For developers / entrepreneurs on a startup journey the “Build it in Public” approach is gaining a lot of attention. This article by group member Scott Murcott from Freemius has a good overview of what this might entail, the benefits, and some considerations.

WordPress has a number of great free plugins in the plugin directory. For the past few years at this time I’ve taken a few minutes to write a review on the plugin page to express my thanks for the plugins I use and rely on. This year I gave a review for Independent Analytics, which I’ve used on a couple of sites.

If you have a few minutes, I’m sure the plugin authors would appreciate a review.

This is a very interesting discussion about WordPress pricing and how to maximize profits.

This is an interesting discussion between Matt Mullenweg and Spencer Forman discussing Matt’s role and the future of WordPress. It is an interesting back and forth. They seem to have shared values but different perspectives on things. In some cases it seemed like they were talking past each other. Unlike some interviews with Matt, Spence was asking some tough questions and Matt was giving his view on them.

I’m not sure that confetti qualifies as a productivity tool 🙂 but this plugin adds a couple of features to the new command palette such as color code format conversion and the ability to evaluate math expressions. I expect we will soon see a few full-fledged toolboxes for the command palette.

A bit of a toot of their own horn, but one has the feeling that the WordPress leadership doesn’t give much credence to the “extender” community. This post from HumanMade outlines some of the ways agencies help the WordPress project.

Matt Mullenweg will give the State of the Word address this year from Madrid on December 11.

For people who have been following the NASA use of WordPress, this article provides a lot more background information. It looks like a clear win for WordPress across a lot of dimensions.

Justin Ferriman the creator of LearnDash has some advice for WordPress founders that it is time to up your game. This seems timely given that Black Friday is on the horizon.