Issue #139 Loop WP

Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #139 of Loop WP!

Last time, it was a special edition and one of my favourite issues of the year, as I revealed your:

• Top 10 newsletters of the previous 6 months.

• Your newsletter of the year.

• Loop WP’s “Rewind” end-of-year review. 🎉

This week things almost return to normal as we get caught up on some things that have happened in the last couple of weeks, including some special highlights and a plugin update.

We also have a packed News section with lots of “good” news!

Let’s go! 👇

Progress Planner Update

⏳ Back in Issue #131, I covered a new plugin called Progress Planner from Joost de Valk and Marieke van de Rakt.

✅ The plugin has lots of potential, and it would definitely encourage me to write and publish content.

🙌 Progress Planner is very much off to a solid start!

Since I reviewed version 0.95 of Progress Planner in Issue #131, there have been a lot of welcome updates, and I will cover these in more detail in a future newsletter.

🎉 The Pro version is about to be released on Thursday, January 9th.

In addition to the challenges, Progress Planner Pro includes easy-to-follow video courses that help users optimize key areas of their websites, such as creating impactful About pages or improving product pages.

(These courses are easily accessible inside your WordPress dashboard.)

Special Offer

To celebrate, Progress Plan is offering an exclusive pre-release on January 9th, 2025 .

The first 99 buyers can secure Progress Planner Pro for just €99 per year.

(After that, the annual subscription will be priced at €149).

The official release date is January 23rd, 2025.

What Did I Miss?

That’s a question we often hear at the beginning of the New Year.

😌 I took a much-needed break (not just from the WordPress drama), and I hope you did too, friend.

I did sneak in two quick newsletters, one about a large bombshell from Matt Mullenweg (more on that below) and another asking you a question.

🙌 Thank you so much to those who replied. If you didn’t, you can still vote or answer. I owe some of you a reply, and I will do that ASAP.

Back from Holiday

🏖️ I’m not the only one back from holiday.

In one of my quick updates over the holidays (for subscribers' eyes only), I covered Matt’s announcement that WordPress.org was going on holiday.

Well, it’s back 👇

If you aren’t a subscriber to my newsletter, you can read more about this story on The Repository.

Negative Contribution

🧠 Accessibility is a passion of mine. I neglected it for too long, and over the last three to four years I’ve been:

• Educate myself about accessibility and the benefits for everyone

• Educating my clients and sharing with the community

• Trying to make my designs more accessible

🫠 Accessibility is not easy, and WooCommerce, for example, has acknowledged this by bringing in external people to help improve its accessibility compliance (especially with the Europen Accessibility Act coming into play soon) and offering tips on best practices.

One of those people is Amber Hinds or Equalize Digital. After commenting on a provocative article from WordPress, Amber bore some unjust (in my opinion) criticism from Matt Mullenweg:

🤦‍♂️ In Matt’s view, this was “a negative contribution”, and I share the opinion of many others that this is unfair and untrue.

Again, The Repository covers this story in depth with additional context and commentary.

Disingenuous and Ridiculous

In my “humble” opinion (🤣), the news that Oliver Slid from Patchstack broke earlier today is baffling and utterly disrespectful towards the vital work that Patchstack does for the WordPress community.

No doubt more will unfold in this breaking story, and if you have not heard about the Cyber Resilience Act, you can learn more on the EC website.

I would love Oliver and the team to receive an apology and an opportunity to sponsor (as is), but I doubt that will happen.

That’s it for this week 👋

⏩ Next week, we will return to the usual format with less of a “highlights reel” and a more detailed topic.

I am still working through my emails, so I owe some lovely people a reply, but I promise I will get there.

Sponsorship Opportunities

🚨 The Google Doc contains all the details if you’re interested in sponsoring the Loop WP Newsletter.

🎉 I am taking bookings for the New Year for Classified and Main Sponsors.

Weekly WordPress News & Tips

This week's excellent and insightful WordPress News & Tips:

• EventKoi - A new calendar plugin is ready for some field testing. (Lesley Sim)

• Edge Images - Automagically speed up your images and optimize their markup via your edge provider of choice (Cloudflare / Accelerated Domains / Imgix, etc). (Jono Alderson)

• Bricks 101 - Mastering Bricks Builder For WordPress. (WP Tuts)

• Zoltar - 2025 WordPress Predictions. (The WP Minute)

• It’s Happening - Request for Feedback: Auto-Update the Database. (WooCommerce)

• New Representatives - Hosting and Themes Teams Announce Representatives for 2025. (WP Tavern)

• Winners! - The 2024 WP Weekly Award winners have been revealed. (WP Weekly)

• Congratulations - Eleni Stergatou Named First Recipient of Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship to Attend WordCamp Europe. (The Repository)

• No Problem - Introducing HPOS Compatibility Scanner for WooCommerce® (free). (Robert DeVore)

• Block Bindings - Use the WordPress Block Bindings API to power your blocks. (Eric Karkovach)

• Data Liberation - Your Data, your Move. (WordPress)

• Webmasters - Agency Workflows for Building with Full Site Editing ft Amor Kumar. (Brian Coords)

If you have a question about this email or WordPress, reply, and I will answer you as soon as possible.

👋 Until next time,