General announcements

The Site Health Team did the suggested upgrade version bump for PHP in core this week, and over the next week users will start seeing a dashboard widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. if they are using PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php 5.6 or lower, guiding them towards upgrading.

A reminder that when flagging users, a moderation action limiting public display of posts until approved by a moderator, always educate the users on why this was done and what this means, there will also be more direct guidelines on when to flag users coming in the future, as the use of flags is becoming a bit too liberal, at least on the international forums.

And when writing notes on users, make sure to be descriptive enough, as they are available across all rosetta sites, and not everyone can read an archived post for example.

In other news, there’s a lively conversation going on at https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/4696 relating to WordPress profiles here on dotorg.

Increased use of the topic report feature by authors for invalid reasons

There has lately been an uptick in incorrect use of the report topic feature by pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. and theme authors, primarily because they don’t like getting negative feedback from users.

This has started to become a nuisance to the volunteers, and we would like to reiterate that the report feature is for forum guideline violations only. Continued misuse of the feature will lead to us reporting things to the theme or plugin teams respectively.

WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Timeline Update

WordPress 5.2.3 is scheduled for release on September 4th.

WordPress 5.3 is tentatively scheduled for release on November 12th.

Checking in with international liaisons

Members from our Russian, Swedish, Brazilian and Dutch communities took place in this weeks discussions.

If you are a part of a non-English speaking part of our community, we invite you to join our weekly meetings (if you can), as we would love to get ot know you!

Open floor

Some questions are going unanswered, notably relating to the new blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor. Although it’s a shame when someone doesn’t get helped, we’re all volunteers on a community forum, and it’s perfectly fine for some questions to not be answered, we’re all human, and we do what we can when we can, but nobody should feel obligated here.

The Health Check plugin was updated last week, and some of the more notable changes include:

• Changes to the grading indicator in the headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. (no longer uses a numeric value, instead it’s an indicator with a string for clarity)
• A new dashboard widget when you login to give you the site health at a glance
• A new PHP compatibility checker for plugins in the Tools section

For more changes, the full list is available at https://wordpress.org/plugins/health-check/#developers, and yes, some of the changes in the plugin relating to the grading indicator and Site Health Checks are being tested out and intended for a core release.

Read the meeting transcript in the Slack archives. (A Slack account is required)

#weekly-chat

General announcements

The Health Check Plugin has received an update which went live over the weekend between the meeting and this summary going out.

Useful new features are primarily related to the PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php Compatibility Checker, found under the Tools tab.

The suggested PHP version in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. is scheduled to go live on August 20th (this is for showing the dashboard widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. encouraging users to update their PHP version if they are using version 5.6 or lower).

The docs team is looking for input on what documentation is often needed, but is either missing or incomplete.

So far we’ve informed them that documentation on the new Site Health features (both checker, and fatal error protection) are desired, and that the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. documentation needs to be surfaced better as many did not know we had any.

Core updates

5.3 is tentatively scheduled to release mid-November, and a 5.2.3 release has been tentatively scheduled for early next month in the interrim.

Checking in with international liaisons

Members from Sweden, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands and India provided updates on how things are going in their regions.

Open floor

The plugins team gave a heads up that there’s a lot of trademark strikes being handled as companies are becoming more aggressive in what they do and don’t allow, which may cause some noise.

#weekly-chat

General announcements

As you may know, we’ve got a couple tools we use here in support, which are linked to from the handbook, and have been sitting neatly in my GitHub account, which felt… a little bit wrong, so https://github.com/wporg-support has been set up, and the various tools will be migrated over there one by one as they receive changes. If you’re already using existing versions, do not worry, they will automatically update to the new location (you may be prompted to accept the update, but that’s it)

The first tool to be ported is the simple Topic Highlighter, as it needed some bugfixes, and accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) improvements in the first place, anyone using that userscript will likely have received the update notification about 2 weeks ago, but I thought I should mention it any way to make sure everyone is in the loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop

WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. status

There’s no immediate plan for a WordPress 5.2.3 release, although we may see one depending on when the 5.3 release gets scheduled for (there’s no direct plan for that either at this time, but will keep you all posted as soon as there’s any information on either of these).

The most prominent thing for 5.2.3 would be a backport of a fix to the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. details, which require a bit of scrolling to read if you are using 5.2.2, as they got pushed down about 1-2 viewport heights

PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php Version requirements and recommendations in core

Of interest to the support crew is our PHP version progression roadmap, well I say roadmap but it’s out on a call for input right now at https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/2019/07/01/what-should-the-next-php-version-recommendation-be/

This is for the widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. in the dashboard recommending users upgrade, and not the hard minimum requirement to use WordPress, just so that’s mentioned, and it’ll be up for comment until at least this coming Monday, where we’ll look to make a call on what version we will recommend next. Once that call is made it’ll be put up and signal boosted so everyone is aware for a bit before we do the recommendation bump, but currently it looks like we’ll be aiming for PHP 7.1

Open floor

HelpHub i18n: The docs team will be picking two new locales to enable it on, judging by how those two progress, it’ll get enabled for the rest. They will announce what locales and such on make.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org//docs when things are ready

Read the meeting transcript in the Slack archives. (A Slack account is required)

#weekly-chat

General announcements

WordPress 5.2.1 is likely looking at a release early next week (the week of May 20th), to address some of the more time critical items (and any other items that are already done and patched) for 5.2.0

WordPress 5.2.0

We’re not seeing any new trending issues that haven’t already been tracked this past week, smooth sailing is the best sailing!

Checking in with international liaisons

Representatives from the Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Russian, Indian, Urdu and Spanish communities took part in this weeks discussions, and we had some exciting input on the reception of 5.2!

Open floor

A custom page is being created to cover the various Site Health elements (WSOD protection, the health checker and such), which will ive under wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org//support.

The site will feature custom design elements for user consumption, and be made available for rosetta site translations.

The Italian community have started a collaboration with the local polyglots teamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/ to translate the handbooks.

WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Bristol will be having their Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ tomorrow (May 17th), remember to he kind and helpful as new users with little experience may show up throughout the day!

We’re also still hoping to plan a Support (Appreciation) Day, if you’re interested in taking the reins on this, please let us know in the comment section below, as we would love help with this.

Read the meeting transcript in the Slack archives. (A Slack account is required)

I don’t judge people by their worst mistakes.

Natasha Romanova – Avengers: Endgame

#weekly-chat