Opinion

  • Improvements to the Features as Plugins First Model

    Improvements to the Features as Plugins First Model

    Earlier this month, I described how the features as plugins first model is a mess. Drew Jaynes, who is leading the development cycle for WordPress 4.2, is already making headway into improving the model. Unlike previous release cycles, feature plugins that are likely to be merged into WordPress have been assigned a core mentor at…

  • How Important is Jetpack on WordPress’ Road to 50% Market Share?

    How Important is Jetpack on WordPress’ Road to 50% Market Share?

    This past weekend, 250 professionals gathered in Phoenix, Arizona for Pressnomics, a three-day event focused on entrepreneurship in the WordPress economy. During the last day, attendees had the opportunity to watch Pagely CEO Joshua Strebel interview Matt Mullenweg. Although the session wasn’t recorded, the audience tweeted out the highlights of the interview, and discussion continued…

  • Calling People Out in the WordPress Community

    Calling People Out in the WordPress Community

    The founder of WP Site Care, Ryan Sullivan, explains how a negative SEO campaign nearly took his business offline. Sullivan shares details behind the attack, how it affected the bottom line, and says it was someone in the WordPress community who orchestrated the attack. Using some sophisticated techniques we were able to trace back to…

  • I Love Composer, I Love WordPress, But I Object to a Marriage

    I Love Composer, I Love WordPress, But I Object to a Marriage

    This post was contributed by David Hayes. David loves solving difficult problems at Press Up, publishing new WordPress tutorials at WPShout, and eating cold cereal with milk. The developer tool Composer has been sneaking in around the fringes of the WordPress community. Rarst is a fan. The Roots theme framework folks like it. There’s support…

  • Is 2015 The Year of WordPress Admin Themes?

    Is 2015 The Year of WordPress Admin Themes?

    The CPO and partner of Human Made, Noel Tock, published his WordPress predictions for 2015. His predictions include, custom dashboards, front-end editing, internationalization, and more. This could be the year of admin themes, but I think it largely depends on whether the WP API is merged into core. Tock predicts we’ll see a substantial increase…

  • What Would it Take For WordPress to Lose its Dominance?

    What Would it Take For WordPress to Lose its Dominance?

    WordPress is 11 years old and used on over 20% of the web. Its popularity is made up of many facets including, the community, themes and plugins. In the realm of open source content management systems, nothing comes close to what WordPress has accomplished. Although it’s the market leader, its dominance won’t last forever. Mike…

  • Why WordPress Doesn’t Need to Fear Ghost, Yet

    Why WordPress Doesn’t Need to Fear Ghost, Yet

    Mark Gibbs, who writes for NetworkWorld, published an article on how Ghost may one day scare WordPress off as the top publishing platform. Gibbs has some valid complaints with WordPress such as, plugins that don’t integrate with the menu system in a consistent way, incompatible themes, and the post editor. Although Ghost doesn’t have many…

  • Comparing The Photo Publishing Experience of WordPress For iOS to Facebook and Twitter

    Comparing The Photo Publishing Experience of WordPress For iOS to Facebook and Twitter

    In late September, WordPress.com published the first in a series of short videos that shows how easy it is to publish content from a mobile device. In the 15 second video entitled “Welcome Home,” a user is seen taking photos with an iPhone in various locations. Near the end of the video, the user taps…

  • Contributing Back to WordPress

    Contributing Back to WordPress

    During a session at WordCamp Europe, Matt Mullenweg was asked how companies contribute back to WordPress, how they’re doing it, and what companies should do more of. He responded to the question in-depth in a blog post entitled Five for the Future. In the post, he outlines 5% as being a good rule of thumb…

  • How Public Perception of WordPress Influences Developer Contracts

    How Public Perception of WordPress Influences Developer Contracts

    If the WordPress community is your only barometer of knowing how an open source community works together, then you might want to explore outside a bit further to gain a broader outlook on other cultures. Some of the differences are worth examining. A few days ago I noticed an interesting observation regarding the relationship between…

  • Founder Of ManageWP Publishes Open Letter on Security to The WordPress Community

    Founder Of ManageWP Publishes Open Letter on Security to The WordPress Community

    The founder of ManageWP, Vladimir Prelovac, has published an open letter addressed to the WordPress community on the topic of security. In the letter, he cites the third-party ecosystem surrounding WordPress is not only its biggest strength, but also its biggest weakness. He suggests a three-point plan to help mitigate security issues in themes and…

  • The Hidden Savings Of a WordCamp Ticket

    The Hidden Savings Of a WordCamp Ticket

    When we wrote about tickets going on sale for the first ever PodsCamp, some folks commented that $50 was too much for a one day event, especially when compared to a WordCamp. I agree with Sarah Pressler who said, “WordCampers are spoiled by the $20-40 fees associated with WordCamps.” To see how spoiled the WordPress…

  • Time To Move On From The “Is WordPress A CMS” Debate

    Time To Move On From The “Is WordPress A CMS” Debate

    In the realm of WordPress, there is a particular debate that has been going on for years on whether WordPress is a CMS or not. CMSCritic has a great article by Kaya Ismail, that explains why WordPress is a CMS (Whether You Like it or Not). It’s one of the most refreshing perspectives I’ve read on…

  • Harvesting Emails From WordPress Comments Is A Bad Idea

    Harvesting Emails From WordPress Comments Is A Bad Idea

    A recently published article by WPBeginner explains how to export email address from the comments and import them into a mailing list. While the article advises getting the user’s permission, everything about this practice rubs me the wrong way. If you’re going to do this, please put a big banner near the comments that states…

  • If I Switched Publishing Systems, ProcessWire Wouldn’t Be My First Choice

    If I Switched Publishing Systems, ProcessWire Wouldn’t Be My First Choice

    CMS Critic, a popular website covering the content management system market, has switched their website from WordPress to ProcessWire. ProcessWire is a free, PHP based, open source, four-year old, content management system maintained by Ryan Cramer. CMS Critic cites the following reasons for moving away from WordPress: Bloat Poor performance on their webhosting account Too…