Prompt 19/20 Blog: If you could have one wish for WordPress granted, what would it be?

https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/05/26/day-19-wp20-from-blogs-to-blocks/

This is a tough prompt! There are so many things that I would like to do with WordPress that haven’t been done yet.

I suppose the one wish that I have is for the good parts of our community and general vibe to be able to transfer to a general consciousness of how the internet and work should work.

For instance, a lot of WordPress agencies do four day workweeks, and Automattic has been remote from the start. I would love more jobs to work this way, and free people from a lot of busywork and commuting that is doing no one any good.

We also value group contributions in a way that a lot of other organizations do not. More can be done with a diversity of voices and experiences. It would be great if more spaces embrace this ethos.

Sure, I could provide some specific code ideas, but I’d rather change mindsets, and the code will follow.

Prompt 18/20 Blog: Download the WordPress Mobile app and post a post from the app about your experience posting from the app.

https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/05/25/day-18-wp20-from-blogs-to-blocks/

I don’t think that I’ve ever actually used the WordPress mobile app to write before.

I’ve been writing my post drafts in Notion lately. Not because I don’t like writing in WordPress itself. That’s where I compose all of my weekly newsletters after all.

No, the main reason that I use an external writing app is because I want somewhere that I can easily search all of my notes and writing, not just things on this one site. I’ve considered in the past funneling multiple sites and other sources into one searchable database, but that hasn’t come to fruition yet. I would want to automate it and just haven’t found something that fits all of my wants, though I think that DEVONthink might be a workable solution if I ever get around to fully setting it up.

The mobile WordPress app certainly feels quite usable, but I’m not much for using my phone for computing most of the time. Even formatting and grabbing links to paste in was much easier to do on my laptop and I cheated by editing this draft there after writing. That seems more like a me issue than an app issue though.

Prompt 17/20 Blog: Tell us about your first or favorite contribution to WordPress. If you haven’t officially contributed yet, tell us what are you hoping to contribute in the future.

https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/05/24/day-17-wp20-from-blogs-to-blocks/

I still remember my first core contribution to WordPress, which happened during WordCamp San Francisco 2013.

At the time I was a Windows user, having only touched Mac computers for a few creative classes in school. Basically, I didn’t know much about the ecosystem. What I did know is that every time I went to a web dev conference it felt like the rooms were 90% Mac users, with the rest split between Linux and Windows laptop toters.

In my brilliance, I purchased a Macbook about two days before WordCamp San Francisco, just enough time to get the basics with it and download some apps.

During the event I found out that the Automattic lounge was going to be hosting a WCSF Dev Day after the main event, where core contributors would be teaching how to contribute code, as well as talking through projects that they were working on, and coding together. I was excited to learn more, and eagerly attended the event.

Through several hours I was able to get help in solving an issue with a core theme issue that I’d discovered while putting together a site for our local WordPress Meetup. I found a solution that I worked, and got help from some extremely patient contributors. Not only in learning how to make a diff patch and work with trac, but basic things like how to actually get coding and uploading files with a Mac. Truly saintly folks, who I remember to this day.

Ticket #24896 is my first of very few core code contributions, but I’ve found many different ways to contribute since then.

Prompt 16/20 Blog: Tell us your hopes (or fears) for the future of AI in WordPress.

https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/05/23/day-16-wp20-from-blogs-to-blocks/

I am hopeful that WordPress will incorporate AI in a meaningful way. Let me adjust that: I am hopeful that the WordPress Community will incorporate AI in ways that will improve the ecosystem for everybody.

From what I’ve seen so far, users of generative AI LLMs, such as ChatGPT, have been able to get impressive results in starting out new projects. Yesterday I mentioned that something that helps me with WordPress are tools that make it easier to write code. I see text based LLMs as a way to make this work easier. Similar to how I use a code generator to make it quicker to make custom themes and plugins, these tools can help to reduce time on repetitive work, saving yourself for more complex coding that they don’t yet handle well.

The fear that I have around LLM AI is just a lot of garbage. Garbage posts generated to generate clicks. Garbage artwork assets created to make a quick buck. Garbage code written and then sold by people who can’t properly support it since they don’t have an understanding of how it is actually working.

I think that overall the positives will outweigh the negatives when it comes to the use of AI with WordPress. My confidence is because I know that our communities are resilient and will work around the shortcomings of AI to use them to their full potential.

Prompt 15/20 Blog: Share a WordPress tip or trick that has made your life easier.

https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/05/22/day-15-wp20-from-blogs-to-blocks/

Tools that help me to write code for WordPress are among those that I’ve found most valuable. Basically, anything that will let me build out sites and plugins faster.

For instance, https://generatewp.com/ lets you generate code for portions of WordPress that can get repetitive. I use it to generate the code to make post types, taxonomies, queries, and more.

Tomorrow’s prompt is about AI in WordPress, so I’ll save discussing that beyond saying that it can help speed up general development.

Prompt 14/20 Blog: Share a “Two Truths and a Lie” about your experience with WordPress.

https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/05/21/day-14-wp20-from-blogs-to-blocks/

I’m gonna go the romance route on this! Because everything comes back to queer smooching with me 🏳️‍🌈

1. I have been involved in the WordPress community longer than I have been with any of my romantic partners.
2. I got to know one of my partners via WordPress before becoming romantically involved with them.
3. I met my best friend via the WordPress community.

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Ok, now take a moment to choose the lie before scrolling down. Ready?

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1. True. Our local Meetup started in October 2011, and I didn’t start dating my husband until late 2012.
2. True. My partner and I were actually supposed to meet in person for the first time at a WordCamp in March 2020, but it ws cancelled a week or so beforehand due to the pandemic.
3. False. My best friend Lisa may be actve at WordCamps and the Meetup, but that’s because she’s the best and is always there to help!

Prompt 13/20 Blog: What is your favorite website built in WordPress right now (yours or anyone else’s)?

https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/05/20/day-13-wp20-from-blogs-to-blocks/

I know that this whole blogging experience is about celebrating WordPress, and this may feel a bit self-serving in that regard, but the Make WordPress website is a great website built with WordPress to highlight. Built with the free P2, which WordPress.com now offers as a paid product, P2 shows that you can have a robust community right within WordPress.

The Make WordPress site has a lot of detailed information for the organization of the WordPress contributor community. It’s also where the community organizes to work on the project itself. All major decisions and recaps of conversations that take place elsewhere are posted to the site. Much of the discussion takes places in comments on the site.

This means that you can follow along with the decision making process and ongoing tasks and roadmap for WordPress from one place, with everything written out. This is also part of the drive from community members to keep everything transparent in decision making and planning. With a useful resource like this, anything that looks like behind the curtain dealmaking is bristled at.

Prompt 12/20 Blog: What is your favorite plugin in the WordPress Plugins Directory?

https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/05/19/day-12-wp20-from-blogs-to-blocks/

There are so many WordPress plugins that I love, but admittedly many of them are paid plugins, not available on the repo. I mentioned on Day 8 that Gravity Forms is one of those plugins, which has saved me time and given me access to things that I’d never be able to do on my own repeatedly. Advanced Custom Fields is another one that has made modifying the WordPress experience more accessible. Plus, there are all of the one-off plugins that I’ve written for myself and clients that do useful things but are too specific to release as-is for public consumption.

When it comes to plugins that you can get right from the WordPress Plugin Directory, I think that I’m going to go with GiveWP. I’ve used it before, both for myself and for clients, and have been happy with the ease of use, versatility, and friendliness of their support staff when I needed help.

More important, GiveWP is a plugin that does something substantially meaningful for the site owner. It provides a relatively easy way to host your own crowdfunding campaigns. For many users, the plugin can both make more customized donation pages and terms as compared to centralized crowdfunding/donation sites. It also means that you can have fewer fees to pay elsewhere, sending more money directly to your organization or cause.

This is just another way that the WordPress community can open new avenues to empower people to control their own spaces on the web. We need more like this!

Prompt 10/20 Blog: Check out the WordPress Roadmap (or this Roadmap to 6.3). What upcoming WordPress projects are you most excited to see happen?

https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2023/05/17/day-10-wp20-from-blogs-to-blocks/

The full roadmap has a lot of interesting things on it, but I want to pick just a few to focus on:

CMS

• APIs:
  • Fonts API
  • Block API
• PHP 8.2 compatibility (Core and Gutenberg)
• Block theme dev tools
  • Custom CSS
  • Custom CSS in theme variations

Community

• Ongoing re-engagement of events
• Holistic contributor onboarding
• Establish contributor and mentor programs

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I’ll focus on Community first, which is no surprise for folks who know me. I’ve not attended an in-person WordPress event since March of 2020. I was meant to speak at a WordCamp this year, and got Covid the week beforehand and had to cancel. The pandemic is still ongoing folks!

I like the idea of reworking the onboarding experience for contributors, including building out a mentorship program for contributing. This has long been a large barrier to entry in WordPress community involvement, and getting the knowledge that has accrued in peoples’ heads into a defined program would go a long way toward ensuring the future of WordPress.

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The reason that I’m excited for PHP 8.2 compatibility is for improved speed, performance, and security. Though I would also want the WordPress Coding Standards library to catch up, as that’s been a pain for testing and linting for me lately.

I’m excited for Custom CSS in blocks and theme variations because that just makes it even easier to customize pages to look how you want them. Having these tools in blocks directly would let you make changes without having to know CSS selectors.

Finally in the CMS, I am excited for new APIs, including the Fonts API and the Block API. In my mind, these will make it easier for users to build custom experiences around WordPress.

If you have used RSS readers, you are already familiar with the idea that you can extract content from a blog and read it in different formats and styles, depending on the reader that you are using. Now imagine that you could apply this concept to your browser directly, and on any WordPress website.

In my mind I see a browser extension that lets me not only customize things on a reader level, but at a block and font level to load just the things that are needed from each website (the content), and handle the design of all of the other elements yourself.

This would necessarily take some of the presentation control from site owners and put it in the hand of visitors. That’s not always a bad thing though, and something that I would absolutely make use of. Either way, it’s certainly worth considering when building websites in the future. They have always said that Content is King, and it’s only becoming more true IMO.