WordPress has allowed embedding third-party content in posts and on pages for ages. In the classic editor, it was possible to simply paste a link to a popular external service like Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, etc. Using a clever format called oEmbed, WordPress could retrieve the linked content from the respective platforms and embed it in its content. Today there are separate blocks for the individual providers in the block editor, but nothing has changed in the basic principle of this mechanism.

The whole thing is perfect for integrating videos, putting tweets in a larger context, or presenting your music. But as is often the case, there’s a downside to it. The negative side effects of embedded content are manifold.

Continue reading “Less crappy Twitter embeds please!” →

For the start of the new decade I have a new small project to announce. If you read my German WordPress newsletter WP Letter regularly, you might have noticed that I am always including articles about accessibility.

That’s no coincidence, as I am particularly interested in the accessibility of the web in general and of WordPress in particular.

Catching Attention

But because accessibility is still far too often ignored or at best poorly treated even in 2020, I would now like to proclaim the topic month of accessibility in January.

Continue reading “Focus on accessibility” →

Today is global climate strike, all over the world. I have been dealing with the problem of climate change for several months now, but unfortunately I am on holiday today. So I prepared a small blog post instead of a strike:

Anthropogenic climate change is real. And we are all part of the problem. In a year in which we in Europe have broken several heat records at once and are struggling in some places with violent wildfires and drought, I do not really want to waste time on such trivial statements, despite a few stubborn climate deniers.

Anyone who thinks about the climate damage they cause themselves will quickly have air travel, large apartments, cars or meat consumption on their list. But there is one comparatively large factor that we all too easily overlook: the Internet.

Continue reading “WordPress, the web and the climate” →

Community building in times of Twitter and Co

Since May 2010, Twitter has been one of the services that have connected me to the world. Friendly, interesting and inspiring people could be found here as well as news from all over the world. In fact, they still are today, Twitter is just working hard to become unusable for users like me

Contact with the “family”

Calling the WordPress community my family of choice may sound pathetic, but it’s pretty much what I feel. And as chance would have it, Twitter is a popular communication medium in the German as well as in the global community. This is one of the main reasons for me, not to turn my back on Twitter at the moment. But with any luck, there could be a real alternative for all of us.

Continue reading “From tweets to toots.” →

Anyone who asked me for a good SEO plugin for WordPress in 2015 got a definite answer within a split second: wpSEO, the paid plugin by Sergej Müller. After Sergej’s departure however, the slow death of the plugin began. The solution for an effective further development of the plugin is very simple.

Retrospect

In the time after Sergej’s departure from the community, there was a lot of movement. The free plugins from his portfolio were added to the Pluginkollektiv. The group still takes care of the plugins today – albeit in a slightly different composition. The WP Letter (German), Sergej’s free WordPress newsletter, found a new home with me and is (almost always) published regularly today.

wpSEO was in an uncertain state for a long time. It was established as a paid plugin on the German market and available as a lifetime license for a low double-digit amount. Sergejs engagement in updates and most of all in support was more than worth the money. When it was finally clear that a quite well known SEO person from Germany would take over the further maintenance of wpSEO, I – and many others with me – was first cautiously optimistic.

Continue reading “We saved wpSEO, we just don’t know it yet.” →