Press the Issue

Top Takeaways

• Brian and Teron recall their impressions of 6.1 from the WCUS Q&A with Matt Mullenweg
• They discuss stand out features, accessibility, and what’s going on under the hood.
• Also determined – to what extent does this release move WordPress forward?

Press These Links

• Download WordPress 6.1 now
• Version 6.1 details
• Matt Mullenweg’s 6.1 announcement from WCUS

Episode Transcript

Monet Davenport: Welcome to Press The Issue, a podcast for MasterWP, your source for industry insights for WordPress professionals. Get show notes, transcripts, and more information about the show at masterwp.com/presstheissue.

With every new version of WordPress comes an array of changes, updates, and adjustments. Understanding each and every change and how they affect your sites can be daunting. So join Brian and Teron as they discuss the most exciting things coming to WordPress in 6.1.

Teron Bullock: How you doing today, Brian?

Brian Coords: I’m doing good. How are you doing today?

Teron Bullock: I’m well. I’m excited. I know we have a great conversation today. We’re going to talk about WordPress 6.1, and I’m excited to jump into it.

Brian Coords: Yeah, I’m excited too. This is kind of a pretty cool release, and I feel like there’s a lot to talk about coming out with WordPress 6.1.

Teron Bullock: All right, so let’s get right into it. So, I want to paint the picture for everyone. We were both at WordCamp US in San Diego, and we were sitting outside the conference doors, and we were all waiting for Matt Mullenweg to come in and give us this announcement, as he normally does to end the WordCamps. Do you know what they call it, his address? I can’t remember the exact name, but I know-

Brian Coords: Yeah, so it used to be that he would give a speech called the State of the Word, where he would talk about the full year, but in the last few years they’ve separated that. So the State of the Word usually happens now in December, and so he’ll probably do a small presentation then, and this one was really mostly a Q and A with just a short presentation at the beginning. And I think they just called it Q and A with Matt Mullenweg.

Teron Bullock: Right. So we’re waiting on this Q and A from Matt, and it seemed like the anticipation in the room was surreal. It’s weird because on one hand, you had ... It was like almost had a fever pitch, you had so many people who were just chomping at the bits trying to figure out, can we get in the room? What is he going to say? What’s going to happen? But then you had other people who were kind of like, “All right, here’s another conversation, here’s another address,” yada, yada, yada, like, “What can we expect?” So you had the people who were super excited, but then you had other people who were almost waiting to be disappointed.

And I found it, because this is my first WordCamp US, and so I found it to be really intriguing. I was one of the people that was on the side of like, okay, I’m expecting to see Elvis, Tupac, and Michael Jackson on stage or something, because it just was like really motivating to see as many people who were waiting to hear what people had to say about WordPress. And so I’m wondering, what was your experience before we even got into that room?

Brian Coords: Yeah, well it comes at the end of the conference, so you’ve been there for a couple of days, and like every conference, it’s very exciting, but it’s also very exhausting. So you’re, a lot of socializing, a lot of talking to people, a lot of walking around, a lot of late nights, those sorts of things. So I’m sure I came into it a little bit exhausted and worn down, but also, it’s your one chance to see the defacto leader of WordPress sort of engage with the community. He’s a very busy person, so he has a lot of other companies and social platform to run, so I think people just like to see where his head’s at, what he’s thinking about, what he’s focusing on, because it’s kind of your one opportunity, apart from the State of the Word and apart from sometimes he does another Q and A at the WordCamp Europe, but that’s really in the US that one opportunity to see, what is he going to talk about? What are people going to ask him about? What is the topic of conversation in WordPress?

Teron Bullock: Absolutely. So we get into the room, we all sit down, and then it’s like a quiet comes over the room, and he’s addressed or announced. And then like you said, this presentation shows up on the screen, and it’s WordPress 6.1. And when that presentation first rolled out, what was your initial thoughts?

Brian Coords: Yeah, well the first thing I remember seeing, and I have a pretty terrible memory, but what I remember w...

For years, WordCamps have been run by volunteers, and all the content has been produced by volunteer speakers. Lately, there have been more and more conversations around compensating speakers for their time and expertise. In this episode, Allie and Devin break down the details of what paying event speakers could look like.

Episode Transcript

Monet Davenport: Welcome to Press The Issue, a podcast for Master WP, your source for industry insights for WordPress professionals. Get show notes, transcripts, and more information about the show at masterwp.com/presstheissue.

Monet Davenport: For years, WordCamps have been run by volunteers, and all the content has been produced by volunteer speakers. Lately, there have been more and more conversations around compensating speakers for their time and expertise. In this episode, Allie and Devin break down the details of what paying event speakers could look like.

Devin Egger: Today, we’re here with Allie Nimmons talking about why speakers at WordCamps need to get paid. Hey Allie, how are you doing?

Allie Nimmons: Hey, Devin. I’m really good. How are you?

Devin Egger: I’m doing great. Thanks for taking the time to sit down with me.

Allie Nimmons: Of course.

Devin Egger: So this is definitely a topic that we’ve talked about a little bit here at Master WP, and I’m really glad you’re coming to talk a little bit more about the idea of speakers getting paid at WordCamps, and that’s definitely something that’s been quite a hot button topic. So I guess just kind of starting out, just in general, what are your kind of thoughts on this whole issue and where do you stand on it? I mean, obviously we probably think that people need to get paid, but what do you think?

Allie Nimmons: Yeah. I definitely think that speakers should be paid. I think that anyone who is providing a service based off of their knowledge, their expertise, their experience, there needs to be adequate compensation for that. I understand the model that we have that exists right now, which is super community-based. It’s very volunteer-oriented. It’s very education for the sake of education and learning for the sake of learning.

Allie Nimmons: And I don’t think that there’s anything inherently wrong with people speaking for free. It’s a choice. And I think that in a lot of ways, it destresses the situation in terms of, you can decide to speak at a WordCamp for free and not have kind of additional pressures of, okay, well they’re paying me this much, so everything has to be super duper perfect. Right? I think as a speaker, if you’re doing it for free, you can feel a little bit more comfortable, maybe making mistakes here or there, or maybe speaking for the first time. There’s not as much pressure if you’re doing it on a volunteer basis.

Allie Nimmons: But we start to get into issues where people can’t speak as readily without being compensated, or people are trying or speaking a lot and they’re not being compensated, or at a certain point, the payoff of having that exposure is not worthwhile anymore. And so people are, what’s the word, de-encouraged. It’s not the right word. I’ll think of it later. But it’s not as attractive to speak, especially because there are so many other tech conferences and other types of business conferences out there that do pay.

Allie Nimmons: So if you’re approaching somebody from maybe the fringes or outside of the WordPress community and you’re asking them to come in and to speak and to share their knowledge, a lot of people do expect some sort of compensation for that time because it’s been a standard in other communities. Like I’ve spoken at tons of WordCamps for free, and I love doing that, but I’ve also been offered speaking engagements for other events. I’ve been paid up to $1,500 to just speak. Not anything crazy, not anything more than a WordCamp speaker would be expected to do, and it was just, “Hey, we’d like you to speak. Here’s how much you get paid.” No beating around the bush.

Allie Nimmons: So I think that there’s value to paying people. I understand right now why we don’t, but I understand also coming out of the pandemic, people are very precious with their time and their energy. And I think we’re seeing this really interesting shift right now in companies really appreciating the fact that it’s hard to just speak for free even virtually, and that we need to put our money where our mouths are when it comes to actually paying people to speak.

Devin Egger: Right. Yeah, totally. And that also brings about... You touched on it, but the idea that because we gain so much benefit from WordPress being free and open source, I think that’s kind of the central idea behind it, right, is that we are giving back to that and we provide some additional benefit from our end for being able to use WordPress and benefiting from the open source community. But like you said, that makes it really di...

Balancing work life and personal life has always been a challenge up until and continuing into the pandemic. There are actionable and adaptable ways to achieve this balance. In this episode, Lauren Ward talks to Nyasha Green about her six main tips for work life balance, including one bonus seventh tip.

Episode Transcript

Balancing work life and personal life has always been a challenge up until and continuing into the pandemic. There are actionable and adaptable ways to achieve this balance. In this episode, Lauren Ward talks to Nyasha Green about her six main tips for work life balance, including one bonus seventh tip.

Nyasha Green: Hey Lauren, how are you doing today?

Lauren Ward: I’m doing great Ny. How are you?

Nyasha Green: I’m doing well, doing well. I’m really excited to speak with you today. We’re going to talk about an article that you did for MasterWP. The title was Boundaries, Zoom Calls, and Potty-talk:Keeping a sane work/life balance in tech. And I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions about your article and just talk about a few things that I thought were really interesting that you wrote. And I just want to start off by asking you what inspired you to write this article?

Lauren Ward: Wow. So my kids and my personal journey were definitely a big inspiration for me, but also knowing that there are others out there in tech looking for a better work, life balance, whether it’s newbies, who might just be starting off in WordPress and wondering how in the world are going to juggle all the things and still enjoy life. Or if it’s the seasoned WordPress developer, who’s realizing that there are just some things in life they want to switch up for a better balance. That’s kind of where my inspiration came from. And honestly, I’m just hoping that my ideas help others in some way.

Nyasha Green: Nice. Nice. And you start off the article by talking about just the routine that you have for not only your family, but yourself. Do you think it’s easier now to do all the things that you are able to do now because you have a routine set?

Lauren Ward: Oh, absolutely. Having a routine in place and setting expectations, not only for my family, but also within myself has proven to help me achieve both day to day work goals, like getting a project completed as well as long term personal goals, like taking a trip or vacation every now and then. And as a side note, I’ve found that having a trip to look forward to even a small one helps so much with being consistent in routines, kind of like a little reward.

Nyasha Green: Yeah, definitely. And with your routine, were you the main one to set this routine up or was it you and your partner? How did you guys go about it?

Lauren Ward: My husband and I definitely worked together to set up our routines and create structure for a productive week. We rely, heavily rely on good communication between us and our shared Google Calendar really helps us along. But setting our routine has not only allowed us to accomplish work goals, but also having more quality time as a family, as well as being intentional and parenting our kids together. And that’s not to say that every day is a win, but having our routines in place has really helped us along.

Nyasha Green: That is so awesome. And it’s funny you say that. I’ve tried to share my Google Calendar with my husband, like a million times. And he finally told me he was like, there’s no way I’m looking at that. I don’t know what you have going on, but the technology you can use to support these routines are definitely, really awesome.

Lauren Ward: Absolutely.

Nyasha Green: How long did it take you all to get into a good routine? I know we’ve talked in the past about how been pretty organized and you are organized. You’re like my role model when it comes to organization. I need help. But how long did it take for you all to get on a good routine together?

Lauren Ward: Well, it’s definitely been a work in progress. Starting off, we tested different strategies and found things that worked for us as well as things that didn’t, and when something didn’t work, we just simply adjusted our strategy and moved forward from there. I think it’s all about testing to see what works and what doesn’t and just having a positive attitude in general about it, but also staying flexible. And when it comes to working while having kids at home, things come up and you sometimes just have to roll with it.

Nyasha Green: Yeah. And speaking of, so you do have two boys. You do have children. I just know you have to have a good story. Do you have any good or funny stories about having them at home while you’re working?

Lauren Ward: Yes. Oh my goodness. Yes. One in particular, I was on a business call with about 15 other professionals and it was my turn to talk. And my little one came in, running into the room, wrapped his arms around me while I was on vide...

In many instances, WordPress prioritizes accessibility in ways that other CMS’s and open source projects do not. But that doesn’t mean we do things perfectly. In this full-length episode of Press the Issue, Allie Nimmons explores WordPress accessibility from as many angles as she can in order to answer the question – how accessible is WordPress?

Episode Transcript

Monet Davenport: Welcome to Press the Issue, a podcast for Master WP, your source for industry insights for WordPress professionals. Get show notes, transcripts, and more information about the show at masterwp.com/presstheissue.

Allie Nimmons: I love podcasts. I love creating them, but I mostly love listening to them. In my car, while I get ready in the morning, while I make dinner, and every so often I stop and think about how privileged I am that I can listen without any assistive technology or devices.

Allie Nimmons: A lot of the time as makers of the web, we forget how easy it is to just read something or listen to something, or just do something in the way the creator of that thing intended, without wondering if there will be some kind of special option for us. The world has been created with able bodied, neurotypical people in mind. Michelle Frechette, in addition to being a very good friend of mine, is the director of community engagement at StellarWP, co-founder of Underrepresented In Tech, and the director of community relations at Post Status. In a recent episode of our own Underrepresented In Tech podcast, she shared her perspective as a wheelchair user. She had recently given a talk about accessibility, and here’s a little of what she had to say about the content of that presentation.

Michelle Frechette: I talked about Word Camp US in Nashville, and for people who are able bodied, they were like, “Wow, this is a long walk.” Well, for somebody walking with a cane, because at the time that’s what I was using, who’s running out of breath and whose legs and back are about to collapse, it was probably a quarter mile walk. So by the time I got to lunch, because you had to go all the way basically one city block and then halfway down the other one. And so you’re talking about a quarter of a mile there at least. And by the time I got there, I was already stressing about having to walk back. So yeah, I could eat, but now my knees are already hurting. My back’s already hurting. Is that really accessible?

Allie Nimmons: After that experience, Michelle did share her thoughts with the organizers, and the next Word Camp US she made sure to ask about the spatial accessibility of the event. Organizers assured her that the event space was indeed accessible, but that wasn’t completely true.

Michelle Frechette: The people who reviewed those are able bodied walkers, people who go for walks for fun, those kinds of things. And to them it didn’t seem that far. But to somebody who has to use a cane or who can’t walk long distances, it was still... And luckily I had a scooter for Word Camp US that year, but if I hadn’t I would’ve been hurting and I would not have been able to participate to the extent that I did.

Allie Nimmons: We can often find it difficult to really put ourselves in the place of someone who has not lived the way that we do. I will admit before meeting and spending time with Michelle, I didn’t really look at the world from wheelchair level. For example, recently I’ve been looking at apartments to move into. All of them without fail have had only stairs. Previously I may not have given a second thought to that, but each time I think, well Michelle could never visit me here because there’s not an elevator. When we look at the web, things are not that much better. There’s a pretty big disparity between how many people need accessible websites and how many accessible websites there are. As one of the largest tools and communities for website building, WordPress has a lot of power to grow or diminish that disparity.

Allie Nimmons: My name is Allie Nimmons, I’m a WordPress builder, instructor, community member, contributor and digital producer of this podcast. As I press into issues relating to the WordPress open source project and beyond, I want to explore how accessible WordPress is. The code, the systems, the events and the community. Press the Issue is sponsored by Cloudways. Cloudways managed hosting ensures that your sites get the performance boost they deserve. It offers you fast speeds, uptime and managed security at affordable rates. Learn more at cloudways.com.

Allie Nimmons: Press the Issue is sponsored by Weglot. Discover a way to translate your WordPress site that’s easy to install, compatible with all themes and plugins, implements multilingual SEO and translates your site with machine translation, with full post-editing control. Learn more at weglot.com. That’s W-E-G-L-O-T .com.

Allie Nimmons: Accessibility might be a bit of a new topic to you, so I want to g...

It is the duty of those who build with the internet to ensure accessibility. But what does that all mean, beyond completing a set of checklists? In this episode, Devin Egger and Teron Bullock connect to discuss the realities and challenges of web accessibility.

This podcast was sponsored by LearnDash. Your expertise makes you money doing what you do. Now let it make you money teaching what you do. Create a course with LearnDash. Visit LearnDash.com.

Press the Issue is a production of MasterWP. It was produced by Allie Nimmons. It was hosted and edited by Monet Davenport and mixed and mastered by Teron Bullock. Please visit masterwp.com/presstheissue to find more episodes. Subscribe to our newsletter for more WordPress news at masterwp.com.

Episode Transcript:

Monet Davenport: Welcome to Press the Issue, a podcast for Master WP, your source for industry insights for WordPress professionals. Get show notes, transcripts, and more information about the show at masterwp.com/presstheissue.

Monet Davenport: It is the duty of those who build with the internet to ensure accessibility, but what does that all mean beyond completing a set of checklists? In this episode, Devin Egger and Teron Bullock connect to discuss the realities and challenges of web accessibility. Teron Bullock: How you doing today, Devin? Devin Egger: I'm doing good, Teron. How are you? Teron Bullock: I'm doing excellent. I know we have an exciting episode today. We're going to talk about web accessibilities and we're going to deal with it from the perspective of the end user. Devin Egger: Yeah. I was really excited when I started this article and presented this idea. As a developer, we're both developers, I'm sure you as well as I have read lots of articles on how to make websites accessible, and they always are tackling it from a very technical mindset and this is what you do in the code to make things accessible. And I feel so much that when you do that, yeah, we nerd out on it and we like that. We're like, "Okay. Yeah, cool." But then your project managers and your content writers and your designers then, they just tune out. You know? Teron Bullock: Right. Devin Egger: And I think that it's a conversation for everyone to have. And so I think by taking a step back and looking at web accessibility from a non-technical perspective, we can gain a lot and we can really look at it from a personal standpoint, because at the end of the day, we're doing this for people. Teron Bullock: So hearing you speak about the end user, it makes me think, why did the end user become the focus for you? Devin Egger: That's a good question. I mean, it kind of started off way back when I was a kid, before the web was even really a thing. I grew up with my grandma, one of my grandmas was blind, and so there was all these braille books around the house. So she knew how to read braille. I kind of started learning how to read braille when I was a kid, but that's not something that ever really materialized anything. But I'd always kind of thought in the back of my mind what would this be like if you couldn't see right. Just kind of fast forwarding several years, decades later, being a web developer, the whole idea of accessibility first came to mind. I think as a lot of web developers do, I had a client that was afraid of getting sued. So they're saying, "Hey, there's all these lawsuits going on. And people are getting sued for their website not being accessible. I don't really even understand what this means. But either way, we need you to make our website accessible." Teron Bullock: Right. Devin Egger: And so to be completely honest, I really didn't know what that meant either. And so when I initially started getting diving into it and doing research about what accessibility was as it relates to websites, I always like to look at the history of things, so looking at the history of web accessibility stems back to the Americans with Disabilities Act. It started with people busting curbs, people taking sledge hammers and busting curbs so that people in wheelchairs could actually use the streets, could get over the curbs. Devin Egger: Knowing that that kind of was the start of it really brought a personal aspect to it for me. There's a lot of videos out there that will share what the experience is like using websites, for example, if you're blind. And that's kind of the big one that comes to mind all the time, it's most easy for us to think about, "Well, if I just close my eyes and then I can't see the website," and so you can kind of just imagine how difficult it would be to use the website. But then think about some of that's been amputated or that has cerebral palsy. See people that I didn't even think about like, "Oh, what if you couldn't use a keyboard or mouse?" Teron Bullo...