The WP Minute - WordPress news Matt Report & Matt Medeiros

WordPress is amazing not just because it’s a great tool to publish words on the internet, but that it has the potential to encourage you to learn more about the web — if you want. 

If you remember the golden age of automobiles, enthusiasts would change their own oil or make the repairs themselves to avoid bringing them to the dealership. An act to save a few bucks or just because you loved the idea of doing the work yourself. Back then, cars weren’t powered by computer chips or electric motors — they were mechanically pure — this was your rig. 

You rolled up your sleeves, got out your toolbox, and slid under the chassis of your daily driver. Not only were you learning how cars were built, you were extending that knowledge to work on other cars as well. Industry knowledge that lead folks to have a career in automobiles, wherever that took them.

There was a whole economy of DIY auto mechanics — a whole industry, really. 

Chilton Books used to publish guides for the DIYers which included detailed diagrams of the cars they were repair until the internet accompanied by the production of more complex cars laid waste to their business. Breaking apart a car to learn how it worked just wasn’t feasible anymore. 

You could even draw the parallels of open source WordPress to the likes of a closed source Webflow, for instance. 

Sure, you can learn how to build and design website with Webflow — in fact you kinda need to know how to before you dive in — but that mechanical purity is what’s missing. 

In other words, you can’t dismantel Webflow and see how it’s doing its thing, but you can with WordPress. You can’t bring closed source systems to a different hosting server and reconfigure the stack to get it dialed-in for optimum performance or to change where you store your data — you can with WordPress. 

The big debate happening right now is understanding who WordPress is for. What kind of software are we building? It’s certainly trending towards a more competent website builder for the everyday user, but I also think it’s ushering in a new type of developer class as well. 

Developers are finicky. They are mostly stuck in their ways, have their preferred toolset, and come equipped with strong opinions. Artists in the very sense. 

Your typical development stack for WordPress, along with the definition, has been challenged over the last 5 years as page builders became more nascent. If you’re not cracking open Notepad++ to change your theme, are you even a developer? 

Advancements in the Site Editor and the Gutenberg project aside, Automattic has been quietly changing the way people can get started with WordPress faster than ever before thanks to Playground and the recently launched Studio app. 

Now to the point of the article: This is how WordPress is helping beginner developers.

With Playground, you can export the site you build right in the browser as a ZIP download. Want to try a new feature that is only in GitHub and not committed to the release? Pull it from Github and try it out. Studio lets you run multiple WordPress installs locally on your Mac (Windows soon) along with a full filesystem to interact with. Want to share your customized site with someone? They’ll give you temporary hosting on WordPress.com to share the site you built. 

This onboarding into WordPress is lightyears ahead of where we were in the past. Even if you’re a curmodgeoned developer stuck in your ways, you must admit, it’s never been faster to start exploring WordPress than it is today. 

I haven’t even told you about the Block Theme Builder plugin, which allow you to design an entire theme inside your WordPress install, allowing you to package it all up into a nice distributable WordPress theme. 

I love software that makes me feel powerful. A power user, that isn’t quite a full-blown developer, but I can see the other side of the fence and I want to get there.

This is what I love about Word

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Sam Harrison, a professional Webflow consultant and content creator. 

He was open to co-host a WordPress vs Webflow debate with me, while also unpacking how business is going for his services company. Heading into the debate, I spent a a few hours watching his content and really enjoyed his Webflow Components Basics + How to Start a Web Design Business. So why did I invite Sam on? 

Page Builders, especially Bricks, has been the topic du jour of late.

That crowd really wants WordPress to have much more power inside the editor — and I totally get it. These powerful 3rd party tools can be really attractive, and if you haven’t been in the WordPress space for the last 20 years, you start to wonder why our favorite CMS is lacking these features. 

Bricks is often framed as the tool that brings a Webflow experience inside WordPress — all the powerful design and page building tools you could want, surely. I’ve had some conversations with prominent WordPress agencies now offering Webflow as an alternative solution to WordPress. 

It all makes sense…But the choice shouldn’t start at which tool to use, but whether or not you want open source software or a commercial solution for your project.

To simplify: do you care that you have the benefits of open source WordPress (along with the baggage) or does having a single turnkey app provide the best solution? Now how does that play out if you’re selling services to clients?

Sam and I played a little game where we placed the winning cards of particular features of the competing platforms in their respective columns. 

I’ll admit, the odds were stacked against Sam (and Webflow) seeing that he was on my podcast, but WordPress comes out the winner in most areas, so long as you’re siding with the advantages of open source. The ecosystem, the community, the ability to customize the platform — it’s a hard sell to get me to use Webflow. 

That doesn’t mean we can’t learn from Webflow and their users. Let’s face it, it’s not a fluke that they’ve been successful for this long.

Having a comprehensive toolset to design pages makes a lot of sense. Also not having to worry about updates, hosting, and 3rd party software conflicts sounds like a dream that Webflow users get to live everyday. 

Though I noticed that in this short time of exploring Webflow, WordPress isn’t massively behind, pound for pound. And I’m talking specifically just core, not even when you decide to bring in plugins like ACF or Gravity Forms. 

If you like the design tools and interface of Webflow, mixed with their new Components libraries — the gap in WordPress isn’t all that wide. 

However, when you look at something like the writing experience — specifically blogging or posts in general — Webflow isn’t even competing in the same league. Sorry, Sam. 

I guess what I’m saying is, as much as we can learn from the UI/UX and passionate community of Webflow — their team could also learn from WordPress. Heck, Gutenberg is an open source project, even Drupal has a fork. Maybe Webflow could improve their content editor with…Gutenberg? Go open source! 

Let me know what you think! 
Watch the WordPress vs Webflow video: https://www.youtube.com/live/p82lLK56XOE?si=2_1zuEPsKHI7aft7


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March 22 2024
It’s the WP Minute! 

Today we ask, “Who’s responsible for WordPress marketing?” 

Coming up next! 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy, Executive Director of the WordPress Open Source project, posted an idea that shifts the dynamics of the WordPress Marketing team. 

A call for a Media Press Corps. Also known as a Dramatic Shift.

It’s still too early to tell if this initiative will stick, so I won’t comment directly on the idea of a Media Press Corps at the moment. Stay tuned to this space as that story develops.

However, this shift begs the question, Who is responsible for WordPress marketing?

[Classified]

Let me TL;DR it for you first, as my boss at Gravity Forms Carl Hancock says, “It’s the entire ecosystem.” Something I agree with, and not just because he signs my paycheck. 

The ecosystem as a whole has always been the biggest driving force for WordPress adoption. Because WordPress is not a product first organization. It’s not a corporate entity. 

It’s open source software & community. 

Sure, it happens to be lead by Matt Mullenweg who founded the software, who also owns Automattic, can irritate us at times, but also pours a tremendous amount of resources into a project that we all enjoy. Still, doesn’t make WordPress.org a product first initiative. 

There’s no budget, there’s no access to crucial data, there’s no access to social channels, and the marketing team has no influence on the direction of the project. I’m sure I’m missing something else. 

How far could an official Marketing Team take it? An insurmountable task I wouldn’t want to take on. 

Which leaves the marketing of WordPress up to you and I: 
You’re an agency owner, you’re preaching to clients about the advantages of WordPress.You’re a blogger, you’re telling people to own their own content & platform.You’re a YouTuber, you’re teaching viewers how to use WordPress.You’re a Managed WordPress hosting provider, you’re talking about how fast and scalable WordPress is.You’re a plugin author, you’re selling on the idea that you’re making a good platform even better.You’re a WordPress Media outlet, you’re informing, educating, and entertaining an audience.
Whether we call it a Marketing Team or a Media Press Corps, WordPress biggest marketing advantages — even in the face of Wix/squarespace Super Bowl ads — is us, like it always has been.

So tell me, how would you spread awareness and brand positioning for WordPress? Got a thought about a WordPress Media Corps? Hit reply and let me know.

Together with The Repository
Coming up in The Repository this week: We unpack the announcement that WordPress is getting a media corps and cover Do the Woo’s big move to WordPress.com. Plus, the latest on the upcoming WordPress 6.5 release.

Not a subscriber? Sign up at therepository.email for more on what’s happening in WordPress – and what everyone’s saying about it.

Important Links
It’s that time again! More link goodies for WordPress news!
Josepha Haden Chomphosy introduces the idea for a WordPress Media Corps.WP Umbrella is getting hit with another wide spread phishing attack.Marcus Burnette ponders if we have a “versus” problem.WordPress 6.5 is next week, here’s what’s new according to Courtney Robertson. Also see the WordPress 6.5 Source of Truth post by Anne McCarthyWordPress dot com now supports GitHub deployments.Be sure to register for Using Site Editor in Production for Clients.Product owners: Optimize your Readme according to Matt CromwellMasterWP newsletter is shifting focus on AI a majority of the time.I discussed WordPress Media with Jonathan Denwood from WP Tonic.Video: Use This to Change Your Blocks EverywhereVideo: The One BIG Update Coming to WordPress 6.5

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Get all the links and the show notes here: https://thewpminute.com/?p=15501


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