When it comes to adding features to a WordPress plugin, how many are too many? That’s the question facing the WordPress Performance Team with regard to the Performance Lab plugin.
Recent additions of SQLite and WebP image conversion functionality have resulted in some constructive criticism from WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg. As Sarah Gooding reports at WP Tavern, Mullenweg has asked that these items be spun off into individual plugins.
This jibes with Mullenweg’s previous call to revive canonical plugins. That is, a plugin that’s community supported and adds niche functionality.
On the other side of the coin, Performance Team members expressed concern that separate plugins may mean less visibility. As it stands, Performance Lab has over 30,000 active installs. A new niche plugin will have to start from ground zero in terms of publicity.
Multiple options are being discussed and the results could mean big changes for similar community-driven plugins.
Links You Shouldn’t Miss
As WordPress has grown to power over 40% of the web, the need for knowledgeable experts has increased. But how can we determine who qualifies? The WP Minute’s Eric Karkovack looks at the potential impact of a WordPress certification program.
The first major WordPress plugin acquisition of 2023 belongs to Awesome Motive, as they’ve scooped up Duplicator. A website backup and migration plugin, Duplicator currently has over 1 million active installs of its free version. The deal was announced via separate blog posts at WP Beginner and former owner, Snap Creek.
WordPress.com has announced Blaze, a tool that enables site owners to advertise their content on WordPress.com and Tumblr. Websites hosted on WordPress.com have a dedicated page to create their personalized ads, in addition to direct links on their site’s dashboard. Self-hosted WordPress sites can access similar functionality via the Jetpack plugin.
Make sure your installations are up-to-date, as backdoor malware targeting WordPress is on the loose. WP Tavern reports that the software runs on Linux and looks for vulnerabilities across several plugins and themes. Security researcher Dr. Web has the full list of vulnerable software.
The WordPress Five for the Future initiative is looking for feedback. A recent blog post examines the current “contributor journey” for both individuals and companies. Community members are encouraged to suggest improvements and share opinions.
ClassicPress, the open-source CMS forked from WordPress 4.9, has been contemplating its future of late. The project recently asked community members to vote on a path forward. By a narrow margin, members voted in favor of re-forking based on WordPress 6.0. Because the margin was so slim, project director Viktor Nagornyy is suggesting a hybrid approach to retaining compatibility with WordPress themes and plugins.
Classifieds listings buy yours
- Pressable makes it easy to manage sites with its award-winning control panel, but what if you’re managing sites across multiple accounts or hosts? Pressable is thrilled to announce its extension partnership with MainWP, which uses the Pressable API to provide a simple, yet powerful solution for this all-too-frequent challenge.
From the Grab Bag
Now it’s time to take a look at some other interesting topics shared by our contributors.
- WordCamp Phoenix will take place from March 23-24, 2023 and is accepting speaker applications through January 24.
- CodeinWP has put together a list of the 35 best WordPress articles of 2022.
- WordPress developer Aurooba Ahmed has launched “The Daily 5 with Aurooba”, a podcast that focuses on productivity and entrepreneurship.
- AI tools are getting lots of buzz, but SEO expert John Locke’s latest video explains why he isn’t ready to hand content creation over to them just yet.
- Non-compete clauses are prevalent in tech, but they may be on their way out in the United States. The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a ban on the practice.
New Members This Week
- Dennis Dornon, follow @dennisdornon and @mymainwp
If you’re not a member yet, go to thewpminute.com/support/ to join.
Thanks to all of the members who shared these links today:
- Matt Cromwell
- Nate Finch
- Raquel Landefeld
- John Locke
- Birgit Pauli-Haack
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Consider Supporting The WP Minute
The WP Minute is an experiment in community journalism for WordPress. If you want to support me, my team, and all of those that contribute – head on over to thewpminute.com/support.
Buy us a digital coffee for as little as $5 OR better yet! Join our community of WordPress newsies, get access to our Slack server, private podcast, or purchase a classifieds listing!
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