Author: Nadia M.

WordPress 6.3 was released in early August, introducing new improvements to make website creation even more enjoyable. But have you ever wondered what’s running behind the scenes every time WordPress releases a new version?

To answer your curiosity, we’ve sat down with three WordPress 6.3 release co-leads – Ahmed Kabir Chaion, Leonardus Nugraha, and Pooja Derashri.

We discussed how they started as a release co-lead, what they worked on for this release, the challenges, and the fun experiences they had. Let’s dive into the conversation!

How It Started

For Leonardus Nugraha – Leo, for short – this was his first time joining a WordPress release squad.

Leo’s been active as a WordPress contributor for Documentation, Polyglots, and Community. When the WordPress 6.3 Call for Volunteers was announced, he decided to apply for Documentation because that’s where he’s most active.

“I currently work as a content specialist. However, I started at Hostinger as a content writer for WordPress tutorials, so contributing to Documentation just feels natural. It suits my interest and skill set,” Leo explains.

Leo also wanted to step up his contribution game by diving deeper into the world of open-source projects. “I want to understand the whole release process. When I’m contributing to the Documentation team, I only focus on one area of the project,” he says. “When I got involved in a WordPress release, I experienced more cross-functional workflows. I got to interact with contributors from various teams such as Core and Marketing.”

It was also Pooja Derashri’s first time being part of a WordPress release squad. She has been contributing to the project since 2017, mainly in the Training team.

Even though it was her first time being a release co-lead, Pooja has been involved in moving the past few WordPress releases forward.

“I have attended a few beta releases and release parties and contributed to testing some WordPress versions,” Pooja says. “I don’t want to limit my contribution. It has always been my aspiration to explore other contribution teams, like Core testing. So it fascinates me to become a part of the release.”

To pursue her aspiration, Pooja followed the whole WordPress 6.2 release process. Then, when 6.3 was announced, she volunteered to be a part of it.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Kabir Chaion has been a part of the release squad multiple times – from WordPress 5.9 to 6.1.

“I wasn’t in the release squad for 6.2 because I was busy with WordCamp Asia. Now that the event’s over, I volunteered again as part of the Core Triage team,” says Ahmed.

Coming from a language background with a sufficient understanding of programming, Ahmed started his journey in WordPress contribution by creating triage meeting summaries.

During WordPress 5.6, Tammie Lister and Estela Rueda – both were Design team reps – noticed Ahmed’s consistent contribution to the WordPress project. They offered to train him to become a Core contributor and a release co-lead.

For WordPress 5.8, Ahmed got an opportunity to work directly on the release, but he was not part of the release team. During version 5.9, he continued to express his interest in joining the release squad. He was then selected as one of the Triage co-leads.

“Versions 5.9, 6.0, and 6.1 are the releases where I tried to constantly improve my role as a Triage lead. When I decided not to participate in the development of version 6.2, it was very important for me to learn that I don’t have to be involved all the time. There are times when I can take a break and come back stronger,” Ahmed admits.

Working on a WordPress Release

So, what were Leo, Pooja, and Ahmed assigned to in this release squad?

“There were four Documentation co-leads for WordPress 6.3. We split the tasks – two of us worked on user documentation, and the other half took care of developer notes,” Leo recalls. “I was in charge of developer notes. While user documentation is like a knowledge base for end users, developer notes are the same but for developers. It was something new for me.”

All developer notes should be ready to publish during the first Release Candidate. Hence, Leo’s most intense working period was the two to three weeks before the first Release Candidate.

“During the first Release Candidate, most of the features were almost ready. But changes are still possible at this stage,” Leo explains. “Developer notes should be written by those who own the ticket or the request, not by the Documentation team. Our job is to wrangle these tickets, contact the ones who should write the notes, categorize them to see if some can be merged, then review and publish them.”

After the first Release Candidates went public, Leo occasionally helped update user documentation. “They include interface changes, screenshots, new features, and new Blocks. There were a lot of them,” says Leo.

Pooja, as the Test co-lead, handled the Call for Testing publications. The posts offer an opportunity for anyone to test WordPress’ latest release and for developers to gather user insights. This promotes a culture of review and triage within the project.

“It’s published on the same day as the Beta version of WordPress 6.3,” recounts Pooja. “My fellow Test co-leads and I closely monitored each feature enhancement scheduled for this release.”

“We monitored Gutenberg versions from the previous releases, attended every bug scrub in the Core team’s Slack channel, read their notes, and explored 6.3’s GitHub project board,” Pooja continues. “Then, we also went to many code-related Slack channels to gather updates and information. We wanted to gather all the testing-related information in one place.”

Pooja and her teammates went on to publish more Call for Testing publications based on the changes throughout the release cycle.

Then we have Ahmed, who handled triaging. Since Ahmed already has experience in release development, he mentored the release squad’s first-timers.

“My role as a Core Triage co-lead was to train and mentor the ones who haven’t done Triage lead before,” says Ahmed.

“Since we have four Core Triage co-leads, we tried to cover two time zones. So, there were two co-leads from Asia Pacific (APAC) and two from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). This is so we can contribute and complement each other.” With this arrangement, Ahmed worked with Mukesh Panchal to cover the APAC time zone. Meanwhile, JB Audras and Olga Glecker covered the EMEA ones.

“I helped JB articulate plans for the triage. This included deciding on the triage sessions, which must cover as many different time zones and days of the week as possible,” says Ahmed. He also points out the importance of having more than one triaging session per week, which encourages more people to come.

“I have been a part of the release squad a few times, and JB is a release squad veteran. So, we prepared the draft plan, and Mukesh and Olga helped finalize it,” Ahmed continues. This helps newer co-leads hone their skills and prepare for upcoming releases.

The Challenge

For Ahmed, the biggest challenge was when a major bug was encountered during the Beta 1 phase, which caused a fatal error. “We had to push a few dates because the bug was severe,” he says. Fortunately, there were more squad members working on WordPress 6.3 than usual, making it faster to reach a solution.

Meanwhile, Pooja faced the challenge of overcoming worry when starting something new. “At the start of the release cycle, I was so confused about what to do and how to start. Thankfully, my co-lead Brian Alexander guided me a lot throughout the release process and helped me navigate my duties and responsibilities.”

Pooja has participated in tests for patch beta releases and Release Candidates of previous WordPress versions. Still, she was surprised that the process was different from what Test co-leads do.

“That’s why I really appreciated how the WordPress release coordinators tried to balance the team composition this time. New people joined, but there were also more experienced team members. No one felt pressured when working on this release,” she explains.

Leo also shares a concern similar to Pooja’s – starting something new can be scary sometimes. “Interacting with many new people can make you nervous. But it turned out everyone was very welcoming. After a couple of days, I started to get the hang of it,” Leo recounts.

He also found the many sub-tasks of creating developer notes pretty complex. There were lots of back-and-forth communications throughout the development process.

Fortunately, Leo also felt very supported during his first stint as a Documentation co-lead. He appreciated how Milana Cap, a Documentation team rep, held an Ask Me Anything session for all Documentation co-leads. Meanwhile, Abha Thakor shared some advice about Core team resources.

“Many people helped me. Steven Lin, a fellow Documentation co-lead, showed me where to find the developer notes and how to identify tickets in Core or Gutenberg. I decided to focus on the Gutenberg ones,” Leo recalls.

When Birgit Pauli-Haack noticed that Leo was doing the Gutenberg developer notes, she also offered her help, passing on her knowledge as a former Documentation co-lead. “I followed Birgit’s best practices to wrangle developer notes,” Leo says.

The Fun Stuff

Ahmed enjoys seeing people’s reactions when they find out he’s not a programmer.

“Some people assume that I am a programmer who has the actual solution for the tickets. They’re surprised upon knowing I’m simply a documentation person who summarizes the issue, solution, or procedure,” Ahmed says. “I feel like it’s surprising for me as well, and at times overwhelming. But this learning experience is very worth it.”

Leo finds it delightful to know the workflow behind a WordPress release – from Beta, Release Candidates, to the final release date. Working on developer notes, viewing tickets, and pulling requests for new features and bug fixes helped him learn more about the upcoming WordPress release.

“Usually, it’s quite hard to find resources on technical stuff during the first days of a release cycle. It’s nice to understand what’s running under the hood,” Leo admits.

Meanwhile, Pooja had a particularly funny memory during the 6.3 release. “It was the day of the 6.3 Beta release,” Pooja recalls. “I wasn’t well that day – I had a fever. I waited almost four hours until midnight in my time zone, expecting to kick off the Beta release party. But it was postponed for 24 hours due to technical issues.”

“It was very exciting, but since I took medicine for my fever, I was unaware that I was falling asleep while holding my laptop. When I woke up in the morning, I was still holding it open in front of me in bed,” she laughs, “I was happy I didn’t miss anything.”

When asked about their favorite improvement in this release, Ahmed, Leo, and Pooja had different opinions.

For Ahmed, it’s about the improved workflow. “The WordPress 6.3 release had more people in the release squad, so the workload was less demanding. People worked more compassionately with each other,” he says.

Meanwhile, Pooja and Leo are excited about the features they have been waiting for.

“My favorites are the Distraction Free Mode, Command Palette, and Style Revisions. These features are so handy. Especially the last one, which lets users easily revise styles,” Pooja explains.

“For me, it’s how users can directly create Patterns from the Site Editor. Previously, you’d have to use a plugin, code it from scratch, or create it via the Pattern Directory. Now it’s as easy as creating a Reusable Block,” says Leo.

Onwards and Upwards

So, what else do they want to see in future WordPress releases?

“I’m definitely looking forward to the online collaboration features listed in Gutenberg phase 3‘s roadmap,” Leo says. This phase will be centered around streamlining content management flows to improve how WordPress users work, which often includes collaboration from various corners of the earth.

On the other hand, Pooja thinks that basic SEO should be part of WordPress core in the future. “Right now, we still rely on third-party plugins to improve our SEO performance. It would be good to have basic SEO as a built-in feature. If we want more advanced functionality, we can use a third-party solution.”

Ahmed’s wish is similar to Pooja’s, only he takes it a step further. “In the future, I want to see a world where having just WordPress would be enough to have a wonderful website.”

The upcoming WordPress 6.4 release will be run entirely by a squad of female and nonbinary contributors, reprising the historic WordPress 5.6 release.

Pooja will reprise her role as a Test Lead in the 6.4 release. “I’m so excited for the 6.4 release. In the past few years, we have been trying our best to promote and maintain Diversity, Equality, Inclusivity, and Belonging in our meetups and WordCamps. I’m sure it will set another benchmark of success in the open-source ecosystem. We want to share the message that women and non-binary folx are not lesser than.”

For WordPress enthusiasts who want to be part of the release squad, Ahmed suggests being proactive in understanding the ins and outs of WordPress. “At least experience or witness one release cycle entirely. See how the squad was formed, why one person got selected, and what kind of work they delivered.”

Ahmed continues, “Once you have the information, only then volunteer. That can make the whole process easier. Learning on the job is one thing, but it would create an additional workload for others if you cannot deliver your part. It’s a voluntary commitment, so it’s great if you can be reliable for the tasks.”

Being a part of the release squad indeed requires a certain level of expertise and experience. But this should not discourage anyone from aiming for it in the future.

“After contributing to this community for a while, you’ll start connecting with fellow WordPress enthusiasts. Here, everyone loves to lift each other up. When you encounter difficulties, there will be many people who are more than happy to help,” assures Leo, emphasizing the supportive nature of the WordPress community.

The post WordPress 6.3 Release Leads: Experiences Behind the Scenes appeared first on Hostinger Blog.

A Director of Community Engagement at StellarWP, a Podcaster in WP Coffee Talk and Audacity Marketing, a Director of Community Relations at Post Status, and a frequent organizer and speaker at WordPress events. To some, that might be the perfect definition of multi-hyphenates – folks who have multiple skills or work more than one job – but to us, it’s our fellow WordPress enthusiast Michelle Frechette.

It’s beneficial to be a multi-hyphenate person, as you’ll have additional income streams and higher hiring potential due to a more comprehensive skillset. But if not managed well, doing different jobs at the same time can be stressful.

We wanted to discuss this topic with someone who walks the talk, Michelle. Read on to find out her insights about bringing impact to your community, and how she empowers the WordPress community by enabling access for wider audiences while keeping the work-life balance.

The Journey toward Becoming a WordPress Community Expert

Michelle has been active in her local community’s activities for decades, and it has helped her solidify her career as a community professional.

“You either build on things that you are required to do, or you build on things that you enjoy,” she says.

She has worked with her local chamber of commerce, organized community meetups, and was elected as a local school board member. Over the years, she has experienced being a leader, a team player, and a casual observer who just watches what’s going on and has an opinion.

“You’ll learn how to either lead or follow. So it’s important that we have leaders, but everybody in a group can’t be a leader either,” Michelle says.

This extensive experience has helped her grow to understand the community ecosystem comprehensively. “If you start working at community and you find that you love it, then you look for more ways to work in the community,” she adds.

And that’s what Michelle does: she keeps finding more ways to make an impact in the community she’s part of. Together with Allie Nimmons, she founded Underrepresented in Tech, a free database that helps underrepresented people – like women of color or people with disabilities – find new opportunities within the technology ecosystem, specifically WordPress. They can use the database to look for jobs, and everyone can use it to find talent.

They also have a podcast on the Underrepresented in Tech website, where they talk about how people can help solve diversity issues every week.

“We’re trying to kind of reduce ableism, racism, and misogyny, all of those things that suppress groups of people like us, like Allie and me. We want to ensure we’re using our voices for good,” Michelle says.

For Michelle, this database is still a highlight in her WordPress journey so far.

And she’s not stopping there. On May 2023, Michelle launched WP Speakers, a database of speakers with WordPress-related expertise. This addresses a pain point many WordPress event organizers have felt – finding a speaker.

The Circular Power of Community Building

For Michelle, one beauty of the WordPress community is that everyone comes together around almost anything. When someone knows more about something, they will eventually teach somebody else about that, helping others understand the topics better. The cycle will then continue, as people pass on the knowledge to others.

The lifting-each-other-up spirit also applies to event organization. “When organizing a meetup, you are looking to build the local talent,” she says.

Michelle realized sometimes a group doesn’t have expertise in a certain area they want to learn, so connecting to people outside of a particular local group would be nice. That’s why she created databases like WP Speakers and Underrepresented in Tech – to bring in speakers that can help everyone’s group grow.

“I think we perpetuate the ability to share and grow not only when we look inside our own local community, but when we also bring in outside speakers to infuse ideas and topics that we might not have any local expertise,” she says. “You never know when you might be helping somebody into their next level of expertise on something.”

Michelle also loves that in the WordPress community, she can be friends with people who work for products similar to her day job. “People can work for competing products, but that doesn’t make us enemies – everyone wants to see each other succeed.”

Joining the Community

Now what’s the best way to start contributing your skills to the WordPress community?

“It’s hard to pick a particular point because it’s like a river with many tributaries. But I think starting locally is always a great way to begin,” Michelle suggests.

If no local WordPress community is nearby, then joining Slack or Facebook groups is a way to go.

Michelle also encourages you to visit WordCamps when you have the chance. You’ll learn a lot when you’re physically in a space with all the people that are also using WordPress, especially if you’re part of underrepresented communities.

“I would never force somebody to attend events to be a tokenized representative, because that’s not what representation means. It’s to be inclusive, and include people to be able to inspire confidence in other people to do things,” she emphasizes.

For Michelle, being regarded as “an inspiration” feels performative in many ways. But it’s different when someone tells her, “I was inspired to join this community because you showed me that it could be done.” That shows how people actually do something after seeing what she did, which she finds very rewarding.

“There are more young black women in WordPress because Allie Nimmons exists in WordPress. There are more women in headscarves in WordPress because you are wearing a head scarf and representing your community and your faith. And I think that those are very, very important things.”

Keeping the Balance

Looking at Michelle’s long list of current activities, we can’t help but wonder how she keeps the balance between work and living her life to the fullest. Especially in the era of remote working, where the line between work and life might get blurred.

“Yeah, it’s impossible to completely disconnect sometimes, right? Especially if something is happening that’s of greater importance,” says Michelle, confirming the struggle to separate work and life.

“But for me, I have a cutoff time. I am usually done with work at 5 pm. Of course, there are exceptions. For instance, I organize the local meetup for WordPress, so the first Monday of every month, my night goes until 8:30 pm. My weekends are usually not work-related, unless I’m doing a podcast on a Saturday morning – but I make sure everything is scheduled,” she explains.

One of her favorite things to do on weekends is driving to a wildlife resort to shoot nature photography. For her, having a creative pursuit is one of the ways to balance work and life.

“Doing photography makes me happy. Usually, twice a year, I’ll give back to my community by doing a day of photography. The last time was for an animal shelter. My friend dressed up as Santa Claus, and we raised money for the organization by having people photographed with Santa Claus and animals. That was really fun.”

Michelle’s passion for photography also makes way for her WordPress contribution. She’s been contributing to WordPress’ Photo team, and anyone can use her nature photo works through the WordPress Photo Directory.

Simple Tools for Complex Tasks

If you imagine Michelle having an intricate and tedious time management trick to organize her jam-packed schedule, then you’ll be surprised by her simple toolkit. Her secret sauce is just the combo of her trusty calendar, shared notes, and the habit of texting herself – plus a kick of caffeine.

“First, coffee, before I even turn on the computer,” Michelle says. “Then it’s a lot about my calendar. As long as I have a to-do list on the calendar and keep it up to date, I can ensure I’m getting accomplishments done.”

The shared notes fit well when she’s working with other people, such as when co-authoring a blog post or coaching a client. It lets Michelle and her clients or collaborators look at the same notes, streamlining the working process. This echoes the interconnected nature of the WordPress ecosystem, where seamless experiences are key.

“It’s nice to have something that’s just very quick to check, and on your phone,” she argues. Michelle also synced her notes on all her devices, so she can access them anywhere.

She uses notes to collect her ideas, too. “Every time I come up with a topic to submit for an event or WordCamps, I write it out, fully flush it there. So if I have to, I can pull out the text and use it at any time,” she elaborates.

As for self-texting, Michelle uses this method to save links to check out for later. “This way, I can remind myself to look at the websites. I also text myself links to funny stuff,” Michelle laughs.

Michelle’s resourceful methods become proof that modern problems don’t always require super-complex solutions – it’s the simplicity that enables the versatile application across the dynamic WordPress landscape, indeed.

The post Michelle Frechette: From an Active Volunteer to a Diversity Advocate appeared first on Hostinger Blog.

Let’s end the summer with a bang and meet at WordCamp US. This flagship WordCamp for the North American region will take place in National Harbor, Maryland, from the 24th to 26th of August.

WordCamp is an offline conference with various WordPress-related activities like presentations, workshops, and contributing sessions welcoming all expertise levels.

On top of that, there are networking events where WordPress contributors and enthusiasts can connect and exchange knowledge.

Connecting With the Community

This is the second year Hostinger is sponsoring WordCamp US, and this time we support the event as a Super Admin.

We continue our stride in actively participating in WordCamps because many of our clients are WordPress users.

“We’re excited to meet and connect with our clients in person. WordCamp is a perfect opportunity to hear their feedback directly, so we can continue to deliver the best managed WordPress hosting experience,” says Domantas Gudeliauskas, WordPress Marketing Manager at Hostinger.

We believe that only by immersing ourselves in the vibrant WordPress community that we can gain invaluable insights into our customers’ needs and pain points. Also, WordCamps offer a unique opportunity to engage with industry experts, developers, and tech enthusiasts in general, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing.

“By being present at WordCamps, we not only contribute to the growth of our own company, but also push the web hosting industry towards improvement and innovation,” Marco Chiesi, our Head of WordPress, explains.

“Our ultimate goal is to democratize hosting and empower individuals and businesses of all sizes to thrive online. By actively participating in these events, we align ourselves with the community’s values and aspirations – working together to make the web more accessible, secure, and inclusive for everyone,” he continues.

Where You Can Find Us

So you’re attending WordCamp US 2023? Don’t hesitate to come to our booth and chat about WordPress and beyond. If you’re curious about our super-handy WordPress AI Assistant or intuitive control panel, you’re very welcome to try them here as well.

We’ll be located right next to WP Rocket and Nexcess in the sponsors’ booth area. Also, we will bring some of our eco-friendly merch, so don’t hesitate to stop by and collect them!

Our Contribution to WordPress

Sponsoring is not our only contribution to WordCamps and WordPress in general – we’re also active in the Make WordPress project.

We have some sponsored contributors involved in the Five for the Future initiative. A few of our team members will also attend the WordPress Community Summit, which will occur just a couple of days before WordCamp US.

The Community Summit is an in-person gathering of the open-source WordPress project. There, participants will have focused time for cross-project discussion, aiming to advance the project.

Also, we have one of our crew volunteering in WordCamp US. Emma Young, our Head of Content, will volunteer as an MC. This will be Emma’s third time volunteering in flagship WordCamps – the previous ones were WordCamp Asia 2023 and Europe 2023.

As we are actively involved in the WordPress community, WordCamps won’t feel complete without joining Contributor’s Day. This is the time when contributors from all over the world sit and work together, offline, on the WordPress project. Think of it like a mix of a hackathon and a networking event.

“My first ever was full-on, and I was able to accomplish a lot. The more recent was more onboarding others and making it easier for them,” says Emma, reminiscing her recent Contributor Day experiences.

“This time around, I’ve signed up for a few teams – I hope to help with not only onboarding on Docs but I would love to talk with other teams and see how we can all help each other.”

Leonardus Nugraha, our WordPress Content Specialist, and 6.3 Release Lead for Docs, also looks forward to bringing impactful contributions to this open-source community.

“I think I will mostly work on Documentation – the team with which I have been involved for over a year. But most importantly, I’m really looking forward to meeting fellow WordPress enthusiasts, talking about recent developments in the ecosystem, and discussing how we, as WordPressers, should respond to the ever-increasing presence of AI.”

When it comes to brainstorming during WordCamps, the sky is the limit – so off we go!

The post Hostinger Is Coming to WordCamp US 2023 appeared first on Hostinger Blog.

If you ask someone in the WordPress community what’s the best place to learn about the Block Editor, they will probably suggest the Gutenberg Times. The site presents a dose of news and opinion pieces from the WordPress community about the Gutenberg Block Editor.

The mastermind behind this platform is Birgit Pauli-Haack, a WordPress Core Contributor. She personally curates the site content with inclusivity and diversity of perspective in mind. By doing so, she hopes everyone can benefit from it, no matter their background and knowledge level.

We are lucky to write about Birgit and her project in our first WordPress Expert article series edition. Today, we will cover the genesis of Gutenberg Times, how she runs it, and the importance of knowledge sharing in open-source projects.

The Dawn of Time

Birgit got fascinated by Gutenberg the moment it was introduced at WordCamp Europe 2017 – just six years ago.

She felt like she saw a raw diamond. “I believed it would make content production so much easier and richer. Truly WYSIWYG. I could see once it was merged into the core software, content creators would love it,” she says.

But the main reason why Birgit was so interested in Gutenberg was that it allowed users to create or modify templates right from their WordPress site without any code. This means that you no longer need programming skills to tweak your site. As for Birgit, it simplifies content management for her digital agency clients.

“When we worked with clients, we often were asked to change how posts look on various pages. For example, adding categories or removing the author. It was fast for us to do as we worked with code, but it was hard for site owners. The change is now very easy to do via the Block Editor,” explains Birgit.

On top of that, Gutenberg can lock certain design features, like the color scheme and typography. This way, you won’t inadvertently ruin the overall design carefully crafted by the design team.

Birgit also discovered that agency developers could use block themes for prototyping the overall design and information flow with their clients. This is great for designers who are not developers, too. Meanwhile, seasoned developers who are used to developing with classic themes can easily adapt to the block themes as they follow the same template hierarchy as the classic ones.

However, like many people new to WordPress, Birgit needed help understanding this new technology. So, in June 2017, she started curating tweets and blog posts about Gutenberg, as she wanted to learn all about it and what other people do with it. She collected them in a social networking site, aiming to make it available to all WordPress enthusiasts.

After all, an open-source project can only move forward if there is plenty of publicly available information.

Half a year later, Birgit decided to create the Gutenberg Times website, so she could have a dedicated space for the information she had collected. Having a website enables her to organize her content as she wants.

On top of that, Birgit started getting more organic traffic –people can find her site when searching for Gutenberg-specific information in search engines.

Also, people kept asking her if she had a newsletter, which ensured her even more game up her publishing game.

This wasn’t the end of her journey – now, Birgit also hosts the weekly Gutenberg Changelog podcast, where she discusses the latest Gutenberg releases with WordPress enthusiasts and experts.

“We don’t just talk about what is in the release log – our goal is to go a little deeper into that. Kind of being up to date and on the cutting edge of things. This is because Gutenberg is the beta version of what will come with the next release,” Birgit explains.

Recently, Hostinger’s resident WordPress Content Strategist Leonardus Nugraha, was invited to the 81st podcast to talk about WordPress 6.2.

Birgit also holds live Q&As from time to time. Their format is a panel discussion where people can register and ask questions.

Mission: Gutenberg 101

Since Gutenberg’s early days, there has been a prominent debate about Classic Editor vs Gutenberg. It’s one of the biggest changes happening to WordPress this decade. Gutenberg has been constantly iterated, and not everyone is keen to learn the new interface.

Birgit then found that the resources about Gutenberg she encountered online were most likely talking about the controversy rather than about what people could really do with it. That’s when she decided to solely focus her knowledge-collecting effort on Gutenberg: so that she and her readers could learn how to use Gutenberg to solve their problems.

Birgit aims to make Gutenberg Times’ content as inclusive as possible, so readers with skill levels can learn what they need. Because of that, each Gutenberg Times’ content category has its own target audience.

Those categories include:

• DIY Site Owners – Dedicated to non-developers site owners, with content like tutorials of the latest Gutenberg iterations
• For Developers – Contains in-depth documentation on topics like how to use the Gutenberg scripts.
• Weekend Edition – This section has something for everyone – it’s where Birgit compiles the news, commentary, tutorials, plugins, or themes related to the block editor and the Gutenberg plugin every Saturday.

As for the Gutenberg Changelog podcast, it caters to people who want to be up to date with every Gutenberg release.

Maintaining a website with multiple types of content with different target audiences is a lot of work. Still, Birgit sees it as an essential task, especially for open-source projects like WordPress.

Besides visionaries and geniuses, open-source projects can only be successful if someone explains to other users how to use and build on the technology.

“The exchange of ideas, problems, and solutions is essential for an open-source community as it speeds up growth and software quality,” she says. “There are things I would not have known until I tried. When I finally know how to do it, I want everybody else to know how. So when you share it, you help everybody else in the project to become better.”

On top of that, Birgit finds that explaining tech problems and solution to others helps her as well.

“My website is a public place, but it’s also a place I can return to. For example, “How can I get a JSON file into Excel?” I have to look it up every time, but because I wrote it, I can come back to it anytime, and that’s very time-saving.”

Behind the Scenes of Gutenberg Times

So far, Gutenberg Times has been solely run by Birgit herself. She’s been a full-time WordPress contributor sponsored by Automattic since 2021, and running the Gutenberg Times is now part of her day job.

“Starting out, I would not have dared to dream that after five years of Gutenberg Times, I would be able to continue to publish as part of my work, full-time, in the open-source project.” She’s grateful to all supporters who subscribed, listened, and, most importantly, shared their own ideas and suggestions.

When asked about the struggle of running a website alone, Birgit admits it’s challenging to find some quiet time to put everything together. “Everything is just so fascinating! Sometimes there’s just too much to do.”

However, Birgit doesn’t see that as a struggle after all.

“I think the struggle probably will come when every WordPress outlet and all the talks on WordCamps are all about the block editor,” she reckons.

Birgit recalled when her friend questioned whether the Gutenberg Times would be obsolete once Gutenberg merged with WordPress’s core software. She believes the Gutenberg Times will stay relevant as long as it evolves.

Well, WordPress is 20 years old, and Gutenberg is still five years in development. Looks like it’s nowhere near obsolescence.

So how does Birgit keep on top of all her tasks – creating various types of content in a streamlined way? Gutenberg has a new version released every two weeks, so that must be a lot of stuff to review and update the website.

“I make an effort to check in on what’s merged in Gutenberg’s GitHub repository every other day,” Birgit explains.

She also keeps a habit of immediately creating notes when future publication ideas pop up. For example, she always works on the weekly Weekend Edition articles since the previous week, collecting ideas day by day.

“When I have an idea fresh in my mind, I note it and decide whether it goes into the podcast or write it as an article.”

Birgit points out that if you make it a daily habit, it will feel like a small piece of work. Then, schedule when you will process that certain set of ideas. “The Weekend Edition is published every Saturday, so I will check my notes on Friday afternoon and see what I have flagged for this week’s edition, and then I’ll assemble it.”

Sorting her ideas like that especially helps since Birgit also works on some other Gutenberg-related documentation. For example, she co-edits the What’s New for Developers monthly roundup for the WordPress Developer Blog, and edits the Keeping up with Gutenberg Index in the Core Handbook every week.

She also funneled the material from the official documentation into the Gutenberg Times’ Weekend Edition and Gutenberg Changelog podcast. This way, she kills two birds with one stone as she adapts the same information for various channels.

Is Block the Future?

Since its first release in 2018, the Gutenberg project has undergone several phases. Phase 1 was the birth of the Block Editor, Phase 2 was all about merging full site editing into WordPress. Now in 2023, it’s time for Phase 3, which will focus on collaborative editing.

At its beginning, Gutenberg might look like ‘just’ an option available to give WordPress users more creative freedom. But as time goes by, it becomes quite clear that the Block Editor, blocks, and new interfaces will sooner or later take over the current WordPress in various aspects.

“It can still take a few years until it all comes to pass. It’s a gradual change, but they will come. And for many years, the Classic Editor will not go away.” says Birgit. “If you’re in the web-building business, change is the only constant in your life.”

Birgit also emphasizes that WordPress won’t just take out the Classic themes. WordPress will always have backward compatibility for its features, plus the Block Themes actually follow the same template hierarchy as the Classic ones.

However, she suggests developers should adapt and familiarize themselves with this Gutenberg-powered website creation to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

The Block Editor also opens up vast possibilities for everybody with a creative streak, even if they don’t have a technical background, to create Block Themes with a plugin. “They can do it right in the editor, export it, and then you have a theme. You don’t need to code,” Birgit underlines the no-code future that is now opened more inclusively.

And for Gutenberg enthusiasts out there who also want to share their knowledge with the community but are still determining where they will share it, there are several alternatives. One of Birgit’s suggestions is to contribute to the open-source project by filing bug reports from Gutenberg’s GitHub repository.

This is an important task because sometimes users experience a feature differently than the developers.

“There are various ways to handle certain features, and we need to figure out all the different ways people use things,” – Birgit says. This way, community members can build on each other’s knowledge and improve both their skills and WordPress development.

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