WP Tavern

On the podcast today we have Matt Mullenweg. Matt is the co-founder of WordPress, and as a result, he has been a user for as long as anyone. We recorded this podcast whilst at WordCamp Europe in Portugal a couple of weeks ago. It’s a wide-ranging discussion, covering a lot of ground. First, we cover the topics of what's happened to WordPress over the last 19 years, and which aspects he likes and which would he wish to alter. We then get into how the last two years have changed the WordPress community. Towards the end we get into the possible stall in WordPress's market share, and how Matt views the future of the platform in an era dominated by artificial intelligence.

On the podcast today we have Remkus de Vries, and he's kicking off what might be described as a  mini series on the Jukebox podcast. Last week almost 3,000 WordPressers from all over the world gathered together in Porto, Portugal for the first in-person WordCamp Europe since 2019. Expectations were high, and the event did not disappoint. It really was excellent. Remkus is one of the founders of WordCamp Europe, just over 10 years ago. I wanted to get him on the podcast to talk about how the community's largest WordCamp got started. I also wanted to find out how the current event compares in terms of size and organisation. What's changed over the years? We talk about the importance of events like WordCamps for the community, and how over the last few years the lack of in-person events altered the community.

On the podcast today we have Mark Root-Wiley. He’s on the show to talk about why he thinks that it would be useful for WordPress to adopt some CSS standards. Mark thinks that it’s time for WordPress to lay out some simple standards which are easy to understand, and if they became universal, would save us a lot of time and head scratching. He’s not proposing anything radical, just some basic advice for the most commonly used CSS, and it’s quite a compelling idea which would need a lot of community buy-in, and possibly some top-down approval if it were to move forwards. It’s very much the kernel of an idea at present, but thought provoking nonetheless.

The Pattern Creator is a online tool which allows you to create block patterns for inclusion into the WordPress Patterns Directory, a place where you can access freely available patterns for your websites. On the podcast today we have Ana Segota and Kelly Choyce-Dwan, who share two different perspectives. Ana is a themer and Kelly is on the team building out the Creator. We talk about how the Creator works, how you can submit your patterns and what constraints are there for having your submissions accepted. So, if you’re curious about how patterns can speed up your website building workflow, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Courtney Robertson. Courtney is a Developer Advocate at GoDaddy Pro who has a passion for teaching and learning, specifically about how to use WordPress. Her work involves outreach to developers but it also includes time to help contribute to WordPress as well. Courtney uses this time to assist with the WordPress Training Team as well as Learn WordPress. We talk about what the Learn Project covers as and how the content is curated and maintained. We also talk about how you might get involved with the team if you’re keen to help others learn more about WordPress.

So on the podcast today we have Joe Casabona. Joe is a podcaster and educator, which makes him perfect for the discussion today, ‘Why WordPress Is a Great Choice for Your Podcast’. We talk about a broad range of podcasting topics including why WordPress and podcasting are such a great fit, what equipment do you really need to get up and running with your first podcast, are podcasts only for entertainment and what tips and tricks has Joe learned over the years as a podcaster. So if you’re curious about how to set up a podcast, or if you’ve already got one going and just want to hear some fresh perspectives, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Aki Hamano. He's a fan of creating WordPress blocks and currently has five available in the repository. We talk about the WordPress community in his home country of Japan and then give deeply into what all of this blocks do, and why he's been creating them. It’s an interesting discussion, and you never know, perhaps you’ll find yourself using Aki’s blocks at some point yourself.

On the podcast today we have Cate DeRosia. Cate is a familiar face in the WordPress community. Along with her husband, Topher, they run the HeroPress Network. She describes herself as a 'serial volunteer in the community'. In early 2022 Cate was hired by Automattic to be a sponsored member of the Community Team, and it’s this role which finds her on the podcast today. We talk about her recent ‘blue sky thinking’ post, which is a forum for people to engage with her and her team, so that future WordPress events can be made different. What does the community of 2022 want from WordPress events? Are we happy with how things have always been done, or do we want something new, something different?

On the WP Tavern Jukebox podcast we're talking about how the block editor is being used by Daniel Schutzsmith and his team. We learn about the transition that they underwent after they'd decided to use the block editor on their government websites. What procedures did they have to put in place to make the transition as smooth as possible and what learning materials were needed. We talk also about his thoughts on where WordPress and, more generally, the web is headed, which can be summed up by the words AI and automation.

On the podcast today we have Chris Coyier. Chris has been a user and educator in the WordPress and web development space for many years. He’s an author, podcaster, developer, but is perhaps best known for his website CSS-Tricks. CSS-Tricks has been a valuable source of information about CSS for over 15 years. Updated multiple times a week, the site has articles about every aspect of styling your website. It’s gone through several iterations over those years. A few weeks ago Chris decided it was time for CSS-Tricks to find a new home and it’s now owned and operated by Digital Ocean, a popular cloud computing service provider. This podcast is all about the journey that Chris has had running CSS-Tricks.