In the Loop: A WordPress Podcast by Blackbird Digital

Cory is joined by Justin Tadlock of Automattic to talk about his series of articles on the WordPress developer blog about adding custom controls to core blocks, theme scaffolding, and workflow scripts. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and TikTok as @InTheLoop_WP, and we're on LinkedIn too. Blackbird Digital is a web and app development agency that specializes in WordPress, creating on-screen experiences that connect, teach, communicate, and inspire. Visit blackbird.digital for more information. Transcript: https://blackbird.digital/podcast/28-writing-block-themes-with-justin-tadlock/ ## Links (02:07) Justin on Ryan Welcher's Thursday Twitch Streams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d6tqqlBVvo (04:50) Archived version of themehybrid.com: https://web.archive.org/web/20191101014914/https://themehybrid.com/ (05:23) Justin's writing for the WP Tavern: https://wptavern.com/author/justintadlock (08:34) WP Tavern's first redesign: https://wptavern.com/wp-taverns-new-design-no-more-wood-grain (14:50) Beyond Block Styles part 1: https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/07/beyond-block-styles-part-1-using-the-wordpress-scripts-package-with-themes/ (15:01) Beyond Block Styles part 2: https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/07/beyond-block-styles-part-2-building-a-custom-style-for-the-separator-block/ (15:15) Beyond Block Styles part 3: https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/08/beyond-block-styles-part-3-building-custom-design-tools/ (27:03) Interactivity API Proposal: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/30/proposal-the-interactivity-api-a-better-developer-experience-in-building-interactive-blocks/ (30:03) @wordpress/scripts reference: https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-scripts/ (34:08) First Draft theme scaffold: https://github.com/justintadlock/first-draft/ (41:59) x3p0-ideas theme: https://github.com/x3p0-dev/x3p0-ideas/ (58:54) Theme Handbook Overhaul GitHub issue: https://github.com/WordPress/Documentation-Issue-Tracker/issues/816 (59:56) Theme Handbook Overhaul Proposal: https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/04/04/theme-handbook-overhaul-proposal/ (1:00:08) Theme Handbook Overhaul Phase 2: https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/05/17/theme-handbook-overhaul-phase-2-creating-content/ (1:02:08) Justin's Blog: https://justintadlock.com/

Cory and Phil are joined by Scott Kingsley Clark of Pagely and the Pods Framework. We talk about Pods vs ACF (in a friendly non-competitive way), the Core Fields API project, and the JavaScriptification of the WordPress admin. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok as @InTheLoop_WP. Blackbird Digital is a web and app development agency that specializes in WordPress, creating on-screen experiences that connect, teach, communicate, and inspire. Visit blackbird.digital for more information. Transcript: https://blackbird.digital/podcast/27-its-time-for-core-fields-with-scott-kingsley-clark/ ## Links (05:35) Pods website: https://pods.io/ (21:45) Core Fields API on GitHub: https://github.com/sc0ttkclark/wordpress-fields-api/ (26:55) Calypso: https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso (56:25) WordPress Slack: https://make.wordpress.org/chat/ (57:22) Elliot Condon is back: https://twitter.com/elliotcondon/status/1667470204425871360 (1:01:26) Scott's website: https://skc.dev/

Cory, Phil, and Jack talk about the recent explosion of machine learning algorithms, how they will affect what we do as developers and designers, and how we do it—if we still have jobs at all. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. Blackbird Digital is a web and app development agency that specializes in WordPress, creating on-screen experiences that connect, teach, communicate, and inspire. Visit blackbird.digital for more information. Transcript:​​ https://blackbird.digital/podcast/26-ai-generated-episode/ ## Links (06:19) Scientific journals update policies regarding AI-generated text: https://factor.niehs.nih.gov/2023/3/feature/2-artificial-intelligence-ethics (06:30) Clarkesworld literary magazine closes submissions due to AI: http://neil-clarke.com/a-concerning-trend/ (06:38) DALL-E 2 generated image wins photography contest: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-my-ai-image-won-a-major-photography-competition/ (06:47) Midjourney-generated image wins Colorado State Fair competition: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-artists.html (07:06) Stack Overflow bans AI-generated responses: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/421831/temporary-policy-chatgpt-is-banned (07:59) The Great Catspy generated movie trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITq-mG67qiE (08:16) Pandas at a salon on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greenskulltok/video/7225287120343026971 (11:20) Ryan Welcher livestream integrating OpenAI into the Block Editor: https://youtu.be/88c6z1XEvG0 (12:34) How Diffusion Models Work (video): https://www.isikdogan.com/blog/how-diffusion-models-work.html (14:08) Nvidia real-time up-res: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/03/nvidias-new-ai-upscaling-tech-makes-low-res-videos-look-sharper-in-chrome-edge/ (15:12) Adobe Sensei: https://www.adobe.com/sensei.html (16:11) Adobe Firefly: https://www.adobe.com/sensei/generative-ai/firefly.html (16:56) Content Authenticity Initiative: https://contentauthenticity.org/ (17:03) Glaze: https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu/ (26:50) Hilarious Twitter thread overconfident about code from ChatGPT: https://twitter.com/rachel_l_woods/status/1649790435533922307 (33:39) Mastodon poll about creating an In The Loop brand account: https://mastodon.social/@cr0ybot/109870145158979704

Aurooba Ahmed and Brian Coords are back to talk to Cory and Phil about their new podcast, viewSource—well, new as of January 2023. We talk about why they started it, who it's for, and why we keep putting ourselves out there. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. Blackbird Digital is a web and app development agency that specializes in WordPress, creating on-screen experiences that connect, teach, communicate, and inspire. Visit blackbird.digital for more information. Transcript:​​ https://blackbird.digital/podcast/25-learning-out-loud-with-aurooba-ahmed-brian-coords/ ## Links (03:02) viewSource.fm: https://viewsource.fm (29:00) thedaily5.xyz: https://thedaily5.xyz/ (35:07) WPEngine DE{CODE} 2023: https://events.wpengine.com/event/b1c1e30f-2c73-4abb-a609-52afaed68717/ (44:58) 2015 State of the Word: https://us.wordcamp.org/2015/state-of-the-word-2015/ (57:14) Brian's WordCamp Phoenix 2023 session: https://phoenix.wordcamp.org/2023/session/migrating-your-workflow-from-acf-flexible-content-to-acf-blocks/ (1:02:23) Super List Block plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/superlist-block/ (1:06:38) Safe SVG plugin adds a block (GitHub issue): https://github.com/10up/safe-svg/issues/21

Cory and Phil interview Fränk Klein, founder of and educator at WPDevelopment.courses and Principal Engineer at Human Made. We talk about some considerations for WordPress at scale and how that affects architectural choices, how WordPress as a project is or is not keeping up with modern industry standards, and why you might consider using the site editor for your next enterprise client. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. Blackbird Digital is a web and app development agency that specializes in WordPress, creating on-screen experiences that connect, teach, communicate, and inspire. Visit blackbird.digital for more information. Transcript: https://blackbird.digital/podcast/24-enterprise-blocks-with-frank-klein/ ## Links (06:39) Block-Based Bosco theme: https://wordpress.org/themes/block-based-bosco/ (24:38) Aino Blocks: https://ainoblocks.io/ (26:14) WordPress dev blog about intrinsic design: https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2023/02/intrinsic-design-theming-and-rethinking-how-to-design-with-wordpress/ (39:27) Human Made collaborative editing: https://twitter.com/humanmadeltd/status/1626171278423109633?s=20 (47:44) WordPress 6.1 contributor stats: https://jeanbaptisteaudras.com/en/2022/11/contribution-stats-for-wordpress-6-1-misha/ (54:29) WPDevelopment.courses website: https://jeanbaptisteaudras.com/en/2022/11/contribution-stats-for-wordpress-6-1-misha/ (56:34) Block Theme Academy course (affiliate link): https://wpdevelopment.courses/a/blackbird-digital

Cory and Phil kick off 2023 with a look at what we changed about our custom theme workflow last year, including a particularly vigorous discussion about template tags, and some goals for new things we want to try this year. We also couldn't help talking about admin page redesigns. And there's even a question for you, dear listener, about social media. If you have questions about WordPress, website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. Transcript: https://blackbird.digital/podcast/23-transitions-templates-transcripts/ ## Links (5:25) Blackbird's Theme Scaffold: https://github.com/BlackbirdDigital/wp-theme-scaffold (19:19) GulpWP: https://github.com/BlackbirdDigital/gulp-wp (51:05) Yoast design system tweet: https://twitter.com/jdevalk/status/1618152402489856003 (59:12) WPTavern Ninja Forms 3.0 release: https://wptavern.com/ninja-forms-3-0-released-features-new-drag-and-drop-form-builder

It's an In The Loop holiday special! Cory and Phil listen back to clips from every episode this season and judge themselves harshly. If you haven't listened to all of the season 2 episodes yet, or if you're curious about our thoughts since the episodes aired, you won't want to miss this. Thank you to all of our season 2 guests, and to all of the new and returning listeners! If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. Blackbird Digital is a web and app development agency that specializes in WordPress, creating on-screen experiences that connect, teach, communicate, and inspire. Visit https://blackbird.digital for more information. ## Season 2 Episode Links (4:18) Pajamas & Burnout: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/12-Pajamas--Burnout-e1e2mhq (10:28) Accessibility by Default with Bet Hannon: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/13-Accessibility-by-Default-with-Bet-Hannon-e1fornp (16:20) All the Web's a Stage with Allie Nimmons: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/14-All-the-Webs-a-Stage-with-Allie-Nimmons-e1h1rgo (28:07) Number Goes Up: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/15-Number-Goes-Up-e1ikm16 (47:25) Just Build It with Aurooba Ahmed: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/16-Just-Build-It-with-Aurooba-Ahmed-e1jui2f (1:00:54) Build Your Product Muscles with Lesley Sim: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/17-Build-Your-Product-Muscles-with-Lesley-Sim-e1l3dri (1:14:05) We Like Gutenberg, We Swear!: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/18-We-Like-Gutenberg--We-Swear-e1mhn78 (1:18:30) All-In on Gutenberg with Ryan Welcher: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/19-All-In-on-Gutenberg-with-Ryan-Welcher-e1noamk (1:26:32) Equal Access with Amber Hinds: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/20-Equal-Access-with-Amber-Hinds-e1p2v09 (1:30:41) Mastering Theme Development with Brian Coords: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/21-Mastering-Theme-Development-with-Brian-Coords-e1qonaa ## Other Links (3:04) Season 1 Highlights: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/11-Season-1-Highlights-e1c2cgs (25:51) Why Wordpress: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/1-Why-WordPress-eaontu

Cory and Phil interview Brian Coords of Howard Development & Consulting and Editor at Master WP. We talk about connecting with the wider WordPress community as an agency, how we've been experimenting with Gutenberg for client sites and how it's affected our entire process, theme scaffolding and Understrap, and why it still makes sense for us to build “hybrid” themes even though we like Gutenberg. Brian is writing a companion article to this episode that you can find on Master WP.Please give it a read! https://masterwp.com/intheloop If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. Blackbird Digital is a web and app development agency that specializes in WordPress, creating on-screen experiences that connect, teach, communicate, and inspire. Visit blackbird.digital for more information. ## Links (5:15) Master WP: https://masterwp.com/ (12:29) Allie Nimmons interview: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/14-All-the-Webs-a-Stage-with-Allie-Nimmons-e1h1rgo (15:35) Ryan Welcher interview: https://anchor.fm/blackbird-digital/episodes/19-All-In-on-Gutenberg-with-Ryan-Welcher-e1noamk (24:08) Block Template Parts in classic themes: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/10/04/block-based-template-parts-in-traditional-themes/ (24:57) Understrap: https://understrap.com/ (27:28) Understrap on GitHub: https://github.com/understrap/understrap (33:04) Blackbird's Theme Scaffold: https://github.com/BlackbirdDigital/wp-theme-scaffold (53:25) Matt's comments about dot-org using a block theme: https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2022/08/01/developing-the-redesigned-home-and-download-pages/#comment-9362 (1:04:44) ACF-style native blocks with Ryan Welcher: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1604490468 (1:05:12) 10up Gutenberg Best Practices: https://gutenberg.10up.com/ Brian's website: https://www.briancoords.com/ Brian's Twitter: https://twitter.com/briancoords Brain on Master WP: https://masterwp.com/author/brian-coords/ Master WP companion article: https://masterwp.com/intheloop

Cory and Phil interview Amber Hinds of Equalize Digital, an agency and plugin company that specializes in accessibility. We talk about their Accessibility Checker plugin, how it can be useful for agencies and their clients, and the journey of building it, as well as Amber's involvement as Lead Organizer of this year's WordPress Accessibility Day happening November 2, 2022. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. Blackbird Digital is a web and app development agency that specializes in WordPress, creating on-screen experiences that connect, teach, communicate, and inspire. Visit https://blackbird.digital for more information. ## Links Equalize Digital: https://equalizedigital.com (12:35) WP Conference Schedule plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-conference-schedule/ (19:11) Accessibility Checker free version: https://wordpress.org/plugins/accessibility-checker/ (21:30) Accessibility Checker Pro: https://equalizedigital.com/accessibility-checker/ (46:11) WordPress Accessibility Meetup: https://equalizedigital.com/wordpress-accessibility-meetup/ (47:19) WordPress Accessibility Day virtual conference: https://wpaccessibility.day/ (53:24) Conference schedule: https://wpaccessibility.day/schedule/ (56:55) Amber on Twitter: https://twitter.com/heyamberhinds (56:58) Equalize Digital on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EqualizeDigital ## Upcoming WP Events WordPress Accessibility Day, Nov 2–3, 2022: https://wpaccessibility.day/ WordFest Live, Nov 18: https://www.wordfest.live/

Cory interviews Ryan Welcher, a Developer Advocate at Automattic focusing on the Gutenberg Project, as a special follow-up to our last episode, titled “We Like Gutenberg, We Swear!”. We talk about his WCUS talk, being a Developer Advocate, how to write to post meta with custom blocks, scaffolding with the @wordpress/create-block package, the convenience of ACF fields, and more. ## Links Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ryanwelchercodes YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RyanWelcherCodes Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanwelcher Website: https://ryanwelcher.com Discord: https://discord.gg/RYtFaYbMRM (03:34) WCUS 2022 Extending WordPress with SlotFill: https://youtu.be/ql4hhXWcdik?t=27235 (08:34) Twitch repo: https://github.com/ryanwelcher/twitch (30:28) HTML Walker proposal: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/08/19/a-new-system-for-simply-and-reliably-updating-html-attributes/ (33:34) @wordpress/create-block package: https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-create-block/ (1:03:50) Query Block variations PR: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/43632 (1:04:55) Twitch Code Repo for custom field block: https://github.com/ryanwelcher/twitch/tree/trunk/plugins/custom-field-block/src (1:05:09) Integrating a custom post type into Gutenberg and Full Site Editing: https://youtu.be/vr3wgD9IZRA ## Upcoming WP Events WordPress Accessibility Day, Nov 2-3: https://wpaccessibility.day/ WordFest Live, Nov 18: https://www.wordfest.live/

Cory Hughart and Phil Hoyt talk about the reality of the current state of Gutenberg for certain tasks that agencies deal with every day, including what the decision-making process looks like for when to create custom post types and when you might want to disable Gutenberg entirely. We also talk a bit about an upcoming update to Advanced Custom Fields Blocks which brings it more in line with native Gutenberg block development. An addendum was added to the end to address a recent controversy about whether the WordPress.org theme developers should be “wasting their time” developing a block theme (full-site-editing theme). ## Links (30:05) Open 2018 Issue about saving ACF block data in post meta: https://github.com/AdvancedCustomFields/acf/issues/83 (35:06) Discussion on Improving FSE for the Agency Use Case: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/discussions/41349 (58:02) ACF Pro 6.0 Beta 1 Announcement: https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-pro-6-0-beta-1/ (58:29) ACF Pro 6.0 Developer Preview: https://github.com/AdvancedCustomFields/acf/issues/654 (1:02:54) Matt's comment on developing the WordPress.org block theme: https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2022/08/01/developing-the-redesigned-home-and-download-pages/#comment-9362 ## Upcoming WP Events WordCamp US 2022, Sept 9–11: https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/

Cory and Phil interview Lesley Sim of Newsletter Glue, a WordPress plugin that lets you write your newsletter in WordPress and connects to several different email services. We talk about the journey from digital agency to WordPress plugin company and whether it's feasible to be both, Newsletter Glue's Gutenberg-based features, different plugin business models and how contributing factors in, and a new YouTube series called Glam That Plugin. If you're an agency interested in partnering with Newsletter Glue to help your clients make the best newsletter possible, visit https://newsletterglue.com/implementation-services/. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Follow Lesley on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lesley_pizza Newsletter Glue website: https://newsletterglue.com (16:34) Clients abandoning WordPress: https://twitter.com/lesley_pizza/status/1531484172623450112 (20:46) 7-10 year plan: https://twitter.com/lesley_pizza/status/1531490814316396544 (25:16) WordPress Product Managers: https://twitter.com/lesley_pizza/status/1531531655428853760 (32:53) Newsletter Glue consulting: https://newsletterglue.com/implementation-services/ (55:27) GoDaddy on blast: https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-identifies-godaddy-as-a-parasitic-company-and-an-existential-threat-to-wordpress-future (1:04:07) Glam That Plugin: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvI6qyQ9STRcHCrpHWJ2uMQ ## Upcoming WP Events WordCamp US 2022, Sept 9–11: https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/

Cory and Phil interview Aurooba Ahmed of Aurooba Makes, a full-stack WordPress developer, WordCamp speaker, and serial plugin, tool, and course author. We talk about developing for Gutenberg, goings on with ACF and whether it's still a must-use plugin (pardon the pun), the myriad of free plugins and tools that Aurooba has built for the good of all, and a teaser of some resources about React for WordPress that she'll be releasing soon. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Aurooba's website: https://aurooba.com Auroobas Twitter: https://twitter.com/aurooba (09:53) WPEngine acquires ACF: https://wpengine.com/blog/wp-engine-acquires-delicious-brains-plugins-including-advanced-custom-fields/ (14:30) ACF blocks dev preview: https://github.com/AdvancedCustomFields/acf/issues/654 (17:15) Aurooba's CPT composer package: https://github.com/aurooba/cpt (24:05) Super List Block plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/superlist-block/ (29:51) Replacing core block styles: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/35848#issuecomment-1017606735 (31:16) QuickPost plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/quickpost/ (43:46) QuickPost plagiarized twitter thread: https://twitter.com/aurooba/status/1524113112110026752 (47:26) Plagiarism resolution twitter thread: https://twitter.com/aurooba/status/1521564150211629056 ## Upcoming WP Events WordCamp US 2022, Sept 9–11: https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/

Cory and Phil are back for a Dev Chat discussing the impending WordPress 6.0 release, version numbers, market share, and full site editing in the wild. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP or send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. ## Links (3:04) WordPress Version Numbers: https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/release-cycle/version-numbering/ (8:52) 6.0 Field Guide: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/05/03/wordpress-6-0-field-guide/ (42:54) WordPress Market Share is Shrinking: https://joost.blog/wordpress-market-share-shrinking/ (50:54) Google Trends “WordPress”: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=WordPress (59:34) Fragnum Opus FSE: https://fragnumopus.com ## Upcoming WP Events WordSesh, May 16-20, 2022: https://wordsesh.com/

Cory and Phil interview Allie Nimmons, founder of Beedia Productions, a LinkedIn learning instructor for WordPress, cohost of the Underrepresented in Tech podcast, and frequent WordCamp speaker. We talk about Allie's path through WordPress and how her background in theater complemented those skills, as well as the thrills and challenges of creating educational content for a rapidly-developing software like Gutenberg. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links WordPress 5 Essentials LinkedIn course: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/wordpress-5-essential-training (28:44) Learn WordPress: https://learn.wordpress.org/ (37:30) Beedia Productions: https://www.beediaproductions.com/ (38:16) The Open Source Economist Podcast: https://christiechirinos.com/podcast/ (39:26) Hysteria Podcast: https://hysteriapod.com/ (42:03) Allie's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC39T0DQR6LNnLUbw9bTI9CA (47:17) Allie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/allie_nimmons (47:26) Allie's Website: https://allienimmons.com/ ## Upcoming WP Events WP Career Summit, April 8 (Allie's session): https://wp-career-summit.heysummit.com/talks/the-importance-of-culture-fit/ WordCamp US 2022, September 9–11: https://us.wordcamp.org/2022/

Cory and Blackbird senior designer Jack Watson interview Bet Hannon, web accessibility advocate and founder/CEO of BH Business Websites, an agency that designs, builds and maintains accessible sites. Bet was a speaker at WordCamp US 2021 and is a co-organizer of the Bend, Oregon WordPress Meetup. We discuss why and how to do accessible WordPress sites, the good and (mostly) bad of accessibility overlays, some sound business advice about working accessibility into your contracts, and how to impress upon clients that accessibility is their responsibility, too. If you have questions about WordPress website development, agency life, or anything else web-related, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Bet Hannon Business Websites: https://bhmbizsites.com/ Twitter @bethannon: https://twitter.com/bethannon (13:47) How To Write Alt Text, The Complete Guide: https://bhmbizsites.com/how-to-write-alt-text-the-complete-guide/ (20:02) Equalize Digital Accessibility Checker Plugin: https://equalizedigital.com/accessibility-checker/ (33:56) Overlay Fact Sheet: https://overlayfactsheet.com/ (40:50) Release of Liability Template: https://bhmbizsites.com/release-liability-template/ ## Upcoming WP Events WordPress Accessibility Day, Nov 2-3, 2022: https://wpaccessibilityday.org/

Welcome back to a new season of In The Loop! We have some excellent guests lined up this year, but we start off 2022 with a Dev Chat between Cory Hughart and Phil Hoyt about the recently released WordPress 5.9 and Full Site Editing, open source compensation, video games, and Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day, February 14, 2022, take some time to show your most beloved plugins some love and leave a review! If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP or send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. ## Links https://blackbird.digital/podcast/ (08:49) Crock of Time, Cory's fermentation logbook: https://crockoftime.com (10:27) WPPodcasts: https://wppodcasts.com (14:57) Tendo, a block theme by Phil: https://wordpress.org/themes/tendo/ (18:08) Block locking: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/01/08/locking-blocks-in-wordpress-5-9/ (18:46) WordPress 5.9 field guide: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/01/10/wordpress-5-9-field-guide/ (20:17) 5.8 block style loading: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/01/block-styles-loading-enhancements-in-wordpress-5-8/ (23:46) Carolina Nymark on no-code themes: https://twitter.com/carolinapoena/status/1484174134284365826?s=20 (49:08) White House Open Source Security Summit: https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/white-house-hosts-open-source-security-summit-big-tech-a-18304 (52:42) #WPTalks Twitter space, “Get Contributors Paid & Attract People to Grow WordPress”: https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1djxXPkkWVoxZ (1:01:01) XKCD Dependency: https://xkcd.com/2347/ (1:04:21) Hacktoberfest drama: https://joel.net/how-one-guy-ruined-hacktoberfest2020-drama ## Upcoming WP Events WordFest Live March 4, 2022: https://www.wordfest.live/2022/march/

Our final episode of 2022 is here, closing out Season 1 of In The Loop! Today we're taking a look back at the first 10 episodes with some highlights, so if you have only listened to one or two this should give you a taste of what the other episodes have to offer. There's a secret tape I found full of holiday spirit and an important announcement near the end. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP or send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. ## Credits "Xylophone Sweep" by DANMITCH3LL ( https://freesound.org/s/232009/ ) licensed under CCBYNC 3.0 “Trumpet Brass Fanfare.wav” by ohforheavensake ( https://freesound.org/s/423455/ ) licensed under CCBYNC 3.0

Megan and Cory chat with Mike Demo about his open source adventures and his current role at Codeable. Demo shares about the Codeable platform and their expert community and gives lots of great advice for freelancers and dev agencies. If you have questions about WordPress website development, agency life, or anything else web-related, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Mike Demo's Site: https://mikedemo.com Mike Demo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mpmike Codeable Freelance Jobs: https://codeable.io/apply Growth-Driven Design: https://www.growthdrivendesign.com

We're back with another Blackbird Dev Chat between Megan Rose, Phil Hoyt, and Cory Hughart. In this episode we talk about the WordPress 5.8 release and how that has dramatically affected theme development for us, an update about Advanced Custom Fields and escaping output, a long discussion about what “barrier to entry” really means, some old news by now about one particular Automattic acquisition that happened over a month ago, and a soft announcement about our very own open-source workflow script. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP or send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. ## Links theme.json: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/25/introducing-theme-json-in-wordpress-5-8/ Block based themes: https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/block-theme-overview/ ACF HTML escaping by default: https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-5-10-release-html-escaping-blocks-api-v2-block-preloading-and-more/ Gulp WP: https://github.com/BlackbirdDigital/gulp-wp Mark Jaquith PHP Gutenberg block: https://twitter.com/markjaquith/status/1432461667187765251?s=20 10up Toolkit: https://github.com/10up/10up-toolkit ClassicPress: https://www.classicpress.net/ WordCamp US 2021: https://us.wordcamp.org/2021/

In this episode, Megan and Cory chat with Ebonie Butler, Lauren Pittenger, and Ryan Welcher, who work at web agencies of varying sizes. We talk about using WordPress in an agency setting, including common challenges, favorite projects, and career advice. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Ebonie Butler of YIKES Inc. https://twitter.com/metalandcoffee_ https://www.twitch.tv/metalandcoffee_ Lauren Pittenger of WebDevStudios https://twitter.com/laurenpittenger https://www.instagram.com/laurenpittenger/ https://laurenpittenger.com/ Ryan Welcher of 10up https://twitter.com/ryanwelcher https://ryanwelcher.com/ https://twitter.com/goodfirstbugs

In this episode, the devs at Blackbird get back together to talk about block widgets, themes, patterns, directories, and other WordPress 5.8 goodies, Advanced Custom Fields anxieties, and part 2 of the highly-anticipated Gutenberg Shuffle series: The Last Custom Field. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you'd like to hear us discuss, go to blackbird.digital/podcast or send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Conex Firefox Add-On WordPress 5.8 Release Timeline Block Pattern Directory Clove: A Showcase of Block Patterns by Anariel Design The User is My Mom ACF Acquired by Delicious Brains ## Upcoming WP Events WordCamp Santa Clarita – July 17-18, 2021 WordFest Live – July 23, 2021 ## Music To Code To Call Me If You Get Lost by Tyler, The Creator Videoclub on Spotify Wizardry by Fragnum Opus Chip SongBook Vol 11 by Yoann Turpin ## Licenses "Trumpet Brass Fanfare.wav" by ohforheavensake on Freesound.org is licensed under CC BY 4.0

In this episode, Megan and Cory are joined by David Wolfpaw, a WordPress support superhero and master of analogies. David shares about his path within WordPress and we discuss his experiences providing website maintenance services. We also chat about the philosophy behind the IndieWeb movement, decluttering the internet and much more! If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links David's Personal Site: https://davidwolfpaw.com/ FixUpFox: https://fixupfox.com/ David's Newsletter: https://davidwolfpaw.com/newsletter/ IndieWeb: https://indieweb.org/ IndieWeb Plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/indieweb/ Velox Theme: https://wordpress.org/themes/velox/ ## Upcoming WP Events WordSesh: https://wordsesh.com WordCamp Europe: https://europe.wordcamp.org WordFest Live: https://wordfest.live

In this episode, Megan and Cory talk to John James Jacoby of Sandhills Development about what he’s working on and how it can help us make better websites. John, AKA JJJ, contributes to Core and Meta, is a BuddyPress & bbPress lead, speaks at WordCamps, and is very generous with his time and knowledge. John was great to talk to, and we have have an extra-long episode jam-packed with a myriad of topics ranging from Gutenberg versus page builders, getting started contributing, remote work on tiny screens, and surgeons, with a sprinkling of useful plugins John is working on like Sugar Calendar, WP User Profiles, and BerlinDB. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related that you’d like to hear us discuss, go to blackbird.digital/podcast or send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Sandhills Development: https://sandhillsdev.com Sugar Calendar Plugin: https://sugarcalendar.com WP User Profiles Plugin: https://github.com/stuttter/wp-user-profiles BerlinDB: https://github.com/berlindb GiveWP 100k Celebration: https://givewp.com/givewp-100k-celebration-invitation/

Today, Joe A Simpson Jr joins the show to chat about all things WordPress. He shares his WordPress origin story, as well as how he became the leader of two Meetups. We also chat about his experience as a graphic designer stepping into WordPress for the first time, online events, and connecting with others in the community. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Joe’s Site: https://joesimpson.info/ Joe’s Podcast: https://backdownmemorylane.com/ HeroPress Article: https://heropress.com/essays/second-chances-how-a-trip-back-into-the-wordpress-community-saved-my-life/ WordPress Santa Clarita Valley Meetup - https://www.meetup.com/wordpressscv/ WordCamp Santa Clarita - https://santaclarita.wordcamp.org/ Elementor Meetup Info - https://elementor.com/community/meetups/ WP Accessibility Day - https://wpaccessibilityday.org/ WordFest - https://www.wordfest.live/

Joining us today is Michelle Frechette, the Head of Customer Success for GiveWP. Megan and Michelle chat about WordFest, Big Orange Heart, online WordPress events, and the work she and others are doing to keep our community connected. If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Big Orange Heart - https://www.bigorangeheart.org/ WordFest - https://www.wordfest.live/schedule/ 5.6 Release - https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-6/ Underrepresented in Tech - https://www.underrepresentedintech.com/ WP Career Pages - https://wpcareerpages.com/ GiveWP 100K Celebration - https://givewp.com/give-swag-store-intro/

Wow! A lot has happened since our first episode one year ago! Happy birthday to us, I guess? In this episode, we are introduced to some new faces and discuss our early days on the web, our experiences integrating Gutenberg, some hot topics in WordPress right now, git repositories, and music to code to. Listen until the end to catch a preview of our upcoming episode, where Megan interviews Michelle Frechette of GiveWP! If you have questions about WordPress website development, contributing, or anything else web-related, send an email to podcast@blackbird.digital. You can also find us on Twitter as @InTheLoop_WP. ## Links Get Involved: https://make.wordpress.org & https://learn.wordpress.org/contribute WP Tavern 5.6 Release Post: https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-6-development-kicks-off-with-all-women-release-squad White House Redesign - @nacin’s Thread: https://twitter.com/nacin/status/1353855894342094848 Automattic Announcement: https://wordpress.com/blog/2021/01/04/let-our-experts-build-your-dream-website/ git-filter-repo: https://github.com/newren/git-filter-repo Fragnum Opus: https://fragnumopus.bandcamp.com/ Nectar by Joji: https://shop.jojimusic.com/products/nectar-digital-album GiveWP: https://givewp.com/ Big Orange Heart: https://www.bigorangeheart.org/ WordFest: https://www.wordfest.live/ Underrepresented In Tech: https://www.underrepresentedintech.com/

Welcome to In the Loop, a WordPress podcast from Blackbird Digital. On this show we’ll be discussing every aspect of WordPress—from how it’s built and developed for, to the ways that businesses, organizations, and individuals are using the platform. Today I am joined by my colleague and co-host, the Lead Technologist of Blackbird Digital, Cory Hughart, with our first guest, Megan Rose, the Technology Manager of KHM Travel in Brunswick, Ohio and one of the lead organizers of the Northeastern Ohio WordPress Meetup Group. The topic for our first episode is “Why WordPress?” Specifically, why have we chosen to specialize in this platform. In answering the question, we chat a bit about our winding career paths and how they led to WordPress, how our development and deployment processes differ, what you can expect from a WordPress MeetUp, and the various ways to participate and give back to the open source community. Lastly, if you have any questions about WordPress that you would like Cory or myself to track down an answer to, please email them to podcast@blackbird.digital, and we will answer them when we return with our next episode in March.