The Best of WordPress.com in May
Meet the business owners featured in our first-ever TV spots, plus: WordPress turns 14, Android users get a new update, and how to design for inclusiveness.
Hi everyone! Check out some of the new updates, designs, and insights that helped make May a great month for the WordPress.com community.
What’s new
How a Detroit Hackathon Turned into WordPress.com’s First-Ever TV Spots
A team of developers launched new sites for small businesses in Detroit during a 48-hour Hackathon in February, an event which inspired the creation of our first-ever TV spots for WordPress.com.
Happy Birthday, WordPress!
Celebrating 14 years since the very first release of WordPress, co-founder Matt Mullenweg says he’s “waking up every day excited about what’s coming next for us.”
Launching: All New Media Picker for Android
“YES!! This is so awesome! I use my phone for photos so much and it was always so many steps to add pictures to the library to add to a post. Thank you!!” – Nel
Register for a Free Webinar on June 6: How to Start a Successful Blog
Whether you’re new to WordPress.com and want to learn about all of your options for publishing online, or have been blogging for a while and would like to hone your practice, consider this upcoming webinar on June 6 from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. MST (Mountain Standard Time) / 5-6 p.m. UTC.
May the Bot Be With You: How Algorithms are Supporting Happiness at WordPress.com
Each month, we respond to 60,000 support requests on topics ranging from plugins to mapping existing domains to WordPress.com. Recently, in looking at how machine learning and natural language processing could be useful to Happiness Engineers in responding to support questions, we discovered two places where these technologies offer value.
Designing for [X]: inclusion
Inclusive Illustrations, By Design
Automattic partnered with independent artist and designer Alice Lee, who seamlessly integrates abstract ideas with concrete solutions. Read an interview with Alice and John Maeda that is followed by another interview with Joan Rho, the designer who led the project.
In your toolbox: inspiration + insights
“The Backfire Effect” Is the Cognitive Concept of the Moment
There’s a good chance you came across this lovely viral Oatmeal comic in May. It’s based on a three-episode sequence from You Are Not So Smart, a popular podcast and WordPress.com site devoted to the backfire effect, the name of a detrimental cognitive phenomenon which encourages us to shut out information when it doesn’t fit into what we already think we know.
What’s New at Film School Rejects
Film School Rejects migrated back to WordPress from Medium in May, unveiling a new site design. Publisher Neil Miller talks to WordPress Discover about the move, what’s to come, and how he and his team pick the “perfect shot.”
Quotables: “All of us from time to time would think, What am I doing here? But we all had families back home that we needed to send money to.” – Chasing the Harvest: ‘If You Want to Die, Stay at the Ranch’ (Longreads).
Now following
Antonio Santos’s new site, antoniosantos.blog, features an excellent profile of Rosemary Musachio, Chief Accessibility Officer at Ruh Global Communications.
We’re digging the fresh, mobile-friendly layout of Nick Gray’s new site, NickGray.blog.
Hang out with us on Facebook for daily news and insights to inform and inspire your writing, design, and business dreams.
That’s all for now!
What did you love about your own work in May? Comment with a link to a post you’re proud of or something new you learned about designing your site. Feeling motivated? Download the WordPress app on iOS and Android.
- May 31, 2017
- Design, Diversity & Inclusion, New Features, WordPress, WordPress.com
WordPress.com News 
Thank you for providing such as wonderful service over the last 14 years
The Science Geek
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Reblogged this on Margarita Noriega and commented:
One of my favorite interviews from the past month is with the Film School Rejects crew, who run my favorite film Twitter account, One Perfect Shot.
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CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR 14TH BIRTHDAY! WHAT A WONDERFUL THING YOU DID BY STARTING WordPress!
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Thank you for providing an awesome outlet for my need to write and share 😍 My goal over the last few months was to grow my ‘views number’….and in May I broke the 200 mark! 🙆🏻 Still a long way from my overall goal, but…you know- babysteps 😁
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Nice!
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Recently, I started to use polls for my site.
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My own blog started about a year ago, with a click on the Appstore button on WordPress.com. To say that this has changed my life and became an experience that I would not have wanted to miss for the world is an understatement. All I can say is thank you for providing such an easy to use service…here’s too many more years to come 🍾🍰
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No complaints about service, but what on earth is a webinar?
Also please give the times in GMT from which everyone else in the world can adapt. We neither know nor want to know about mountain times as we do not all live on mountains.
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This webinar is a free, video-based mini-conference that you can attend on your desktop or laptop computer. It allows you to see a full presentation and ask questions using a chat system. It’s free and easy to use. It’s at 5-6 p.m. UTC. on June 6.
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Happy 14th!
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Happy 14th WordPress! I love it.
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This has all been new for me. So grateful to have a little nudge from you, and also a chance to connect with so many other bloggers.
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Today was my first day to blog on wordpress.com. I am very excited about this!!!! Please visit my story on mental illness at: storyoflivingwithmentalillness.com !
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I am so very happy a friend of mine recommended WordPress.com. Back in Sept 2016, I had wanted to start writing about Mental Health Awareness for several reasons. First, I wanted to educate people with or without mental illness. Secondly, break the stigma that surrounds the following. Thirdly, I have always wanted to become a writer in the first place, but only if it was something I felt passionate about.
I hope that one day I have as many followers as Kristabella’s Hodgepodge. (Awesome name by the way). I would be thrilled if I developed an open forum for people to discuss and feel safe to share their experience’s like I did.
If ever anyone would like to visit my site, please feel free to check out beckiesmentalmess@wordpress.com.
Have a great evening everyone!!! Beckie
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Felicitaciones ¡ y que cumpla muchos muchos más¡. ¡Gracias¡
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Happy 14th!!
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I am really happy to have finished my blog for a long running project. I thought it would never be done. https://onebendintheriver.com/2017/05/24/watching-grass-grow/?iframe=true&theme_preview=true
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Without WordPress, I’d never have started writing. Why? Because I have dyslexia. Without WordPress, I’d never have published my first book. So, a big thank you from me.
Congratulations on 14 years. May WordPress continue to grow and inspire many other writers, photographers and all those that enjoy sharing what they do.
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Yay! Happy birthday WordPress!
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Happy Birthday WordPress. I am celebrating my 3 year anniversary with you. Thank you.
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“WordPress powers 27% of the internet”
– It should be more than that!
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Happy Birthday, WordPress!
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Fantastic, Word Press! Just completed my one month anniversary and am so happy that I finally got around to blogging. Its been a great experience and I look forward to posting a lot more.
If anyone would like to check out my latest post, here’s the link. I’d also appreciate any feedback you have to offer on my layout or style etc. Thank you!
https://tomatotalksblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/03/june-in-focus-2/
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HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY to and for all the members of WordPress. It seemed very, very weird for me as I was writing “14th” then again my first article was in 2007 so I feel the time flying. Best yet for me is the fact that I know my writing skills have blossomed insofar as my new book, An Open Autopsy on America, will be released very soon. Thank you, WordPress.
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Thanks for this roundup! I am back after a long break and this round up sure helped!
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Happy 14th WordPress ! 🙂
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Wow… 2003, I was in the 3rd grade when WP was founded. Congrats on the anniversary and all the success and thanks for the round up!
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