking to technical people where the only issue is getting on the same page about what the goal is/how to collaborate.

Kid: I want good candidates to win the election. Me: are you talking about elections a lot at school? Kid: I’m talking about the real election.

⚠️ #WPVulnerability #WordPress #Security Attention. In the last 48 we have added about 200 WordPress vulnerabilities (mainly plugins) to WPVulnerability. In these strange times, please be careful with the security of your sites. wordpress.org/plugins/wpvuln…

I posted some thoughts on the impact of this recent #WPDrama on related businesses in my private Profitable Project Plan group, and after several requests for it to be public, I’m sharing it here too! Ignore the gross fear mongering and clickbait touting the end of WordPress, the downfall fall of WordPress, and the advice that you should think about a different solution. Yes, this is wild to watch play out. Yes, it's more drama than pretty much any past incident has created. Yes, it makes you question building your entire livelihood on the back of WordPress... It's like watching a train wreck— you can't look away because there are constantly new shocking and gruesome actions and discoveries. But... WordPress isn't going anywhere. Are a lot of people talking big about leaving WordPress? Yes. Will they actually do it? Maybe some. Are people going to diversify a bit more? Likely yes. Most people "in the community" forget that the WordPress community of active folks who care deeply about the platform is a TINY little fraction of those who build with, make living with, and use WordPress. People moving on from WordPress is normal. Everything has a lifecycle. This has happened before (just not to this degree) and it will happen again. The majority of the folks who were all in on WordPress 2009-2019 — a huge number of the folks "in the community" during the growth heyday of WordPress have dialed back contributions, stopped contributing, or moved on — many out of WordPress altogether. They got burned out. They got bored. They craved a change. They wanted a new challenge. They got sick of drama they experienced. They wanted flexibility. They changed careers and took jobs. They wanted to try new tech and new tools. They wanted to match clients with the right platform not the only platform they know. (You know, the whole "when you only have a hammer, everything is a nail" thing) And they wanted to make more money without having to fight so hard for it and compete with the "everything should be free or cheap" mindset of WordPress. And do you know what happened? You likely didn't even notice. New people stepped in. New people stepped up. Everything kept going. We can see that already happening in this current debacle... for every community member pissed, panicked, and freaking out, there are people who haven't been entrenched in WordPress who are rallying behind Matt and ready to step in and get involved. In a conversation about the A11y team losing access, Matt asked for suggestions for new team leads. What happened? New folks tossed their hats in the ring. So will all this hubub affect WordPress? Sure. It may see a temporary dip or a slow down of growth. And those serving BIG clients are already seeing deals fall through. Clients questioning the stability of WordPress as a platform and questioning whether they should trust WordPress to support their digital worlds has already started in the enterprise space — and that makes sense! There is FAR MORE at stake when building digital platforms to support global brands and millions of dollars of revenue. There is far more at stake when the contract to build your website is $300K to $1M And yes, AEM and Sitecore reps are likely frothing at the mouths. This is amazing for them. You better bet every time they pitch to an enterprise client and go against someone pitching WordPress, they'll use screenshots from this mess to make their platforms look better. In fact, they're already doing it. In the SMB space, we're less likely to see that happening. There is less at stake and small businesses are too busy to pay attention to WordPress drama. Overall, WordPress will keep going and new people will show up to keep it going. And many WordPress users will barely even notice this or register it as mattering to them. And all the companies that keep WordPress going — they're not going to suddenly lay everyone off and disappear. If anything they're going to double down on making sure they're stable, dependable, and drama-free to keep and protect their customer base. Also, many of the companies that use WP in their names are already talking quietly behind the scenes about rebranding to avoid trademark issues — a normal thing companies do. And those companies selling plugins or software that directly competes with an Automattic product or could be seen as "taking money out of Automattic’s pocket" are already making contingency plans and making moves you can't see. They’re nervous and that’s to be expected. Pay attention and you'll see that many long-time community members and big players are quiet. You don't see a lot of big names in the product and agency spaces — and those responsible for other people's jobs — making waves and getting involved in this drama. Especially those of us who have been around a long time. Don't get me wrong... They're watching. They have opinions. They're following everything. They're having meetings (externally and with each other and even with Matt and WPE leadership). They're carving out more time for themselves and/or their teams to invest in learning other platforms and tools to diversify... NOT to abandon WordPress. And for many of these folks, diversifying has been something they've wanted to do or been planning to do for a long time, it just wasn't a huge priority and kept getting put on the backburner. They didn't suddenly decide now is the time to diversify. This mess just made it a higher priority. They're making moves quietly — moves to protect what they have built, protect their customers, protect their clients, and protect the jobs of those on their teams. Mostly, they're avoiding the distraction of drama, reassuring clients this really has nothing to do with them, and putting their heads down and continuing to do good work because this too shall pass. My advice to you: Don't panic. Don't freak out. Don't lose sleep over this. The WordPress sky is not falling. Instead, watch, pay attention, and stay aware. Be vigilant. Be the voice of reason for your clients. If you sell WordPress services, reassure your clients this likely won't impact them at all but if there is even the slightest chance it will, you'll deal with it before it ever becomes an issue — that's the benefit of partnering with you. Also, consider diversifying the platforms and tools you use — not just because of this but because it's smart business. Times have changed. Technology has changed. It has advanced. No one using WordPress can stick their head in the sand and ignore WordPress competitors. WordPress used to be seen as the best platform and the only one MANY people would recommend. But again, times have changed. Other platforms have caught up. In some cases other platforms are easier for clients to use and get the job done in less time, with less effort, and for less money. Never in my life did I think I'd recommend Wix or Weebly to anyone ever — even people I don't like — but here we are. So, keep doing good work and keep serving your clients well. Everything will be okay.

When you start a startup, so many people tell you to ship fast and ship messy. "You’ll know you have PMF when people use your broken product." I think this is outdated advice that doesn't work anymore in 2024. Maybe better today would be: "ship fast, small scope, high quality"