WP Builds Newsletter #41 – WordPress 5.0 RC2, Plugin vulnerabilities and FBI takes down ad fraud network

This weeks WordPress news – Covering The Week Commencing 26th November 2018:

WordPress 5.0 RC 1 Released, Gutenberg Passes 1 Million Installations
“WordPress 5.0 RC 1 was released over the weekend after a string of five betas that began in late October. According to the Gutenberg stats page, more than 1.1 million sites have the Gutenberg plugin installed and users have written more than 980,000 posts using the new editor. These numbers are conservative estimates, as the numbers only include WordPress.com sites and sites running Jetpack…”

WordPress 5.0 RC2
“The second release candidate for WordPress 5.0 is now available! This is an important milestone, as we near the release of WordPress 5.0. A final release date will be announced soon, based on feedback from this release candidate. Things are appearing very stable and we hope to announce a date soon. This is a big release and needs your help—if you haven’t tried 5.0 yet, now is the time…!”

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Mullenweg Ramps Up Communication Ahead of WordPress 5.0 Release, RC2 Now Available
“The official release date for WordPress 5.0 has not yet been announced, because it depends on feedback from RC2 testing. Contributors’ uneasiness with not having an official release date seemed to reach a critical tipping point during this week’s WordPress dev chat, as many participants pressured Matt Mullenweg, who is leading the release, to give more information on when they can expect 5.0…”

WordPress 5.0: What the new Block Editor means for WooCommerce
“WordPress 5.0 will introduce the new block editor to WordPress. Through a complete revamping and modernization of the WordPress content-editing experience, content will be created as a series of blocks in a brand new interface. For WooCommerce store owners and developers, it’s the start of an exciting process that will make large parts of the admin interface easier-to-use, and more dynamic – including customization and management of posts and products…”

Jetpack 6.8: Building Jetpack for the new WordPress editor
“Today, we’re introducing the first wave of Jetpack blocks built specifically for the new WordPress editor, Gutenberg. The features you’ve come to rely on have been adapted for this new experience: payment buttons, forms, maps, and markdown. The new WordPress editor, Gutenberg, will be available to you as soon as WordPress 5.0 becomes available. If you’d like to try the editor today, you can install the Gutenberg plugin on your site. Once you’ve done so you’ll have access to all the blocks mentioned…”

New Toolset Release with Compatibility for WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg
“We just released an update for Toolset which focuses on compatibility with WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg. You will find Gutenberg blocks, a better workflow and many usability improvements. Last week, we shared our vision of how we see Toolset and Gutenberg editor working together. Now, we take a big first step in making sure Toolset plugins are ready for WordPress 5.0 and the new Gutenberg editor, even before the final release…”

WPCampus Seeks to Raise $30K for Gutenberg Accessibility Audit
“WPCampus is seeking funding to conduct an accessibility audit of WordPress’ Gutenberg editor. The non-profit organization is dedicated to helping web professionals, educators, and others who work with WordPress in higher education. Educational institutions often have stricter legal obligations that require software to be WCAG 2.0 level AA compliant and many European institutions set the bar even higher at WCAG 2.1…”

Is it Time to Move on From WordPress?
“The new editor is opt-out as opposed to opt-in (and opting out requires installing yet another plugin), and is such a significant departure from their original content editor that it is guaranteed to cause major issues with third-party plugins and themes (Gutenberg, for example, does not support WordPress’ meta box API, an essential component of customizing the current editing interface used by countless plugins.)…”

15+ Best Gutenberg-Compatible Themes
“Everybody is getting ready for the day Gutenberg arrives as the default editor in the WordPress core. Developers are either busy adding new functionality to their themes (and plugins) or engaged in building completely new Gutenberg-compatible themes from scratch…”

WordCamp US 2018 Livestream Tickets Now Available
“The countdown has started for WordCamp US 2018 in Nashville. The event is just 10 days away. If you cannot attend, watching via the livestream is the next best option. Anyone can join the livestream for free, but viewers will need to sign up for a ticket on the event website…”

Multiple Critical Vulnerabilities in LoginPress WordPress Plugin
“After our recent analysis, we started auditing different popular modules used by our customers. A LoginPress plugin for WordPress CMS gained our attention and we decided to look into it more deeply. Following issues were discovered…”

Non WordPress, but useful anyway…

Drupal 8.7 to Introduce Layout Builder, Contributors Face Accessibility Challenges
“WordPress 5.0 will soon replace the editor with the new Gutenberg editor as part of a multi-phase project to improve the experience of authoring rich content. Phase 2 will shift focus to tackle site customization, bringing more complex layout and page builder capabilities to Gutenberg…”

Gaming the Apple podcasts charts is cheaper and easier than you think
“John Perotti’s drone music podcast was never meant for the masses, yet on a Friday in early October, it sat near the top of Apple’s podcast charts. All it took to get it there was a $5 payment to a stranger who’d DMed Perotti days earlier…”

FBI Takes Down a Massive Advertising Fraud Ring
“The FBI announced that it dismantled a large Internet advertising fraud network, and arrested eight people…”