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A Decade of Contributing to WordPress

WordPress Trac ticket #17887 with a date of 10 years ago

Ten years ago today, I submitted my very first proposed change to WordPress itself and not long after, in August of 2011, I joined 10up. I have been fortunate to be a part of and grow with the WordPress community in the decade since. Not only have I grown from Web Engineer to Director of Open Source Initiatives at 10up, but also in that time, I’ve gone from being a first-time contributor to one of a handful of WordPress lead developers.

The power of open source and its communities continues to astound and humble me. I could never have dreamed this is where a little curiosity about the second freedom to “study how the program works and change it to make it do what you wish” would lead… and I look forward to seeing what the next decade of my career brings with it.

10up Uncovers Security Vulnerability in FileBird WordPress Plugin, Update Now Available

FileBird WordPress Plugin

As a leading contributor to WordPress, 10up is committed to the cultivation of a vibrant, collaborative, and healthy open-source ecosystem. We strive to strengthen open platforms and tools through responsible stewardship, and embrace the concept that “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.”

Last week, that work included helping a popular WordPress plugin with 90,000+ installs fix a critical security vulnerability.

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WP Engine Includes ElasticPress.io In New eCommerce Hosting Plans

WP Engine recently announced a new eCommerce solution for Small/Medium Businesses (SMBs) seeking to launch a new WooCommerce store or scale up, optimize, and increase revenue for an existing online store.

ElasticPress delivers Instant Search for WP Engine eCommerce Hosting Plans

The new solution offers an integration with ElasticPress.io — our fully integrated, end-to-end SaaS solution for adding the power of Elasticsearch to WordPress and WooCommerce.

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Seven 10up Projects Recognized In 25th Annual Webby Awards

25th Annual Webby Awards

The Webby Awards honors excellence on the Internet. It is the most widely accepted industry award recognizing websites, online video and advertising, apps, Internet games, and podcasts. For its 25th year, a record-breaking 13,500 projects from around the world were entered into the competition.

We were honored to discover that seven projects supported by 10up in 2020 have been recognized by The Webby Awards — including three listing 10up as the creator, and four others listing clients and partners.

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How To Optimize Search For A WordPress Ecommerce Store

Optimize Ecommerce Search

On Wednesday, March 31, I’ll be joining the team at WP Engine to deliver a free webinar titled How to Optimize Search for Your WordPress Ecommerce Store.

We’ll show how analytics can be used to create dynamic search results that boost sales and how modern search tooling can set up an online store to scale smoothly as the business grows. We’ll also highlight some ecommerce stores that are “doing it right” — like an apparel company that saw an 18% increase using the techniques this webinar covers.

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WordPress 5.7 Released

WordPress 5.7 was released this week, bringing with it a refined block editor UI, lazy-loading iframes, streamlined migration from HTTP to HTTPS, standardized colors in the WordPress Admin, and a new Robots API and media search engine visibility setting.

FunFact: WordPress 5.7 is named for Esperanza Spalding, a modern musical prodigy. This is only the second time a WordPress namesake has been a living jazz musician.

Nine 10uppers helped make this release possible, including myself, who was recognized as a Noteworthy Contributor. Thank you for helping make WordPress: Helen Hou-Sandí, Fabian Kaegy, Felipe Elia, John Watkins, Lukas Pawlik, Pete Nelson, Ramon Ahnert, and Stephanie Walters.