WP Mainline Episode 23 - Saving the Internet and Saving Open Source

Speaker 1 00:00:19 Welcome everybody to episode 23 of the WP mainline podcast for Friday, January 14th, 2020. To look at 2021 in my show notes. I’m Jeff Chandler joined by my cohost. They are Joe almost must has been so long. Malcolm penalty. Ooh boy. Just getting through the intros. Hard sometimes takes a bit of work. Doesn’t it? That’s it does, you know, I, I almost call it off on the show today. I just, this anxiety, I don’t know. I guess I’m just screwed up. I need to go get some help, need to call somebody. I need to get some meds. Uh, it sucks living like this. It’s like a battle every day, but, uh, I decided, you know what, just going to try and push through and see what happens. Uh, if anything goes wrong. Uh, I got my buddy Malcolm here. He’ll he’ll help me. He’ll save me. He knows what to do.
Speaker 1 00:01:08 So we’ve gotten through the new year. We’ve gotten through Christmas now. We’re here in the doldrums of winter, which is January. However, it worked for us 5.9 is around the corner. And if you’re interested in knowing what’s up with that, uh, check out the, uh, there’s all kinds of material out there though on the WordPress core, Megan blog, the dev notes. I mean, you can take a deep dive into it. We’ll probably get more into it. Uh, probably next week. Maybe we’ll spend some time kind of dissecting and digesting everything that is related to WordPress for 5.9. But, uh, let’s get into some of the things that’s happening sort of recently. Semi-recently. I mean, we’d been away for a little while now, so there’s plenty of things to talk about, but the first thing is, uh, there was some news out today. Well, first, uh, there has been a revised set of proposed guidelines for in-person events, uh, that was proposed earlier this week by the word preset or community deputies.
Speaker 1 00:02:04 And some of these guidelines stated there that there would be mentoring mass for all attendees, even in regions that do not have a mass mandate. At this time, there would be more prominent messaging and work camp websites, emails, and social media posts about COVID-19 safety guidelines, mandatory temperature checks for all attendees at the event, if permitted by local authorities, accessible hand sanitizing stations in the venue, maintaining social distancing practices during the event, larger meeting rooms and seating arrangements with good space and can be a good way to implement this and having a plan for contact tracing measures in case of infections, which can be done using or camp registration, data meetup, wild meetups are a bit trickier. And as I was reading these proposed guidelines, the thing I, the, that I saw kind of emitted wasn’t brought up was the type of mask, uh, the has to be a warrant.
Speaker 1 00:02:54 I mean, we we’ve seen now from, from data that a cloth math just, isn’t gonna cut it anymore with Alma crime. You actually need to use a and 95 or can 95 type of mask in order to have the best defense against spreading and catching to Omicron variants. And, uh, so this wasn’t brought up. So that was kinda my, I wrote a post about this on WP mainline earlier this week, uh, kind of suggesting, Hey, you know, if, if we’re going to do these guidelines, let’s set the standard as to, to provide the most protection. So there needs to be in these guidelines, a proposal for or equivalent mask. Now, earlier today, we learned that the word camp that was coming up a WP ya’ll, which was WordCamp Birmingham, they’ve actually, the organizers have decided to postpone that event for later on in the year. They’re hoping to maybe get it out in April or may, depending on what’s going on here, which I think is the right move. But in my opinion, with these in-person events and with what’s going on with OMA crime right now, yes, there are ways and things that organizers can do to make them safer. But the safest thing, in my opinion is to have an event at all.
Speaker 2 00:04:02 It’s hard, right? We’re, we’re almost three years into this. And I think
Speaker 1 00:04:07 Right now we’re like at the we’re dealing with fatigue and oh, the anti-vaxxers, but right now we’re like, this is the worst it’s ever banned. And it’s right now, it’s like a wildfire and we’re not going to stop OMA crime. And now it’s almost like, well, we had chances to get vaccinated. You got a chance to get boosted, and now it’s just kind of, uh, just wait and see, wait to see if this thing can be endemic by the end of this year.
Speaker 2 00:04:33 Yeah. That’s the hope,
Speaker 1 00:04:37 But I, but I know you’ve, uh, I don’t know if you reach out and you said, you said it, you know, the, the, the hope is, you know, just trying to provide as much safety as possible. But I think the safest thing to do, it’s just not have an in person event, you know, in my opinion.
Speaker 2 00:04:51 Yeah. I mean that, but it’s hard, right? So like, how do we live our lives, knowing that this is still around? Um, I get that this is the worst, but hopefully most people that are going to events are vaccinated and thus, if they do get, you know, one of them, new varieties of, of COVID, um, ideally they won’t have horrible symptoms or pass it on to people that could have horrible symptoms, um, or outcomes due to the virus. So, uh, it’s everything in life is about balance. And I think that, you know, I really feel for the people trying to organize these events do requires a lot of time and energy and effort, and to always have to postpone them or cancel them that that must be disheartening.
Speaker 1 00:05:32 Um, so, so there’s quite a bit of talk in the comments about, well, if we’re going to have these guidelines and things in place, these things that we’re going to now place all these responsibilities on organizers and volunteers to be at the door, volunteers have to do temp checks. Now on people. Volunteers now have to put up with people who may not be, uh, as forthcoming with vaccination cards or anything of that matter. You know, it’s, it seems, it seems like all these proposed guidelines would just be a whole lot of unnecessary pressure pressures added onto what’s already a pretty tough thing to do, which is volunteer and organize at work champs. I mean, it sounds like you would have to set aside funding, training, maybe a security guard person, or maybe actual people to do temperature checks. And you know, who’s going to be handing out these masks.
Speaker 1 00:06:21 I’m asking to be acquired inside outside. I, I don’t know. That’s just, just a whole another world, the meal with these in-person events, with the pandemic going on for it to be over me too, me too good to sing and demic. I know a few weeks ago I get the booster shot. The booster shot knocked me on my ass, man. It was, uh, the first two shots, no problem. The booster hall man. It was like, it was an all day thing, nausea, headaches and everything. But you know what, at the end of the day I was feeling better and I’m like, it was worth it to not have to take up a hospital room and be part of the, the masses that are taking up resources from those who really need it. And you know, it was all worth it. So, uh, there you go.
Speaker 1 00:07:12 It’ll be, it’ll be interesting to see as, as we go on here, if the numbers drop, and if this thing becomes a little bit more endemic and if not, you know, what does that mean for camp us later this year in San Diego? So I’m wondering how, what what’ll happen. Uh, we’ll commerce 6.1 has been released now, you know, at first you would think that this is a major version, but looking at the changes, it looks to be more like a minor version, which may have something to do with their version numbering system, which I know they changed a few years ago, but in this, uh, in 6.1, they’ve actually updated the will commerce blocks, uh, version up to 6.5 0.1. They’ve also updated the will commerce, admin and action scheduler. And I was actually interested to look at that. Uh, the commerce admin is actually still a feature plugin that they’re working on outside of will commerce.
Speaker 1 00:08:08 And I believe that’s where they’re working on and implementing like a full JavaScript or react based admin interface. At least that’s what it was announced a few years ago when I’m at one of the, well, was it Wilcon or state of the will. And I think it was state of the rule, um, and that looked really slick. So it’s kind of nice to see that they’re still working on that. And there’s a host of other changes as well. There’s not, uh, no database changes, no template changes. Uh, there is a deprecation involved, but, uh, overall just kind of your standard run of the mill release of, of WooCommerce. Yeah. I think one of the problems there is like to be fair, there were 309 commands from 35 contributors just on WooCommerce core, but none of these, um, commits that I’m seeing are like enough that you can really wrap a line item around and be like
Speaker 2 00:08:55 This exciting. It’s more like, Hey, we added run WC page load test and run admin page load, test exports.
Speaker 1 00:09:03 Um, which, which is by and large, the majority of software development, right? Most software doesn’t have these line items, you know, line item things or, or, or it’s like, it’s like, well, I patched this bug. How do I make it exciting? You know, how would I put it out there? I don’t know. That’s, you know, who has good change logs, uh, discord the, I dunno if anybody uses the discord app point, they actually put some thought and creativity into their change dogs. I enjoy reading them. Um, this is pretty cool. Uh, so make sure you’re updated, uh, to WooCommerce who’s out. Oh, and while we’re away, there is an, a security update for WordPress. What was that 5.8 0.3? I think it was, and that fixed a couple of security issues, but you know, I’m in bed. I don’t care. I wake up the next day.
Speaker 1 00:09:49 I have a email that says your site is automatically being updated. You have your plugins have already medically been updated. I’m like, okay. So what do I have to do nothing, but check the site and see if it’s broken, which it wasn’t thankfully. But, uh, I, Hey, I’m on the bandwagon. Now I might, my site is set up to update automatically to point releases. It’s set up to, uh, update plugins automatically, uh, where I can and I’m just going to go with it and see what happens. Cause I, I have backups that happen all the time. So, you know, and it’s not operating the mission critical website here. So I figure if it breaks, just try and calm down and remember, this is a learning opportunity
Speaker 2 00:10:29 And a publishing opportunity. I
Speaker 1 00:10:31 Can write about this. Exactly. Yeah. I almost want it to break.
Speaker 2 00:10:36 I will note for everyone out there that’s interested. Um, there were four security issues that were passed in this 5.8 0.3 and they actually applied the same patch all the way, press three.seven, so
Speaker 1 00:10:47 Cool that they could do that. And they’re still doing it. Actually. You want to talk about long-term security or what’d they call the LTS long-term service or long-term security release. That’s kind of what 0.7 has been all these years.
Speaker 2 00:11:01 Yeah. And I think it’s, it’s really important. Like if you’re not interested or willing to update to five dot eight three, um, whatever version that you’re on previously probably has a point release that is now available for you at these security patches. And, uh, you know, I looked over the text on these and, um, they’re, they’re concerning. I mean, I, if you, if you’re running WordPress site, please make sure you update
Speaker 1 00:11:25 Or just to make sure your site updated on and that’s not broken. And there you go. Uh, so Morgan ran Hendrickson boy, what a smart individual I love when this guy writes about open source and it’s a shame he’s kind of stepped back from his involvement in WordPress, but, uh, he published a post called open source, considered harmful, uh, on his site. Morton that comment was basically a look at what’s been going on with open source and paying contributors and the nature of open source. And there’s a lot into it. And I can’t, I probably probably cannot do it justice. And I advise everybody who’s listening to this show to check out the show notes, check out the link and read it. But he talks about how the open source projects are developed, the typical cycles and Spanish, no benevolent dictator for life. He also talks about how, uh, the types of people who end up in these positions, running these open source projects and the harm to contributors.
Speaker 1 00:12:26 And there’s just a lot involved here. And it’s, this has been a hot topic now for the past two or three months in. And that is how do we get volunteers who dedicate their blood, sweat, and tears to open source projects, which are, have now become, they’re not some, most of them are a lot of these days. They’re not just something that’s built as a hobby or a side project in the basement, directionally mission, critical software, mission, critical components that these corporations are making millions on, that they rely on. But most of these people who are behind them to maintain them are not getting paid. They’re just doing it. It’s like a, it’s like a community service that they’re doing well, you know, how do we, how do we change the dynamic? How do we get all that money to funnel back into and pay the people who are responsible for these open source projects and, and get these contributors paid? Um, there’s, there’s a lot to that.
Speaker 2 00:13:22 Yeah. And I wish I had an answer. I mean, it’s one of those things that actually, I knew the lawn here and there and I just kind of shake my head and go, you know, unless they have the ability to, you know, that entrepreneurial spirit to kind of build product or companies around their abilities. It can be really hard. Um, I think one of the best quotes in the article is that kind of sum it up is, um, doing unpaid work while others profit off that work is harmful being told, this is the way it’s supposed to work, but if you just work hard enough, somehow you’ll end up getting paid is harmful. And I mean, when I read that, it gave me chills. I mean, it’s, it’s so true and so hard to change. I mean, I don’t think you’re going to run into too many people who disagree with us and go now like, no, this is the way it’s supposed to be.
Speaker 2 00:14:09 A lot of people might like kind of bow their head and go, this is just the way it is. Um, but I think that we need to kind of figure out a way to fix that. And it’s, it’s not just open source. Unfortunately, it’s, it’s pretty systemic to our entire like society and culture in a way. I mean, the, the whole idea of unturned unpaid interns has been around forever. Um, and so this, this kind of transition to the many, doing the free efforts to support a few people who do have that entrepreneurial spirit or do have that ability to productize it, um, that’s just wrong and it, it does need to change, but I just don’t know how it’s going to.
Speaker 1 00:14:47 So what Morton says, he says, what do you think the solution will be? And he says, I know what it definitely will not be, which is more volunteer contribution. And I want to read a paragraph from his post because I think it’s something it’s, it’s a mind provoking thought provoking. And it says, quote, open source is largely largely been taken over by corporations already, both from the inside and from the outside, just follow the money. And when push comes to shove and governments start getting involved, shareholders and investors will quickly pivot from the, let these kids do their magic to let’s take control over this mess to protect our profits. If we don’t do the hard work of creating proper open source governance, open source policy and functional funding of open source contributors, the dream of open source will die in our hands. And we won’t even notice it is time.
Speaker 1 00:15:35 We rebuild open-source ideology to be based on equity, inclusion and sustainability. We built the modern world and now we need to take care of it and of ourselves. And I know that Martin and, uh, Bama designer, uh, Ooh, she’s probably gonna shoot me mad if I don’t think of her name at the, uh, oh, I’m so sorry. But she goes by, I think, was it Rachel might be Rachel, it might not be, but, but her and Morton knew they were involved with the, they tried to create this WordPress governance project is, um, a few years ago trying to put things together and he brought it up to the state of the word, but, uh, it just kind of, I mean, that takes a lot of effort, a lot of people going at it full time and it also takes buy-in from the project in the, in the leaders that you’re trying to, uh, uh, you’re trying to help put this governance around, but, you know, I guess it’s hard to put governance around something that doesn’t want to be governed, so to speak. I mean, I imagine if, if governance was such an important thing, WordPress would have had this already, but I don’t, I don’t know,
Speaker 1 00:16:44 But a lot of things to take into account there and I just, yeah. Open source it’s uh, man times are changing. Did you, uh, so let’s see other big news Yoast SEO is coming to Shopify. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2 00:17:04 Well, I mean, when I first spread this, I was kind of surprised in a way, um, we think of Yoast and we think of WordPress and they they’re pretty synonymous. I thought it was kind of interesting. One of the first responses that I saw was someone asking. So what does this mean in terms of Yoast being able to like sponsor to work camps and stuff?
Speaker 1 00:17:22 I might’ve asked that whoops,
Speaker 2 00:17:25 That Shopify is kind of, not necessarily as the enemy, so to speak, but it’s seen as kind of a closed ecosystem and, um, you know, piece of proprietary software and they’re not very share and share alike. And so what does this mean for a big company? Like, yo, it’s kind of getting into this space. I mean, I think a lot of people have had these little murmurs or these little whispers of like, if Yost wants to continue to grow, they’re going to have to play in other sandboxes and other, um, pieces of software. I didn’t necessarily think Shopify was going to be the first one. I get it in a way though, because it is a major player. Um, and there’s a very quick route to revenue, right? Because almost, I don’t know if you’ve used Shopify before, but basically every add-on is like a monthly cost, right?
Speaker 2 00:18:09 So it’s like a dollar here, $2 there, $5 for that $9 for that. And so I’m sure that Yoast, SEO and Shopify is going to be like a couple of bucks a month, every month. And for every, you know, let’s say a thousand people that they get paid $2 a month. That’s two grand in revenue for the company pretty free and clear. I mean, it, it can start to sponsor, um, development teams over time. It can continue to grow as another vertical in their business and potentially also help other hosted like, uh, e-commerce solutions or CMS is see the value in Yoast and then maybe other verticals kind of pop up from there. So I wasn’t surprised necessarily when I saw this, I was surprised that it was Shopify as their first choice. I mean, well, what do you think other than, than the, uh, the whole WordCamp potential or the advertising issue? You know,
Speaker 1 00:18:57 You say that the first thing about Yosef, you think about WordPress, but back in 2015, they actually branched out and made a Drupal module, Yoast SEO for Drupal. So it’s been about six years, uh, that I think Drupal might’ve been the first one that they branched out to, but for them going to Shopify it just, the first thing I think of is, well, that makes total sense. I mean, if you want more revenue, if you want, Shopify has shown that they’re on a, uh, a, a racket, uh, with growth, uh, Yoast nodes that used to balk, according to a CMS market analysis, you will know, but they also mentioned in the official announcement that this decision to make a Shopify app was made, uh, long before the recent acquisition of a new, full digital, which acquired Yoast. Uh, so, so there’s that. And I was happy to see that they, they mentioned the business aspects of this decision and what it means for the company. They didn’t shy away from that, but they also mentioned that they’re going to take funds and the knowledge and the things that they get from this, uh, sort of a partnership or collaborative agreement or whatever’s going on. And they’re going to put that back into source. So whatever sort of money or income or revenue that they make through Shopify, they’re going to put back in the, in the workplace. So they say,
Speaker 2 00:20:12 Yeah, I mean, to me, that’s like saying we’re drilling for oil, but we’re going to take a little bit of money and save the dolphins. I mean, it just seems so silly when people say stuff like,
Speaker 1 00:20:20 Ah, well, it is what it is. And also that they’re going to be opening up a, uh, Yost merch store on Shopify. So be able to, uh, uh, sort of, uh, eat there, eat their own dog food, so to speak dog food, their own product and what they learn with Shopify. And there is, if you want to learn all about this and what’s going on with your SEO, they’re actually having a Yoast con Shopify edition on January 20th that you can sign up and register for, and you can learn all about, uh, what’s going to be happening with the Yoast SEO and how it works on Shopify. And I guess if you’re on Shopify in, you know, it makes sense to have the best SEO you can. And I think, uh, I think they’ll do well probably over there, on, on Shopify. Wow.
Speaker 2 00:21:09 Now I just pulled up their actual app page for Shopify. It’s going to be 29 us dollars per month.
Speaker 1 00:21:17 Well, judging baby. Yeah. Some
Speaker 2 00:21:21 Good money in that.
Speaker 1 00:21:22 Oh, wow. Wow. You’re what did you wait? What is your guest? You said a couple of dollars a month.
Speaker 2 00:21:27 I assumed, you know, maybe five, $9. I don’t know. I, I certainly wouldn’t pay more than $10 a month for an SEO tool, but I guess $30 a month is where they priced it.
Speaker 1 00:21:38 Well, think you’re not the target market because if you were, they’d be going broke
Speaker 2 00:21:44 Potentially.
Speaker 1 00:21:45 Yeah. Maybe 30, $30 a month and that’s on top of a, oh, that’s on top of whatever the costs are to run your Shopify. That’s on top of whatever other plugins or apps you might be using on Shopify. So that, Hey, I don’t know. I guess if you’re selling a certain amount of, of making that much money a month revenue, something on Shopify, maybe it all equals out or something. I don’t know. Oh, for sure. So there you have it. Um, oh, WP engine was in the news and this was kind of, uh, I’m glad to see this actually, but the frost WordPress named Deborah and garner has been hyping up. And, uh, we’ve had him on the show here to talk about it. Uh, the frost WP thing, a block-based, uh, thing that takes full advantage of full site editing. Uh, he actually took a role, uh, as the developer relations team at WP engine this past, uh, fall in on top of that, uh, the team has also acquired the frost, uh, WordPress team work.
Speaker 1 00:22:45 What they’re going to do is use that to, to learn and share those learnings and share those things with the WordPress community. And it was only back in 2018 when Brian Garner, uh, sold or WP engine acquired studio press and the Genesis framework from Brian Garner. So whatever Brian Garner does is golden WP engine wants it is what I’m getting, but, uh, everybody who had purchased the frust WordPress thing, uh, should have gotten a refund because that was part of the acquisition process. And, and you know, now that it’s free and anybody can use it. I haven’t seen as much hype from Brian Garner and others around it on Twitter. So maybe that’s just a, no hype is needed now because it’s all under the WP engine umbrella. But if you haven’t seen the frost WordPress team, uh, you should check it out well, because it’s free. And because it’s beautiful, it’s, it’s really well done. And, you know, uh, I’d like the aesthetics, the design aesthetics from, uh, from Brian Garner over the years.
Speaker 2 00:23:51 My biggest problem with the theme is, is that I know that if I used it, it would never look as pretty as it should. Well,
Speaker 1 00:23:59 No, what I mean, like I said, that’s the, uh, that’s the, uh, end-user thing, window shopping dilemma, right? You look, you look at something, it looks so good in the display case, you bring it home doesn’t work. Oh. And then you see the little text at the bottom. No refunds,
Speaker 2 00:24:21 Not a big deal on something free, I guess.
Speaker 1 00:24:24 That’s right. So if you’re looking for a full site editing theme block-based scene, that’s, that’s really well done. The is another entrant into the arena fraud.
Speaker 2 00:24:32 Yeah. I mean, and if you use it, if you use it, let us know. I would love to see some other demo demos of people using for us. Um, you know, right now on the frost BP website, there’s only like three sample sites, but I would, I would really appreciate if anyone is using it or has some experience with it or loves it and built their site with it. Shoot Jeff Ryan message on Twitter or wherever you can and let us know. I would love to see it I’d be super interest.
Speaker 1 00:24:56 So I got a question for you. Can Matt Mullenweg save the internet? No, it’s a yes or no question, but there’s a lot of words that were written about whether he could or not. This is a, is a pretty good piece actually by David Pierce on protocol, dotcom was actually published on my birthday back in 2021. And the piece pretty much covers Matt Mullenweg, his mindset, uh, what’s going on in tech overall and Kenny save it, the openness and there’s, I thought, uh, the overall piece was, was well done. And it’s definitely worth a read if, uh, if you get around to it, but, uh, it’s hard to pick and choose different parts here. But I thought this was interesting as someone who has written about and used WordPress for a while, and as, as, as, as cover the scene for a long time, I wanted to quote this part under the subsection called the Titan.
Speaker 1 00:25:51 And, uh, it says, quote, when automatics sell shares to new investors, all the voting power goes back to mulloway when he wants to push automatic or WordPress in any direction, he tries to do it as gently and collaboratively as possible, but one way or another, he usually gets his way. Mo mulloway generally tends to downplay this authority, knowing that users can always fork WordPress and do their own thing. But there’s no question that we’re more mulling way goes the community and the internet eventually follows. And I read that and I’m like, wow, you know, that’s, that’s one of the first times I’ve actually seen somebody write that. And I was just wondering how many other people in the WordPress scene over the years read that and shaking their head, you know, up and down, up and down. But I thought that was a, that was one of the highlights for me in that piece.
Speaker 1 00:26:36 And then he goes on to say that, you know, in general, most of the way he gets hardly the chest beating pundit tight, but friends and foes alike, describe a killer line just under the surface. And it talks about how he’s gone after Wix a couple of times over the years. I mean, you and I both know that he’s gone after Chris Pearson and thesis and some of the other things that have gone on, uh, in the past. Um, but, uh, but yeah, but he, but I, one man, one person cannot save the internet, but I do think he is in a position where he can certainly help. He can help stem the tide. He can help. He could be a bastion of, uh, or a bastion of good for, for the unit. And he’s, and he’s doing that with open verse and some of these other things that, uh, that automatic and WordPress is doing, but, you know, just one person, I mean, come on the, the obvious answer is no, no one person’s going to say the internet.
Speaker 2 00:27:34 Yeah. I think so. As, as someone becomes more wealthy, as someone becomes more famous, I often find myself questioning their motives more and more. Um, and yeah, I mean, it’s, I don’t want that to be a knock on Matt specifically. And I, I hope he doesn’t take it that way, but I just always wonder, like, what is like the true goals? What is the true intention? What, like, are you gaining power and money for power and money sake? And it’s like, you know, I get that sometimes I’m sure Matt and others, if I’ve criticized them, I probably wondered what more do I need to do to prove that I’m like, not this horrible demon person or whatever, but it’s like how, like when, when is enough and, you know, does that person truly deserve the, the power and money and, um, control that they have? Um, I think that,
Speaker 1 00:28:26 Well, what, well, what mulloway has done over the years up to this point, what do you think?
Speaker 2 00:28:32 I mean, he he’s had some missteps. Yeah. Some of them can be definitely attributed to kind of growing up. Right. I mean, he’s not like a 60 year old businessman with 40 years of business experience. Um, and I think people will have to try to remember that as well. I just, I, my biggest wish is for him to find people that he trusts and, and, you know, run things a little bit more by committee share that power, share that vision, share that responsibility
Speaker 1 00:29:02 Kind of going back to the open governance,
Speaker 2 00:29:04 Right. Because he’s one he’s not gonna live forever. Um, too, he’s human, which means he’s, he’s, failable, it means he is, you know, potentially influenced. Um, and so dividing that up a little bit, create some checks and balances. And w I think that, you know, as much as he has been like a good, you know, governor of the open web and a good governor of WordPress, I think it’s time for him to really, you know, seek a small committee of, of maybe not necessarily like-minded people, but people that he trusts, um, or, or can work with to kind of, you know, bring some of his goals to pass without necessarily centralizing the power to him.
Speaker 1 00:29:43 And I just wonder, at what point at, at, at the center of all this, how can work, how can the WordPress foundation be a part of all that? How can that be part of the solution, if at all, because, you know, just from the outside, looking in, that seems to be the obvious place to go and to start is, well, we have this word, WordPress foundation here are the guidelines and things that we want to work on and just it’s just build from there. But I don’t know, we’ll have to see, uh, definitely a great piece. So it’s one of the more interesting pieces I’ve seen, uh, on Matt Mullenweg in a long time. Uh, some GoDaddy news, uh, GoDaddy domains now include stronger privacy protection. So what GoDaddy is doing is, uh, they say that, uh, while GoDaddy previously redacted, the customer’s personal details, we’re talking about the, who is information when you register a domain, uh, the new upgraded privacy replaces the customer’s details of the anonymized information and the public who is directory.
Speaker 1 00:30:43 Privacy protection will be active by default from here on out, ensure nobody will be able to see the customer’s content information. And in addition, customers will be provided with a private email address for domain inquiries to prevent spam. Uh, customers will also be able to set up private email addresses to Ford, all or filtered or no messages to their own inbox and domains that were previously registered would go to edit will be upgraded with free privacy in the coming weeks. This to me is good news because I, I manage my domains through GoDaddy and the privacy protection is always, I, I think it was a 24 99 a year or something. It’s an essential purchase. I have to buy it when I renew my domain. So this is going to save me a chunk of cash every year. And Hey, I’m all for it. But when I brought this up, some people were like, well, what’s the big deal? You know, it’s, I dunno, how many different hosts do you you’ve messed with their domains recently, but is privacy protection on the, who is information? Is that, is that like a standard feature that you have to pay for? And a lot of other hosts,
Speaker 2 00:31:49 Um,
Speaker 1 00:31:50 I I’ve always seen it as something you gotta pay for like an upgrade, like an ad-on, because it’s, it’s just something that’s one of the, one of the ways that a web hosting company can, can easily make a little bit more profit, a little bit more money, but making that an add on.
Speaker 2 00:32:06 Yeah. I mean maybe, but I guess the, the second part of that for me is that it’s, it’s kind of laughable in a way, because one, you, you know, you don’t have to actually keep your legit information in your domain who is right. You, you could have your domain by like Mr. Mainline and, and like, you know, stop spamming me@wpmainland.com. Like you could, you could do all of that and no one’s going to stop you. I think it’s really cool that they’re making this change. Um, and you know, I probably have far too many domain names, um, that I’ve registered through GoDaddy just because it’s a very easy process. Um, I also use like hover for some other ones. I don’t remember. I think it included privacy when I did that, uh, as like a free thing, but, um, I’m, I, I’m not a hundred percent certain off the top of my head. Um, and I know other, some other domain registrars allow it as a free update as well, or a free upgrade as well. So, um, this
Speaker 1 00:33:07 Is good money and I’m happy about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:33:10 And you should be, and this is the direction that they should be going in. I just, I, you know, I don’t think that most of your listeners are probably going to think that this is a huge advantage to them unless you’ve received those like no domain phishing emails or domain scams, or like whatever else. Um, but I, I still, I applaud them for doing this. I think it’s a good thing.
Speaker 1 00:33:33 So this is something default, just a standard feature across all registrars. Why not?
Speaker 2 00:33:39 I agree. A hundred percent. It should be that way. And I think that a lot of the other ones, if they haven’t done this, we’ll probably implement it to stay competitive with GoDaddy. So good for them.
Speaker 1 00:33:50 Uh, let’s see, let’s see, um, other things to talk about if you’ve, uh, are you into that Wordle? Have you made if you’ve been doing any Wordles?
Speaker 2 00:34:00 No, not me. Not
Speaker 1 00:34:01 Yet. Ready for anyone who doesn’t know a word, it’s just, it’s a scheme that a gentleman created for his wife,
Speaker 2 00:34:07 You or game, game,
Speaker 1 00:34:08 Game. It’s a game. It’s not a scheme, it’s a game, but it’s kind of like a, if anyone’s familiar with actually, there’s a game show, a number of years ago called lingo. Uh, it’s kind of similar to that. It’s also similar to a game called mastermind and you essentially just have to, you get six tries, it’s five out of words, and you have to know, you have to try and guess it within, within six tries, and then you could share your results to, uh, to Twitter. And I saw, I saw somebody posted on Twitter that, uh, Twitter in January of 20, 22 is just COVID and Wordle results. That’s pretty much what is posting. I’m like, wow, that’s, that’s kind of accurate for now, but, uh, I don’t know. It’s just nice. It’s kind of like a, something to get your brain going. I like the social aspects of it. Uh, I do like the memes that I’ve seen and I want to give a special shout out to David Bisset who, uh, hit a home run. When he posted an image of Matt, mulloway doing a state of the word and on the board, it was a, it was a Wordle that, uh, caught it state of the word all. And I thought it was just fantastic. Awesome. He had a home run there, so I don’t know. It’s been having phone with the Wordle. Um, I see other WordPress stuff.
Speaker 2 00:35:24 Oh. Um, whatever happened with that bug fix that you submitted for WordPress?
Speaker 1 00:35:28 Oh, uh, they’ve actually been cranking away on it. They’ve worked on it. It’s fixed. It’s actually in a, it will be in WordPress 5.9, if it should be already in 5.9 beta two or no RC RC to, uh, but yeah. And I’ve tested it out and it works again. So, uh, I reported a bug. People get onto it. It was serious. People tested it, they worked on it. Boom. It’s fixed.
Speaker 2 00:35:55 That must feel so good. Right? Like you must.
Speaker 1 00:35:58 Yeah, it feels pretty good. Yeah. I know. And I’m wondering if the people who get props or is it just the people who submit code in the patches? Do they get prompts? Are the people who submitted the original ticket describing the issue? Do they get perhaps too? And I, I want to say it’s just the, uh, the commit Sixers. Yeah. The fixers, which, um, I don’t know. I think in this case, I wouldn’t mind seeing that change, but, you know, that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s a selfish thought on my part, but very cool to have that changed. And, uh, that was a very annoying bug actually. You know, it was the first time I tried to create reusable blocks in that was my experience. I, I was breaking things and losing contents in 5.9. I will actually in fact, meet me after the show and this weekend, I should probably, uh, create those reusable blocks again, because it’s going to be very helpful for when I do the show notes, uh, for the show, you know, because I got my headers and my show log that lists block the accordion black for the transcript, the GoDaddy Adblock.
Speaker 1 00:37:04 And I keep having to manually put those in each time and it’s like, well, why don’t I just create some reusable blocks? Just add those all in. And I can just fill in the information. That’s what they’re, that’s what those are for. Right.
Speaker 2 00:37:16 Uh, I have a funny story about that, actually. So I was working with a client and I created a bunch of reusable blocks and what I didn’t think through at the time. And it totally makes common sense now is when you create a reasonable block it and edit it, it edits all like instances of that reusable block.
Speaker 1 00:37:35 Uh, now, now you getting reusable blocks, confused with global blocks and blocks.
Speaker 2 00:37:42 Cause now I am not, I’m not. And so there’s actually
Speaker 1 00:37:45 A, that doesn’t sound right.
Speaker 2 00:37:47 Pull in a reusable block that you’ve created into an article or into a post or page or whatever. There’s a button next to the title of the reasonable block that basically says like, basically like disconnect this from continuing to be part of this like global reusable block. Oh yeah. So just, just as kind of a note to people at first, I thought you had to like figure out a way around it or whatever. And I was just getting so frustrated with the stupid reasonable block because it was, it was kicking my butt and then I hover over the thing and it’s like, you know, I can’t even remember the exact word for it. Um, but yeah, you can disconnect it from being like, like globally changing everything. Um, let me,
Speaker 1 00:38:27 Yeah, that’s weird because unless it overlaps with the functionality of what was the global block, which you remember, we had that discussion, what we name it or what the name it, and, uh, that, that sounds like, uh, uh, that’s weird.
Speaker 2 00:38:42 You’ll have to try it out and let me know. Maybe I’m crazy. But w we were using the latest version of like a WordPress and, uh, like we put it like created like a, a call to action block and we put it on page one and then we put it on page two and then we changed it on page two and we, we saved it. And there’s, it’s funny when you go to like, uh, update your page a little like white dot goes next to the word update. And a little slider comes out and says, Hey, do you want to update the page? And that block? And you uncheck, like update the block or whatever. And it’s like, okay, then you have no changes on this page. I’m like, what do you mean? I have no changes on this page. I just changed all this stuff.
Speaker 2 00:39:19 But because it was in the reusable block, it went update that page because I said not to update that reasonable block, the whole thing was just a whole, I felt like a dummy. I, I, I think this is the first time in a long time that I was like completely stymied. And I remember like hovering over that button and realizing, oh, I can disconnect it. Like, I just felt like a fool. Like how did I not see that button earlier? So just a heads up reusable blocks are cool, but, um, yeah, they, they, I think they might be global.
Speaker 1 00:39:47 Wow. That’s something to keep in mind because I would like my reusable bikes to be just centered on the page I’m using them on. And if I change them in that post, I don’t want them changing that every other post, no way. So I’ll have to keep that in mind. Maybe it, maybe when I use the reusable bikes, I have, maybe I’ll have to check that option every time to say disconnect to keep them
Speaker 2 00:40:09 Separate. Yeah. So like as soon as you pull it in, right. So, um, you’ll go into your blocks. Uh, you’ll go into your reusable block. You’ll pull it into your page and then write, like I said, right next to the title of it, it’ll have a button that looks like little squares and it says convert to regular blocks. And then that will stop it from being like part of that reusable block. Um, so you won’t change it site-wide and you can still have the layout that you want. Um, I wish you could do like a read, like a, I don’t know, not a read only, but like a clone without that, uh, that connection to the other ones, but it also makes sense cause it’s super cool. Like if you want to do a call to action at the bottom of every post, and then you want to update that call to action and have it update everywhere. Like that’s pretty slick. It just that design language or that understanding was not what I had when I intended on using the usable.
Speaker 1 00:41:02 So you go folks, uh, listeners and unintended unintentional lesson and reusable blocks here on the WP mainline podcast. And you know, there’s going to be a, as we get into it throughout this year in full site editing, and there’s going to be a lot of little gotchas that we’re going to discover like this. So if we do and we learn and we go through the hardships of dealing with blacks, we will be sure to let you know, keep you informed on what we learn. And it’s, I really hope we see that throughout this year. It’s a lot more tutorials, uh, just from, just from a variety of people. I don’t care who it’s from, but just people sharing what they’re learning and how to accomplish things, uh, through the black editor. Uh, that’d be, that’d be nice to see, uh, with that said, um, anything else that you wanna, it comes to mind maybe to mention?
Speaker 2 00:41:58 Um, well let me see, um, all those is cool site that I found. Um, so it’s called WP mainline. And if you want to make sure that it actually sticks around and we keep doing this podcast and actually go there and you can click on this ways to support me thing. And there’s, there’s four options there. And maybe, maybe you look at one of those in that like the, the rail fan option for subscription is only $49 for a year. That’s 365 days of supporting this site and this podcast. So how could you not want to do that? I mean, come on. People let’s make that happen. Also. Also I thought I saw a message where you said there was a new box car coming soon. I don’t see a new box car. Jeff, when’s my new box car, Jeff what’s happening there.
Speaker 1 00:42:41 It’s currently in the process of being designed. Um, just daily has been very busy since the new year and hasn’t had a much chance to get it. He did show me the first concept the other day. Uh, there are some changes that are going to happen with that boxcar. And then once I get the second concept, pass it along to the client, the purchaser, but it’s, uh, I’ll give you a hint
Speaker 2 00:43:05 Green. I was going to ask for one, so green,
Speaker 1 00:43:09 The color, green, green, Green, the color green it’s again, it’s going to, it’s going to look cool. All bikes, cars, they always look cool.
Speaker 2 00:43:21 If people have guesses on what brand it is, uh, where, where should they send that guests?
Speaker 1 00:43:26 Twitter at me on Twitter at WP mainline or at Jeff , J E F F R zero. Hey, where can we follow you on Twitter, Mr. Malcolm?
Speaker 2 00:43:35 Oh, that’s nice you to ask. Uh, I, you can find me on Twitter at find purpose, all one word. And, uh, yeah, I, I don’t tweet as much as I probably should, but I’m not playing Wordle, so I, you know, what can I say? And, uh, if you’re looking for, to find me elsewhere, um, I am also, uh, at press Titan. So press titan.com Canberra, uh, cm, br.co. And I have my own personal blog, which is prophy.com. I don’t really post on there much anymore, but like every once in a while I do. And I recently did a review of, uh, the Honda ionic five electric vehicle that we test drove. So, uh, if you’re interested in electric vehicles, I talk about that stuff a lot on there.
Speaker 1 00:44:18 Excellent. A good sir. And what, that’s our show notes for this episode and all other episodes, we will be published on WP mainline.com. Just click that podcast link at the top of the site next week, we’re going to do a dive into WordPress 5.9 and what to expect and some of the cool stuff that’s coming in that release. And then if we get around to it, uh, I just recently hit 100 or I’m going to be hitting 100 published posts on the BP mainline, and maybe next week, um, maybe I’ll dive into share some thoughts on what it is I’m doing with WP may line or what it is I want to do what it is. I’m not doing how I feel kind of the future and who knows, you know, maybe we’ll dive into that next week cause I’ve been thinking about it and, uh, yeah, might make for a good conversation. I’m going to have everybody enjoy, have the safe, enjoyable weekend. We’re back. We’re going to be back in your podcast, listening apps. Think, goodness, it’s been a while. It’s been about three or four weeks, but uh, we’ll talk to you again next Friday evening. So long everybody