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 2021 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/