Issue #74 - Slowing - Floating Form, WP Journey, Who Won

We are getting into ‘slow news mode’ as the holiday break is almost here. Still, a few important things to catch up with like displaying contact form in a chatbox, freemius’s knowledge acquisitions, upcoming events for WordPress users, and the most important question – who won The WP Awards 2021?

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• This is Cool… now you can display Fluent Form within a chat box triggered by a floating button with the latest update 3.2.0 of WP Social Ninja plugin (also, added a native widget for Beaver Builder users). And, how about going retro with Winamp styled audio block for WordPress? If you don’t know Winamp – well, you are too young!
  
  
• New Releases… Freemius did really well in teasing if they acquired or got acquired. Well, it seems they acquired tons of knowledge on acquisitions and are launching the gamechangers video series. Also, the team at WP Fusion has released event tracking addon (beta) for users of Groundhogg and other marketing systems.
  
  
• Insightful & Resourceful… Lesley Sim beautifully explained the journey of the new look Newsletter Glue website with new positioning, re-enforcing the fact – at the start, done is better than perfect! Also, check out free Elementor course released by Rolf van Root to build custom websites from scratch with Elementor power.

1. WP Ecosystem… ahead of holiday rush, Nexcess is updating WooCommerce hosting with built-in automated testing that displays detected issues within the WP dashboard with a simple green, yellow, red code system. Also, Bob Dunn is all excited to embark on the 6,500 miles (8 days) trip to attend State of the Word 2021.
   
   
2. Next Year… in 2022, what can we expect from WordPress in terms of performance, ease of use, and other changes? Brian Francoeur has published his predictions over at Convesio blog. Also, Sandy Edwards shared about the Expand 2022 event from GoDaddy Pro team scheduled for April 27, 2022. Applications are now open for this ‘hybrid’ event in Orlando, and online.
   
   
3. Blocks Life… Gutenberg 12.0 added a bunch of changes like block styles preview on hover, featured image block visual enhancements, paragraph block with combined typography controls, and more. And, with the ‘full site editing’ almost here, David McCan explored various no code options to create single and archive templates for custom post types. Finally, Courtney Robertson elaborates on duotone filter for cooler looking images in the block editor.
   
   
4. Preparing for WordPress 5.9… the beta 1 version of WordPress 5.9 is now available for your testing before we all go off for the holiday break. Also, here is a very insightful read from Anne McCarthy, “why I voted to delay WordPress 5.9 release”.

• WordPress 2021 Year in Review: A video chat a few of us did.
• Now search for content to reuse at Openverse on WP org site.
• WP deployment tool Branch is once again open for new users.
• Now a calendar for events at the WP Live Streams Directory.
• WordCamp Birmingham is 1st in-person event on Feb 4, 2022.
• Note: WordFest call for speakers closes today, Dec 6, 2021.
• David Waumsley’s new Simple Revolutions focus on KISS & Agile.

Voting has closed at the debut edition of The WP Awards 2021. Now, it’s over to me to count all your votes and find out who won this popularity contest (well, a contest revealing what real users actually use!). In all transparency, the results page will show every vote for every nominee product – fair enough?

Results are coming soon – before you log off for the holiday break. Also, a big thanks to the following sponsors of the ‘The WP Awards 2021’ event.

• Ending this WEEK Fluent Support plugin founder's lifetime deal.
• 195+ Deals: A massive WordPress Black Friday 2021 Deals page.
• Massive 4TB pCloud storage plan for your WP backups and files.
• Buzz worthy, the Zion Builder is on Appsumo with $99 LTD deal.
• Conversions made easy on WP sites with ConvertBox online tool.
• Make Elementor & Beaver client friendly with Wallace Inline.
• Not comfortable with CSS? MicroThemer makes it all easy.

Upcoming Events...

Dec, 2021: The WP Awards 2021 results (counting in progress).
Dec 11, 2021: WordCamp Taiwan is also online only and free.
Dec 14, 2021: State of the Word 2021 by Matt Mullenweg.
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By
Davinder Singh Kainth
A creative who Loves to Create Online Spaces powered by WordPress.

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