David Vongries, developer of the Kirki Customizer Framework plugin, announced he is sunsetting the product and will discontinue development and support. Vongries bought the plugin in 2020 from its original creator, Ari Stathopoulos, and grew its user base from 400K to 600K active installs. He launched Kirki PRO with additional extensions in March 2022.
“When I first acquired Kirki in early 2020, I had big plans for it,” Vongries said. “Although we were able to execute on step one of the 2-step plan we had for the plugin, as time went on, I lost passion for the project mainly due to the direction WordPress core has taken with Gutenberg.
“It’s clear to me now that I was too ambitious in taking on the project.”
Kirki’s customizer framework enabled theme authors to add custom controls and advanced features to the customizer, including the ability to style it, and add a custom header. Although block theme adoption has been a slow process, the death knell for the Customizer rang years ago.
In 2020, Vongries said that exploring how Kirki could potentially extend Gutenberg was one of his goals. Stathopoulos had also discussed the possibility of moving away from the customizer to work with full-site editing and global styles, helping themes that use Kirki transition to global styles. These goals did not materialize but the potential for them is still there.
Vongries is now looking for someone to acquire the plugin but is committed to providing limited support to users in the meantime, including fixing critical bugs and compatibility issues that happen as the result of WordPress core updates.
“The current active install count in the WordPress repository is 600,000, which presents a great opportunity to revamp the plugin and get it in front of actual users,” he said. “I believe that there’s still great potential in Kirki, and I’m looking for someone who shares that vision to take it forward.”
Vongries has put a price tag of $30K on the plugin, which includes all the assets – the website, GitHub, and PRO extensions. No further active development or updates are planned unless Kirki gets acquired by someone who wants to carry it forward.
The WP Feature Notifications project, formerly know as WP Notify, is making progress towards creating a better way to manage and deliver notifications in the WordPress admin. Core contributor Jonathan Bossenger started the project in 2019 with a proposal to build a unified notification center in WordPress that would replace the chaos caused by developers hooking into admin notices, which was not designed to be a notification system.
In the latest 0.2.0 update of the feature plugin, contributors have implemented a more robust JavaScript-based system for standardizing how notifications appear in the admin.
“What originally started as a UX proof of concept has evolved into a more sophisticated JS-based system for displaying notifications based on serialized data,” WordPress core contributor Joe Bailey-Roberts said. “At the moment this uses static dummy data, however in a future update this will interface with the upcoming REST controllers to display persistent data.”
The project is restructuring its leadership with Bossenger stepping down as the lead and Bailey-Roberts taking over the position.
Although WP Feature Notifications currently exists as a feature plugin, its contributors are intent on seeing it merged into core when ready, instead of kept as a canonical plugin. They are eager to see the project’s design and functionality work in concert with the planned modernization of the admin as part of Gutenberg Phase 3.
“Notification functionality is indeed fundamental, and already in constant use via the admin_notices hook, a workaround that has major issues of standardization and accessibility,” Bailey-Roberts said. “The new API needs to be universal, and available by default, otherwise admin_notices will remain the de facto option.”
Contributors plan to remove the demo content from the plugin in version 0.3.0 and make it into an MVP (minimum viable product) with a functional notification system.
“The next (and largest) piece of the puzzle is persistent database storage of notification data,” Bailey-Roberts said. “We’re working on finalizing the proposed schema, as well as discussing other issues such as retention, translations, multisite support, and more.”
In order to keep moving the project forward, contributors are seeking a partnership with a core committer for guidance on preparing the plugin to be a good candidate fore core, as well as additional contributors with PHP and SQL expertise. The feature plugin is available on GitHub for testing.
A solution for notifications in WordPress is critical for improving the admin experience for every user. A standardized way of displaying notifications will make site management a more predictable and less cognitively draining task. The WP Feature Notifications project is still in the early stages but it has some momentum and it needs help. Contributors can join the team’s weekly office hours on WP Slack in the #feature-notifications channel, and the project will also have representation at WordCamp Europe’s Contributor Day.
WordPress developer Mike McAlister has launched Ollie, his first block theme, into public beta. McAlister, whose theme company Array Themes was acquired by WP Engine in 2018, along with the Atomic Blocks plugin, recently departed from his role at the company to pursue other projects.
Ollie supports all the latest Site Editor features, including global styles, patterns, templates, and template parts. It is a beautiful, multipurpose theme of the high caliber one might expect from McAlister, a veteran developer whose past products were well known for their minimalist and clean design.
Ollie includes an impressive set of more than 50 custom block patterns, making page building a delight. There are page sections for testimonials, company logos, multiple hero designs, pricing tables, various headers and footers, calls to action, and more. Ollie includes six different full-page patterns for the homepage, about, profile, features, pricing, and a download page. They are featured on the theme’s live demo under the Patterns menu item.
Ollie includes seven style variations, with blue, green, orange, pink, red, and teal accent color palettes in addition to the default.
Like many other block themes, Ollie is speedy, getting top scores on Google’s Pagespeed Insights.
“One of the most powerful performance features is the selective loading of assets,” McAlister said. “Instead of loading a large stylesheet on every page, Ollie only loads the styles needed on the page. This results in a much smaller page size, far less page requests, and an instantly-loading page, which search engines love.”
After testing Ollie, I found the user experience to be friendly and an accurate representation of one of the taglines for the theme: “Get a 40 hour head start.” As soon as users install the theme and click “Customize,” they are taken directly to the Site Editor with the front page template pre-populated to match the demo site. This, combined with all the improvements in the Site Editor in WordPress 6.1, creates a smooth editing experience.
Although it hasn’t been officially released yet, Ollie could be one of the next majorly successful block themes, with its sheer number of patterns and flexibility for so many different use cases.
Ollie is currently on GitHub during the public beta but McAlister plans to get it approved for WordPress.org after more testing. He is not yet sure whether he will be jumping back into the commercial theme market.
“With this first block theme, my goal is simply to learn as much as possible about block themes, how users are using them, and what kind of potential there is for a premium offering,” McAlister told the Tavern. “This flagship theme will remain as an educational tool and will be free for all to use. Although I have some ideas for monetization, the reality is that we don’t know much about how users will take to block themes or what kind of premium features they’re willing to pay for yet.
“We’re very early in this new paradigm, so I’m taking the opportunity to ask lots of questions learn about the problems users are facing. What I do know is that any modern commercial WordPress product needs a supreme customer experience and a wealth of quality education to help users navigate all of these new features and drive adoption.”
WordPress.org has 286 block themes available and even the best ones have just a few thousand active installs. Building block themes that people will want to use is a new frontier, even for McAlister whose former company was a war-horse in the Classic Themes era.
“Block themes are going to be a game changer for many different personas of WordPress users,” McAlister said. “Being able to customize virtually every aspect of your site is super powerful, but it means that block themes have a lot more moving parts than classic themes. Theme.json, global styles, patterns, templates, template parts — all of these have to be accounted for and they all have to work together seamlessly for an excellent block theme experience.”
WordPress theme developers are still getting a handle on these changes but the Themes Team is putting a stake in the ground by making block theming the focus of the Theme Handbook overhaul. Although Classic Themes will still have a chapter in the handbook, the Themes Team has made it clear that block themes are “the present and future of WordPress.”
“Since a lot of the block theme building is done in the editor, it requires a new mastery of the editor that few are intimately familiar with yet,” McAlister said. “To build patterns or layouts, you need to know which blocks to use, how to structure them effectively, how to leverage your design system in theme.json, and you need a good design sense to pull it all together.
“However, when it all finally comes together, block themes provide an unmatched site building and editing experience in comparison to classic themes. I’m very optimistic about the opportunity to revitalize the WordPress theme space, but it’s going to take a lot of work and collective education to get there.”
CertifyWP has launched its first credentialing exam for a WordPress Management and Design Credential. The non-profit organization was founded by Talisha Lewallen with the goals of helping job seekers better demonstrate their skills to potential employers and giving businesses a way to understand prospective employees’ skills.
The new credential costs $150 for the exam and includes three courses towards mastering frontend development:
WordPress Management and Design Credential holders have validated their understanding of important aspects of WordPress and its websites. This credential is designed for anyone who wants to work in the WordPress space or learn to build WordPress websites. Once certified, these individuals are ready to pursue WordPress Web design, e-commerce, JavaScript, databases and other fields.
Many of items under the beginner and intermediate levels of the credential essentially describe a WordPress “power user,” or someone who knows their way around the platform and its more advanced features, including skills like navigating the admin panel, hosting, web optimization, and more.
CertifyWP administers a proctored exam for the credential and those who meet the requirements will be required to re-take the exam every three years to maintain their credentialing. The exam will be updated as necessary by CertifyWP’s advisory board.
There are 110 questions in the exam, spread over three levels, as well as a practical component. The questions must be answered within 60 minutes with 80% for a passing score. Examinees do not have to take CertifyWP’s course in order to be eligible for the exam – it’s open to anyone who wants to take it.
Lewallen is also the owner of WPConnects, a company that helps military veterans get training while they are on active duty and then provides them with mentors and assistance with employment when they leave the military. In a recent WP Tavern Jukebox podcast episode she discussed how this work led to her starting CertifyWP with the help of the WordPress community.
Lewallen will also be speaking at Atarim’s Web Agency Summit on April 25, about the importance of credentials in the WordPress workforce, the differences between credentials and certificates, and how credentials can be leveraged in the search for employment.
Virtuozzo, the software company behind the virtualization and cloud management capabilities of many popular hosting service providers, has launched version 2.0 of its WordPress platform. The company’s 450+ customers include GoDaddy, IONOS, InMotion hosting, and other hosts.
Virtuozzo’s WordPress platform enables service providers to sell containerized hosting as a service. The most recent update introduces a new user interface designed for WordPress customers that makes it easy to configure resources, adjust scaling, pay invoices, and deploy WordPress websites.
Version 2.0 of the Virtuozzo Application Platform for WordPress includes automatic scaling up or down in response to traffic spikes, the ability to offer consumption-based pricing, automated WordPress deployment for single instances to multi-region clusters, and efficient hardware utilization with fully isolated containers and automatic failover.
The new platform makes it possible for any hosting provider to offer some of the same features that more expensive managed hosts provide. Virtuozzo pioneered the platform with AzPocket, a Japanese WordPress host, as the first adopter, who used it to expand the features of its shared hosting offerings.
“There is a significant gap in the WordPress hosting market, between cheap shared or VPS hosting services, and more expensive managed WordPress from companies such as WP Engine and Kinsta,” Virtuozzo VP of Strategic Product Development Carlos Rego said. “Our solution enables any service provider to offer modern, containerized WordPress-as-a-Service at a fraction of the cost of those ‘premium’ providers.â€Â
Virtuozzo will be hosting a webinar on how to sell premium WordPress hosting on May 4, 2023, at 11AM EDT/ 5PM CET. Planned topics include the opportunity for hosting in the WordPress market, the drawbacks of current hosting products, and how to create a “WordPress as a Service business in a box.” Virtuozzo representatives will demo the new WordPress platform and answer questions from attendees at the conclusion of the event.
WordPress contributors are making progress on officially supporting SQLite in core, a project that would benefit less complex sites (small to medium sites and blogs) that don’t necessarily require WordPress’ standard MySQL database. In a recent update, Yoast-sponsored core contributor Ari Stathopoulos said the SQLite Database Integration feature plugin has been rewritten, with the help of Automattic-sponsored core contributor Adam Zielinski, to be a more future-proof implementation.
“The code has been completely rewritten to use an SQL Lexer and is now stable and able to handle all WordPress queries properly,” Stathopoulos said. “The SQL Lexer is part of the PHPMyAdmin/SQL-Parser project (licensed under the GPL 2.0) and it was adapted for WordPress, effectively implementing a MySQL to SQLite translation engine. This provides improved security, as well as compatibility.”
Stathopoulos contends that the next step is to implement these changes in WordPress core “instead of using a plugin,” because in its current form it can only be tested on pre-existing websites that already have a MySQL database.
“Using the featured plugin is a great way to allow users to test the implementation and iron out any issues etc,” he said. “However, long-term, it doesn’t make sense to use it as a plugin.”Â
Stathopoulos created a draft Pull Request and an accompanying Trac ticket proposing the new implementation be merged into core.
Although the effort has received positive feedback and support from the community and WordPress lead developer Matt Mullenweg, the feature plugin has only 30 active installs and the new implementation has received very little testing.
Multiple participants in the discussion, including core committer Aaron Jorbin and lead developer Andrew Ozz, expressed concerns about the proposal’s call for merging the changes to core as the next step.
“Talk of merging to core feels incredibly premature for a couple of reasons,” Jorbin said. “The plugin now only has around 30 installations. I think there needs to be much higher adoption in order to understand how the near-infinite number of plugins will work with this deep underlying change to WordPress.”
Jorbin also referenced WordPress’ philosophy of building things for end users who don’t want to have to make decisions about the underlying tech but simply want things to work.
“Assuming that a user is going to understand different database engines and the potential tradeoffs feels far stretched to me,” Jorbin said. “Therefore, any implementation really needs to be rock solid and extremely thoroughly tested.”
Ozz suggested the plugin could be added to WordPress as a mu-plugin or a “drop-in” similar to how caching add-ons are implemented, pushing back on the rigidity of the requirement to fully merge it into core.
“Both of these methods are also better/more suitable for the users as they can be done by the hosting company or the script used for WordPress installation,” Ozz said. “There are some other benefits like independent updates, etc.”
Stathopoulos responded to these concerns, saying that he sees the merge to core as a long-term goal, although the proposal communicated more of an urgency that confused participants in the discussion.
“It is premature,” Stathopoulos admitted. “However, looking at the bigger picture, it is not premature to plan for the future and get ready for it.
“It may be premature now, but it won’t be 2 years from now… The problem is that we won’t be able to do it in the future unless we start working on it now. SQLite is not something that can – or should – happen in Core now, or even a year from now. It’s a long-term goal, and should be treated as such.”
Stathopoulos agreed that the plugin needs more adoption to see how it works with plugins across the ecosystem. He also responded to concerns about users not fully understanding the implications of the database engine they select on installation.
“The proof-of-concept UI I put in place in the Core PR is just that – a proof of concept,” Stathopoulos said. “Something to trigger discussion and allow us to find solutions. It can be anything, even installation scenarios (do you want to create a blog? A small e-commerce site? A large news outlet? The next Amazon?) That is a discussion that will need to happen when the time is right to discuss UI, but it’s is a bit too early for that, I don’t think we’re there yet.”
Gutenberg 15.6 is now available with a new Details block tucked under the Experiments menu. Once enabled, it can be used to toggle the visibility of hidden content. This can be useful for presenting things like text transcripts for video blocks or simple spoiler alerts. By default the toggle is open in the block editor but closed on the front end. This is the first iteration, so the behavior of the toggle is still somewhat rough.
Another interesting experiment that shipped in version 15.6 is a command center for the Site Editor. It was created to be a quick search for jumping to other pages or templates in the editor.
“This can be seen as a start on an extensible command and quick search component that can be used for way-finding (go to About page;Â edit Archive template) and running commands (toggle top toolbar; etc),” Gutenberg lead architect Matias Ventura said in the ticket outlining the feature. “The first milestone is to power quick search for content and templates within the site editor.”
Gutenberg engineer Riad Benguella said his goal with the initial PR is to build the APIs and components for the command center but not necessarily implement all the commands. Ultimately he aims for this feature to do the following:
The command center can be loaded in any WPAdmin page
The commands and the command center are independent: Commands can be registered dynamically depending on the context
Some small hierarchy of commands to be able to organize the items
Allowing dynamic searches for commands
Gutenberg contributors are still considering how to organize and display commands better based on context, which is one reason why this feature remains behind the Experiments flag.
Version 15.6 also brings spacing presets to the Spacer block settings, allowing theme authors to create sensible presets and users to adjust spacing in a way that will look good across devices.
“Since the introduction of spacing presets, it became clear from community feedback that spacing presets should also be available for the Height control in the Spacer block,” WordPress developer advocate Birgit Pauli-Haack said in the release post. “This enhancement in 15.6 gives theme developers much more flexibility over how spacing is applied throughout a site and enables fluid Spacer blocks.”
WordPress core contributor Nick Diego filmed a short video about spacing presets for the Spacer block, which demonstrates how fluid spacing work to help a site’s content and design adapt better to different viewports.
Gutenberg 15.6 came out yesterday, and one of my favorite new features is spacing presets for the Spacer block.
WooCommerce has launched Woo Express, a new managed hosting product that uses WordPress.com’s infrastructure and relieves store owners of the responsibilities of hosting and maintenance. The company soft-launched Woo Express in early March with a small selection of visitors but has concluded that phase and opened it up to the public.
Woo Express provides a selection of extensions already installed and professionally-designed themes but is built with the same open source platform that allows store owners to install any plugin or theme. Merchants can use WooCommerce Payments or any other payment gateway they choose. The plans also include automated backups, security scanning, and a custom domain and SSL certificate.
At WooSesh in October 2022, the company announced it was working on a hosted WooCommerce solution just as GoDaddy had launched an open access preview of Managed WooCommerce Stores to US-based customers, and Bluehost launched its WooCommerce offering a month prior. The drive to provide a more customized, user-friendly onboarding experience beyond simply having WooCommerce pre-installed, is getting more competitive.
Pricing for Woo Express’ hosting plans comes in slightly more expensive than GoDaddy’s introductory $20.99/mo pricing (renews at $29.99/mo) for the most basic plan, but cheaper than GoDaddy’s mid-tier and upper-tier plans which start at$99.99/mo and $149.99/mo.
Bluehost sits at the budget end of the WooCommerce hosting spectrum with plans starting at $9.95/mo (renews at $24.95/mo) and an upper end plan at $12.95/mo (renews at $39.95) that adds the ability to manage product inventory across Etsy, Amazon, and eBay from a consolidated dashboard via Ecomdash.
Woo Express pricing on 4/19/2023
Comparing plans across managed WooCommerce hosts isn’t straightforward as they all offer different features for a variety of stores at different pricing tiers. One major differentiator is the extensions bundled with the plan.
Although WooCommerce may be late to the game in offering a managed hosting solution, the makers of the e-commerce software have a clear advantage with their position in the WooCommerce ecosystem and a marketplace of more than 800 products. Woo Express has launched with a compelling set of commercial extensions bundled into the hosting plans, including product add-ons, product bundles, gift cards, min/max quantities, back in stock notifications, brands, product recommendations, subscriptions, in-person payments, shipment tracking, and more. Storeowners who were to purchase all of these extensions individually would spend far more than the annual cost of Woo Express hosting.
Woo Express Goes All-In on Block-Based Stores
WooCommerce is still working through the process of “blockifying” all aspects of store templates, and Woo Express is ready to carry the standard with a block theme as the default when customers sign up.
“One of our goals for Woo Express is to give new merchants the best of everything WordPress offers — the site editor and the blocks we’ve built for WooCommerce mean you can create a beautiful site to express your brand without coding knowledge,” WooCommerce COO Warren Holmes said.
“Woo Express ships with Tsubaki as the default, a modern, commerce-focused, block-based theme. We’ve made it easier for new merchants to get started with this theme by creating default content powered by our blocks. That includes the new cart and checkout blocks, which provides a more delightful experience for shoppers and better conversions for merchants.”
A few other commercial themes Automattic designed for Woo Express include Amulet, Zaino, Tazza, and Thriving Artist. Store owners are also free to install any theme from the wide world of WooCommerce themes, not just the ones included in the hosting plan.
Woo Express has a 14-day free trial so prospective hosting customers can try out the bundled extensions, themes, and the environment to see if it will fit their needs. The onboarding experience was designed to be friendly for merchants but developers still have access to everything under the hood.
“With every managed WordPress.com environment, you get access to a native GitHub integration, you can run WP-CLI commands, check server logs, access to DBs directly and set up your workflows through SSH and SFTP, and much more,” WooCommerce developer advocate Stephanie Pi said in a post outlining the new product on the company’s Developer blog.
As WooCommerce has become the most used open source e-commerce software, powering 23% of the top million online stores, managed hosting products have the potential to drive this growth even further. Users have an expectation that things will just work, but the reality is that much of WooCommerce’s open source ecosystem has grown up like wildflowers in a field. There are many great solutions out there but they don’t all work harmoniously together, which can drive people to proprietary, turnkey e-commerce solutions.
On a recent Do the Woo podcast episode, WooCommerce Head of Engineering Beau Lebens discussed how curated solutions like Woo Express bring some uniformity to the WooCommerce ecosystem. Putting a bunch of disparate solutions together hasn’t always provided the best experience for merchants, and it introduces complexity that can drive users away.
WooCommerce announced its intention to collaborate with hosting partners in October 2022 with WordPress.com as the first to pilot the new managed hosting solution. At that time Lebens said “details like different versions and white-labeling are still under consideration” but WooCommerce is interested in making customization available to suit the specific needs of hosts and their customers.
Holmes said his team is also currently in the process of evaluating an affiliate program to enable developers and the broader community to spread the word about Woo Express.
When asked about the status of other hosting partners offering Woo Express on their own infrastructure, Holmes said WooCommerce is still evaluating the possibilities.
“Many merchants experience WooCommerce with the help of one of hundreds of amazing independent WordPress / Woo hosts around the world, and we regard that as an indispensable part of Woo’s success and place in the e-commerce landscape,” Holmes said. “We’re hard at work on a way to expand our collaboration with hosts in the future through Woo Express. At the moment we don’t have anything specific to announce, but we do currently have multiple teams looking into this.”Â
Launching a managed hosting product puts WooCommerce in a unique position to tailor the core software to better serve the needs of store owners and hosting partners that are furthering its adoption, benefiting all who are using WooCommerce and building products for it.
“We’re very much using this as a way to drive improvements on the merchant experience in WooCommerce Core,” Lebens said on the Do the Woo podcast. “So that will be available to everyone, including all other hosts.
“But it also means that, as a package, we can start to say, because we do partner with other hosts, we work with them very directly, and we can say, ‘Hey, look, this stuff works better.’ If you bundle all of this together, if you offer this with a free trial, if you keep your pricing in this range, whatever it is, the learnings that we have from doing this ourselves, absolutely we intend to share this with hosts and work with other hosts to implement this for the whole ecosystem.”
Atarim is hosting its 4th annual Web Agency Summit from April 25-28. The virtual event is geared towards web agencies and WordPress professionals, with topics focused on web trends, scaling an agency or freelance business, attracting high-paying clients, and building recurring revenue.
Web Agency Summit was born out of the organizers’ frustration with the first WordCamp Asia getting canceled at the beginning of the pandemic.
“When WordCamp Asia was first canceled, I had a lot of thoughts, of course,” ScaleMath founder Alex Panagis said. “Something that we were somewhat really hoping would help us make a big splash in the industry was pulled away from right under us.Â
“But, instead of letting this setback get to us – we decided we had to do something. We decided to step up and host what was then the first (and went on to be the biggest) virtual summit in our industry. Sponsors like GoDaddy, WordPress.org, and many more were quite quick to step in, to the point where we were overwhelmed by the support we received and how well-received the entire summit concept was.”
This year’s lineup includes representatives from Microsoft, Google, Yoast, Hubspot, XWP, Elementor, and more, including 40+ WordPress experts. Web Agency Summit includes individual speaker sessions, such as “Headless WordPress – does this approach make sense?” and “The Role of AI in Content & SEO.” Attendees will have the opportunity to join sessions on boosting client acquisition on LinkedIn, growing a freelancing business, productizing designs, launching a podcast, managing contractor teams, and more.
This year’s event will also feature seven expert-led panels:
Changing Tides: How Industry Acquisitions & Investments are Shaping the Future of WordPress, and What It Means For Your Agency
From Connections to Clients: Building Communities for Web Design Agency Growth
From CMS to Digital Powerhouse: The Expansive Power of WordPress and How It Can Reshape the Tech Landscape
Building The Future: Exploring the Power of Next Generation Website & Page Builders
Cracking The Code: How to Choose the Best Web Hosting for Your Business
Embracing AI in Web Design: Unlocking Profitability for Agencies & Freelancer
Beyond Viral Videos: Maximizing YouTube for Agency Growth & What Comes Next
 Attendees will be able to meet sponsors in a virtual festival village to win prizes, and join breakout rooms to network and make new industry connections.
Registration for the Web Agency Summit is free but seats are limited. Every presentation will be recorded and will be available to watch for free live and for 24 hours following the event.
In early 2023, WordPress and Matrix contributors proposed a new Meta team subproject to explore replacing Slack communication with Matrix, an open source federated chat system. After the team’s most recent meeting, Automattic-sponsored contributor Alex Kirk published an update on the status of recent experiments in migration.
After researching more on migrating public messages, Kirk said the team is now evaluating whether the Apache-2.0 licensed Slack Matrix migration tool could work for this project.
“It operates on Slack export files and requires a fresh Synapse server,” Kirk said.
“We haven’t yet been able to confirm whether it actually can import the messages and hope to be able to share more on the next meeting.”
On the subject of migrating private messages, Kirk said the team is leaning towards ensuring users have the tools to save their own external archives.
“For migrating private messages in DMs or private groups we’ve concluded that we won’t want to attempt their migration but will look into providing tools for achieving that,” Kirk said.
“Here we’ve found that browser extensions exist which allow you to download your own Slack direct messages inside your browser as a text file. Possibly it’ll be our recommendation to use those tools to export the messages for yourself.”
Kirk also addressed some accessibility concerns that WordPress Accessibility Team contributor Alex Stine raised during a meeting at the end of March:
Slack is well supported and accessible to a very wide audience. Something that is not up for argument, a lot of these open-source/decentralized concepts are not accessible to all or most.
The decentralized media world walks a fine line between a great thing and a lot of hypocrisy. On one hand, claiming to give users a voice, on the other hand, knowingly excluding users of assistive tech.
Years of GitHub issues do not lie. Matrix has not been around all that long but there are plenty of other examples that have been around long enough…The Slack accessibility team is best in its class. They are constantly responsive and very engaged with users.
Kirk linked to an article published by Mozilla accessibility engineer Marco Zehe titled How to use Element and Matrix with a screen reader. Mozilla replaced IRC with Matrix in 2020, identifying Matrix as an “excellent open community collaboration tool, with robust support for accessibility and community safety.”
Zehe’s post is essentially a guide to help those using assistive technology find their way around Element and the Matrix Eco system more easily. It also highlights a few things that do not yet work well, including keyboard navigation for the members list and messages.
“I hope some of these issues are no longer problems,” Stine said in response to Kirk sharing the article. “If they still are, this would be no doubt a far worse experience than Slack was in some of its worst times. The fact that users have to switch their screen reader modes just to have basic functionality support is not cool. Here is the way I see it. If modern apps do not follow a similar pattern for your OS to the point where you have to look up docs to figure out how to use it, it is probably too complicated and/or not accessible by my definition.”
The question of whether it would be beneficial for the WordPress project to replace Slack communication with Matrix is still yet unanswered, but the initial response to the idea was overwhelmingly positive. More research into the logistics of migration will be a necessary part of the decision.
The Matrix contributors proposing this new exploration will meet again on Wednesday, April 19, for the regularly scheduled bi-weekly meeting and plan to discuss the research on migrating messages from Slack.
