Crossword – Details, episodes & analysis

John Gruber's Dithering podcast with Ben Thompson was the original inspiration for Crossword's 15-minute format. Five years later, John joins Luke and Jonathan for a wide-ranging conversation covering open versus closed platforms, the history and impact of Markdown, and a missed opportunity in WordPress. Luke goes on about the good old days, Jonathan starts thinking about a rival platform, and John makes a prediction for the ten-year follow-up episode.

Luke and Jonathan talk through Nilay Patel’s recent interview with Matt on Decoder. Luke shares the “formula” he observed in Matt’s responses and Jonathan pushes back on Luke’s assumptions about the “we” in community. They discuss a premium plugin directory, low ticket sales for WordCamp US, and Jonathan attempts a cricket reference.

Luke and Jonathan explore Open Web idealism through the lens of their WordCamp experiences. Luke shares his reservations about Basel and they talk through their hopes (and concerns) for WordCamp US. Also, is WordCamp Brisbane really the best WordCamp?

Luke rants about Google. Then we talk about the recent history between WordPress and Google and what we both think about their involvement in the WordPress project.

We discuss some proposed changes to the WooCommerce Dashboard design, the trend for WordPress plugins to embrace their own design language (separate to the WP Admin), and the idea of creating a Design System for WordPress.

Season #2 premier - episodes now 15 minutes long! We jump straight into a discussion of WWDC, Hey.com, and the WordPress plugin directory.

We discuss Season #1 and explore the wide range of topics we're interested in covering in Season #2.

We discuss COVID-19 (and how Luke was wrong), the opportunity for virtual events, the recent introduction of full screen editing on by default in WordPress 5.4, and gradients in Gutenberg.

Jonathan Bossenger joins us to discuss the WP Notify project and better ways of introducing new features in WordPress.

We discuss the cancellation of WordCamp Asia and then, to happier matters, the first "Future of Themes" meeting, including what an easier-to-use WordPress means for the builder ecosystem.