Podcast appearances and mentions of mika epstein

In this podcast episode, host Michelle Frechette welcomes Carrie Dils, Mika Epstein, and Ryan McCue to discuss their roles in the WordPress community and the new FAIR project. The group explores FAIR's mission to create a federated independent repository system for WordPress plugins and themes, focusing on decentralization, community-driven moderation, inclusive governance, and privacy. They address challenges like supporting premium plugins, reducing environmental impact, and fostering global participation. The episode highlights FAIR's collaborative, open-source approach and invites listeners to get involved through GitHub and community meetings, aiming to shape a more innovative and inclusive WordPress ecosystem.Top Takeaways:FAIR Is Reimagining Plugin Discovery and Trust for WordPress: FAIR is building a more open, decentralized ecosystem for WordPress plugin discovery—empowering both end users and developers. By enabling verified directories and authenticated plugin listings (via methods like DNS verification), FAIR provides an alternative to the limitations of the WordPress.org repo, while increasing transparency, user safety, and trust.Community Participation Is Central to FAIR's Success: The FAIR initiative is deeply community-driven. Contributors are encouraged to get involved through GitHub Discussions, introduce themselves, offer help, or join working groups. The leadership team is intentionally building these groups based on people's skills and availability, rather than predefined roles—making FAIR flexible, inclusive, and open to evolving needs.FAIR Encourages Innovation Outside Traditional WordPress Constraints: The project provides an alternative path for plugin creators who may not want to follow the traditional WordPress.org model (e.g., having to release a free version first). With FAIR, creators can request to be listed in aggregator directories that are more flexible, values-aligned, or niche-focused—fostering innovation and lowering barriers to entry.FAIR Is Still in Early Development—and Actively Growing: While the FAIR plugin and protocol are live (accessible via fair.pm), the ecosystem is in its formative stages. The team is prioritizing essential needs (the “MVP”) and building infrastructure to support future growth in documentation, marketing, design, development, and user testing. They welcome feedback on plugin issues, conflicts, and ideas, encouraging broad experimentation and iteration.Mentioned in the Show:FAIRLinkedIn LearningAwesome MotiveLez Watch TVHuman MadeAspire PressGravatarLinux Foundation ProjectBlueskyWPCCBlack PressMastodon DrupalCourtney RobertsonAutomatticMediaWikiMonster InsightsGravity FormsFastly

On this episode of WPwatercooler Jason Tucker, Sé Reed, Jason Cosper, and guest Mika Epstein delve into the complex world of software piracy within the WordPress ecosystem. The discussion begins with an introduction of the hosts and quickly moves into the nuances of what constitutes software piracy, how it impacts the WordPress community, and the moral and legal implications of using pirated software. The hosts share personal anecdotes and insights on the prevalence of pirated plugins and themes, the risks associated with their use, including security vulnerabilities and legal repercussions, and the broader conversation about open-source ethics and the value of supporting developers and creators within the ecosystem. The episode offers a balanced perspective, highlighting both the temptations and pitfalls of piracy and encourages listeners to consider the long-term health of the WordPress community by supporting legitimate sources and practices.  Panel: Jason Tucker Sé Reed Jason Cosper Mika Epstein Show Notes can be found: https://wpwatercooler.com/wpwatercooler/ep476-free-as-in-piracy/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:17 Meet the Hosts 01:00 The Definition of Software Piracy 05:30 Impacts of Piracy on WordPress 10:45 Personal Insights on Piracy 15:00 The Risks of Using Pirated Software 20:30 Legal and Ethical Considerations 25:45 Supporting the WordPress Community 30:00 Conclusion Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5756954563575808    

On this episode of WPwatercooler Jason Tucker, Sé Reed, Jason Cosper, and guest Mika Epstein delve into the complex world of software piracy within the WordPress ecosystem. The discussion begins with an introduction of the hosts and quickly moves into the nuances of what constitutes software piracy, how it impacts the WordPress community, and the moral and legal implications of using pirated software. The hosts share personal anecdotes and insights on the prevalence of pirated plugins and themes, the risks associated with their use, including security vulnerabilities and legal repercussions, and the broader conversation about open-source ethics and the value of supporting developers and creators within the ecosystem. The episode offers a balanced perspective, highlighting both the temptations and pitfalls of piracy and encourages listeners to consider the long-term health of the WordPress community by supporting legitimate sources and practices.  Panel: Jason Tucker Sé Reed Jason Cosper Mika Epstein Show Notes can be found: https://wpwatercooler.com/wpwatercooler/ep476-free-as-in-piracy/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:17 Meet the Hosts 01:00 The Definition of Software Piracy 05:30 Impacts of Piracy on WordPress 10:45 Personal Insights on Piracy 15:00 The Risks of Using Pirated Software 20:30 Legal and Ethical Considerations 25:45 Supporting the WordPress Community 30:00 Conclusion Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5756954563575808    

There are a lot of exciting features coming to WordPress 6.3 which will set the tone for the next few years of our favorite CMS.We'll explore the upcoming state of this new release and provide some thoughts on which demographic of WordPress user it's shaping to serve. As always, please share this on social and be sure to join the newsletter.The Not-So-Nice Side of the WordPress CommunityThe WordPress community, like any other, has its share of negative behaviors and incidents. While the majority of the community is supportive and positive, there are instances of abuse and misconduct that can't be ignored.Several recent incidents highlight the issue: Mika Epstein, a member of the WordPress Plugin Review team, faced abusive behavior from plugin developers; Raiber Cristian, a WordPress developer, decided to stop offering free support on WordPress.org due to abusive behavior; and WordCamp Dhaka was cancelled due to concerns about corporate influence and favoritism.The author suggests that the community needs to police itself, support each other, and stay informed about abusers. They also suggest that more concrete rules could be part of the solution, but acknowledge the challenges in enforcing them and the potential for unfairness.Read the original articleAccessibility expert Adrian Roselli sued for wanting accessibility to be accessibleAdrian Roselli, a well-known accessibility expert, is being sued by AccessiBe, a company that provides automated accessibility solutions. The lawsuit is in response to Roselli's criticism of AccessiBe's product.Roselli's main argument is that automated tools like AccessiBe's cannot fully ensure a website's accessibility and may give a false sense of compliance, potentially leading to legal issues for the website owners.The lawsuit has sparked a backlash from the web accessibility community, with many viewing it as an attempt to silence valid criticism and discussion about the effectiveness of automated accessibility tools.Read the original articleVox media drops its own CMSIt stopped licensing Chorus to external publishers last year, per Adweek, but continued to use it to power its own network of over a dozen digital media sites.The company still owns other tech products, including Concert, its advertising platform, and Coral, the commenting platform it acquired in 2019. But moving forward, monetizing its own audience engagement will become a bigger focus.Vox Media will move its own websites off of Chorus and into WordPress VIP, the enterprise arm of the 20-year-old CMS company.Read the original articleUse ChatGPT to Generate Group Conversation Topics for Your Online CommunityThe article discusses how AI, specifically OpenAI's ChatGPT, can be used to generate conversation topics for various online communities, including those focused on Brie cheese lovers, video game wiki writers, backyard gardeners, and digital nomad business owners.The author emphasizes the importance of a well-crafted prompt in generating relevant and engaging conversation topics. Being clear and specific in communicating what you want from the AI greatly improves the chances of getting a useful response.The article also promotes Paid Memberships Pro, a WordPress plugin for building and managing online communities. The plugin allows users to sell free and paid subscriptions to their community and offers a variety of add-ons and integrations designed for community websites.Read the original articleLinks from the grab bagJeff Matson has officially joined Pressable's marketing teamSyed Bahlki defends WordPress with a $1M wagerWPCoffeeTalk: Going deeper with Bluehost new WondersuiteWatch the 6.3 product demo ★ Support this podcast ★

well-represented. Over at WP Tavern, Sarah Gooding reports that a Hackathon event has led to some innovative WordPress projects.For instance, there's an in-browser development environment that uses the VS Code editor and allows developers to see changes in real-time. Meanwhile, the Wapuugotchi project uses the familiar Wapuu character to display notifications and unlock features. On the more serious side, Eco-mode for WordPress aims to reduce outgoing server traffic, thus saving energy.But that's not all. March 20 saw the first-ever WordPress Day event. Several presentations were given on topics ranging from security and performance, to “The Automattic advantage”.Links You Shouldn't MissOrganizational changes are underway at SEO development firm Yoast. CEO Thijs de Valk announced that he has stepped down from the role, effective March 16. de Valk has been with the company since 2012 and is leaving to pursue “other dreams”. The search for the next CEO has begun.A few weeks ago, we reported on ThemeKraft's open letter critiquing the WordPress plugin review process. This time around, WordPress developer Alan Fuller has posted a letter thanking plugin reviewers for their “hard work and dedication in reviewing new plugins and ensuring the security of WordPress websites”. Fuller also points out steps that plugin developers can take to ensure a smoother process, while acknowledging the challenges reviewers face.Mika Epstein of the WordPress Plugins team posted a reminder regarding the use of AI-generated code. Any code hosted on the official plugin repository, regardless of how it was written, still needs to be GPL compatible. As more developers are using tools like ChatGPT to generate plugins, this is becoming a relevant issue. Epstein noted that AI tools may simply be copying code from an existing plugin without crediting the original author.From the Grab BagNow it's time to take a look at some other interesting topics shared by our contributors.The final countdown to WordPress 6.2 is underway. The last scheduled Release Candidate (#3) is now available for testing.Congratulations to WordPress community member Michelle Frechette on being named as a finalist for the RochesterFirst.com Remarkable Women awards. Frechette holds many roles, including the Director of Community Engagement at StellarWP, along with co-founder of Underrepresented in Tech.As part of WordPress' 20th anniversary celebration, volunteers have been busy triaging old Trac tickets. You're invited to take part in the next session, happening on Thursday, March 23.The WordPress Documentation team needs your help writing docs for WordPress 6.2. A call for volunteers has been published that details how to get involved.Talent recruitment website The Org recently published its list of the 50 Most Transparent Companies. WordPress.com owner Automattic was included at #27.Developer Nico Mercado wrote an opinion piece on the complex relationship between WordPress and PHP. Mercado opines that WordPress is a driver of PHP's market share, but may not be providing the best developer experience.How hard should it be to cancel a WordPress plugin subscription? WebDevStudios CEO Brad Williams tweeted a product flowchart that might just blow your mind.Is WordPress giving too much layout control to end-users? There's a lively debate on Reddit worth checking out.Building a successful WordPress product team is challenging. TeamWP's James Giroux joined the Do the Woo podcast to discuss the subject.ChatGPT's new GPT-4 model can pass standardized tests. But does that make it any closer to replacing human professionals? Not so fast, says one essay.The WP Minute+ Interview: Zack KatzSubscribe at https://thewpminute.com/plusZack Katz of GravityKit & TrustedLogin joins the show to talk about running multiple products in the WordPress space. The conversation explores the ups-and-downs of doing a product rebrand, plus, what it's like to build a business in the Gravity Forms (and WordPress!) ecosystem.Listen at:https://wpminuteplus.transistor.fm/episodes/gravitykit-rebranding-a-wordpress-product ★ Support this podcast ★

WordPress 6.2 is scheduled for release on March 28, 2023. But it's never too early to start preparations. Therefore, you may want to check out the first beta release, which is now available for testing.The first major release of 2023 brings a plethora of enhancements to the Site and Block Editors. Some features, such as color coded template parts within the Site Editor, focus on improved usability. But there are a few big picture changes as well.For one, the ability to search and download Openverse images will be included in the Block Editor. This allows anyone to grab Creative Commons licensed media from within their website. Also included are a revamped Navigation block, a Style Book feature for creating custom styles, and sticky blocks.To see what else is new, GoDaddy Pro's Courtney Robertson has published a detailed guide on WordPress 6.2.Links You Shouldn't MissWhen it comes to WordPress core, newer doesn't always mean faster. Core committer Adam Silverstein has submitted a proposal to change that. According to a report from WP Tavern, Silverstein's proposal calls for automated performance monitoring. The goal is to catch potential problems before they reach the average user.Last December, we reported on the WP Community Collective (WPCC). The not-for-profit organization aims to financially support contributions to the WordPress project. This week it was announced that Alex Stine has been selected as the first WPCC Fellow. Stine is currently a member of the WordPress Accessibility team and will continue in that role. The WPCC is still looking for donations in order to fully fund Stine's fellowship.Twitter recently announced that free access to its API will no longer be available as of February 9, 2023. That's likely to impact both WordPress plugin developers and end users. Core contributor Mika Epstein posted a notice about the change and asked developers to investigate what this new policy means for their products.From the Grab BagNow it's time to take a look at some other interesting topics shared by our contributors.The “freemium” product model is a popular one within the WordPress ecosystem. MasterWP's Nyasha Green and Rob Howard discussed their experiences with building freemium products on a recent episode of the Press the Issue podcast.Applications to attend the 2023 WordPress Community Summit are now being accepted. The invitation-only event for project contributors will take place from August 22-23 in National Harbor, MD, prior to WordCamp US.Is there anything ChatGPT can't do? ZDNet's David Gewirtz recently wrote about his successful attempt at using the AI tool to build a WordPress plugin.Speaking of AI, Microsoft has announced that its Bing search engine and Edge browser will be enhanced by OpenAI technology. A limited preview is underway for Bing, with an expansion due in the coming weeks.The WordPress Training team is looking for feedback regarding user learning preferences. Fill out their individual learner survey to let the team know your thoughts.Video of the weekSubscribe at youtube.com/@wpminuteThe WP Minute takes a closer look at ★ Support this podcast ★

It's the WP Minute! This is Carrie Dils and I'm filling in for Matt, who's tweeting about podcasting. This episode is brought to you by Easy Support Videos. Support your WordPress users by embedding videos and screencasts right inside the WordPress admin. Learn more at EasySupportVideos.com! You know the drill, everything I mention here will be linked up in the newsletter and the blog post. Check out thewpminute.com for the links. Let’s get to the News Stay tuned for the direction of block development in the next few months. Justin Tadlock over on the WPTavern wrote about whether block development is merely a templating system with no build process. Since there still is a big concern around the direction of block development, he went ahead and reviewed where the React-based WordPress block editor (sometimes referred to as Gutenberg) had been hitting speed bumps for WordPress developers who have been more PHP Centric. Helen Hou-Sandi also published on her blog how she spent the last 8 months telling anybody she talked to about custom WordPress block development. They were way less scary and much easier than she thought they were going to be for somebody with minimal React experience. She said that a big game-changer for adoption and shifting thinking would be to find a way to unify templating between the front-end and the editor, essentially swapping the places where you output content with the corresponding editor component. My personal opinion: “That sounds amazing”! Helen says: “these are experiments and there will likely be many failed paths”, and that the focus remains on the problem to be solved during the research and experimentation phase, not on the implementation details. If you want the scoop on React and the possible direction of block development make sure you check out her post and follow updates on Twitter. For you plugin developers seeing plugin changes on WordPress.org: Mika Epstein reported on WordPress.org that inaccurate stats were adjusted for 100 plugins recently because of a stats gathering change. This means those plugins had their active install stats seemingly adjusted downward. She wants you to understand this was painful for a number of developers and they held off on announcing this as they were still doing a bit of triage and making sure it was blocked. Sorry about that confusion and it is corrected now. Let’s Talk about WooCommerce If you follow Bob Dunn for WooCommerce news, he announced that his Twitter handle changed for all things Woo. Jump over to @DotheWoo for updates and news. Moving on to the Grabbag If you are a runner, walker, or crawler this one is for you. WordPress has a virtual 5k scheduled for October 1 through October 30. This race is virtual and “virtually” anyone can participate in the race with the possibility of completing the 5k race. You can track your route on your favorite app or record the 5k off the grid. And you can register for the

How to avoid bad WordPress plugins. This week on the DNW podcast meet Mika Epstein, a WordPress engineer at DreamHost. She explains what to look for in WordPress plugins to make sure you aren’t opening up a backdoor to your website. We also hear predictions from Natasa Djukanovic and Braden Pollock. Plus: NameSilo acquisition, much […] Post link: WordPress Plugins + 2 more predictions – DNW Podcast #219 © DomainNameWire.com 2020. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.

Hello again! We got a long one but a good one here today. Our guest us none other than, Mika Epstein, co-owner of the amazing LezWatchTV database, and boy, what DIDN'T we talk about. She gave us updates on the LezWatch front, a look into what it's like as a woman in Tech, a beautiful story about her first brush with a computer, and her answer to the Guest to Guest question was a doozy. So sit back and enjoy. :)    Remember to like and review if you liked this episode and make sure to follow us on Twitter!    

Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) are joined by Tracey Levesque and Mika Epstein from Lez Watch TV (@lezwatchtv) to talk about why The Facts of Life should have been gay. Our lesbian synopsis is a group of girls, attending a boarding school, tackle issues throughout teenage life and later adulthood without realizing the huge lesbian living among them. Tracey and Mika should totally be hired for the reboot to make sure Jo and Blaire finally get their shot at love. Follow along on Twitter @lezhangoutpod and Facebook and Instagram (@lezhangoutpod). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode of WPwatercooler we will be discussing WordCamp SF 2013, the State of the Word address and after parties.The Hallway TrackThere are many “Man” or “Woman on the Street” interviews that were conducted by Jason Tucker and Se Reed. Those can be found soon on the WordCamp San Francisco WordPress.TV page.State of the WordState of the Word address by Matt Mullenweg:* OCWP got a big shout out for their 10th anniversary party.* WordPress release cycle – updates and plugins will be updated the most* The release of 3.6 has been postponed* 3.7 and 3.8 release being so close together will create a lot of problems for people that use it in an enterprise setting* Matt said the releases will be small updates with less iterationsVideo can be found here: State of the Word 2013Our favorite sessionsMike Schroeder – WP CLI (command line interface) talk was really excellent. His talk isn’t stagnant. He’s constantly fine tuning it so there is always good, new information.Helen Hou-Sandi – Customizing the WP Admin interfaceCarrie Dills – her talk “Co-opetition” Cooperation, collaboration and competition was great. She highlighted best of competition as well as collaboration.Josh Broton – on Responsive Design. There were 2 huge takeaways: 1) making photoshop images 2.2x bigger and setting quality to 0 then scaling down in the browser saves a huge amount of work. 2) Text in line? justify for grid layouts, if you text in line justify the parent elements and use display inline block on the child elements, you can have completely justified grid system.Natalie MacLees – Her room was packed out. She gave her talk in a really compelling story-telling manner.Mika Epstein – Don’t Use WP Multi-Site. She gave basics of what the watch out for if you want to use WordPress multi-sites.Ian Stewart – Themes – Super passionate and really inspirational. Do not miss it when it’s on WordPress TVContributor Day* The most people that have ever gone to contributor day.* Steve learned how to commit a patch* There was a large focus was on the support and documentation team. That’s where Se and Suzette spent their time. They worked on the Theme Developer Handbook. There will be no standardization for theme options.Shout out to the DradcastActivities we did after WordCamp San Francisco 2013* Pandora Karaoke Bar* Tonga Room* Fang[LISTATTENDEES event_identifier=”ep45-wordcamp-san-francisco-2013-wcsf-recap-wpwatercooler-5-51f589d53223f” show_gravatar=”true”] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Literally, the lights went out in this episode! But hey, if you're listening to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher – you won't even notice. Seriously though, what happens when the lights go out on your client's WordPress website? Mika leads the WordPress support team at Dreamhost and is part of the core WordPress team reviewing plugins into the repo. If you're looking to learn more about supporting clients, dealing with shared hosting and the WordPress community – this is the episode for you! Mika Epstein Interview. Supporting WordPress at Dreamhost and the community Watch on YouTube Listen to the audio version Matt Report - A WordPress podcast for digital business owners When the lights go out with Mika Epstein Play Episode Pause Episode Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds 00:00 / Subscribe Share RSS Feed Share Link Embed Download file | Play in new window When the lights go out on your client How do you handle support issues with your client? What happens when the problem isn't on your end, but the 3rd party you host with? Mika is the head of Dreamhost WordPress support, so we get into a lot of the behind the scene details at the popular hosting company. We're also taking the lessons learned from a big company like Dreamhost and filtering them down to the ground level of supporting your own client base. If your practice is a large agency or you're just a single freelancer with a dozen accounts — this is the episode for you. The WordPress community Are you looking to give back to WordPress and the community? A lot of folks are always looking to give back. Andrea Rennick and I talked about this in our interview. You don't have to be a developer or designer, you can contribute in other ways. Documentation. Support forums. Evangelism. There's plenty of ways to give back and Mika and I chat about that in this interview. [photo source] How do you support your clients in their time of need? Post your tips in the comments! ★ Support this podcast ★

Literally, the lights went out in this episode! But hey, if you’re listening to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher – you won’t even notice. Seriously though, what happens when the lights go out on your client’s WordPress website? Mika leads the WordPress support team at Dreamhost and is part of the core WordPress team reviewing plugins into the repo. If you’re looking to learn more about supporting clients, dealing with shared hosting and the WordPress community – this is the episode for you! (more…)

Last night’s Aftertaste (following WP Late Night #15) was a lot of fun when Mika Epstein (known within the community as Ipstenu) joined the crew to discuss volunteering in the WordPress support forums. MP3 file (61.5 MB) Subscribe on iTunes Audio RSS Feed You just finished reading Aftertaste #25: After WP Late Night 15 (with Ipstenu!) […] You just finished reading Aftertaste #25: After WP Late Night 15 (with Ipstenu!) on WPCandy. Please consider leaving a comment! The post Aftertaste #25: After WP Late Night 15 (with Ipstenu!) appeared first on WPCandy.