WordPress News Roundup February 2010: Genesis Launches, BuddyPress 1.2 Goes Single-Site and WordPress 2.9.2 Ships

February 2010 was a month of launches across the ecosystem. StudioPress released its Genesis framework on February 1, WordPress arrived on Android, and on February 16 BuddyPress 1.2 finally made social networking features available to ordinary single-site WordPress installs instead of WordPress MU only.

In core, WordPress 2.9.2 fixed a privacy bug involving trashed posts, and the 3.0 team confirmed that the new navigation menu system would be built on code contributed from WooThemes’ Custom Navigation feature.

WordPress Core Updates

• WordPress 2.9.2: Released on February 15, 2.9.2 fixed a bug that allowed logged-in users to view trashed posts written by other authors. The issue was reported by Thomas Mackenzie, and sites with untrusted users and sensitive content in the trash were advised to upgrade.
• Menus and the merge: A February 23 update on 3.0 confirmed that WooThemes’ Custom Navigation was being integrated into core as the basis of a new menu management system, the release’s main user-facing feature, while the MU merge continued. A patch sprint was organised to keep the cycle moving.
• Menu design debates: Developer chats discussed the menu interface’s usability and how it would work for users without JavaScript.
• Dev chat focus: Core developer Peter Westwood argued that weekly developer chats should concentrate on core code rather than wider community topics.

Other WordPress News

• BuddyPress 1.2: Released on February 16, BuddyPress 1.2 ran on single WordPress installs as well as MU, simplified setup and let site owners keep their existing themes. WordPress.org celebrated it on February 26 with “BuddyPress for One (and All!)”, and a template pack plugin helped adapt existing themes.
• WordPress for Android: An official Android app launched at the start of February, built on the code of the independent wpToGo app, which was merged into the project. A February 17 WordPress.org post celebrated moderating comments from a phone while away from a laptop.
• Genesis 1.0: StudioPress launched the Genesis theme framework on February 1 as planned after a January beta.
• Ideas forum opened up: Jane Wells made the WordPress Ideas forum more prominent, and community members volunteered to help tidy it.
• Polldaddy redesign: Automattic’s polling service received a new website and back-end interface.
• New books: Brad Williams and Hal Stern discussed their forthcoming book, Professional WordPress.
• Plugin donation day: WP Tavern proposed March 1 as a day for users to donate $5 to a favourite plugin author.

Security Alerts and Plugin Vulnerabilities

WordPress 2.9.2 was the month’s only core security release. The flaw was a confidentiality issue rather than a takeover risk, since it required a logged-in account and only exposed posts that had been moved to the trash. It was a reminder that the trash feature introduced in 2.9 needed the same permission checks as published content.

Industry Trends and Insights

Mobile publishing was moving from novelty to expectation. With official apps on the iPhone and now Android, WordPress users could moderate comments and write posts from the most popular smartphones, and commentators began asking whether strong mobile apps could help WordPress overtake Blogger among casual bloggers.

• Frameworks take over premium themes: Genesis joined Thesis, Thematic, Hybrid and others in a crowded framework market, with sellers increasingly offering child themes on a common base.
• Before post thumbnails: A history of TimThumb highlighted how themes had relied on a standalone image-resizing script before WordPress added native thumbnail support in 2.9, a script that would later become notorious for security problems.
• Cloud marketing: Matt Mullenweg told ReadWriteWeb that most “clouds” other than Amazon’s were largely marketing.

Theme of the Month: Genesis

Brian Gardner’s Genesis framework launched on February 1 with a focus on clean code, SEO settings and a library of child themes. It quickly became one of the most widely used premium frameworks, and in the summer it would gain a wave of users switching away from Thesis.

Plugin of the Month: BuddyPress

BuddyPress 1.2 transformed the plugin’s reach. Until February it required WordPress MU; from February 16 any standard WordPress site could add profiles, groups, private messaging and activity streams, putting community features within reach of millions of existing sites.

Host of the Month: Bluehost

Bluehost’s inexpensive shared plans and one-click installs made it a typical home for the small community sites BuddyPress 1.2 was suddenly opening up. As social features arrived on single installs, hosts that could handle heavier database use at low prices were in demand.

Founder of the Month: Brian Gardner

Brian Gardner founded StudioPress, which began life as the Revolution theme brand before being renamed in 2009. With Genesis he moved the company to a single framework with child themes on top, a model that would carry StudioPress through its merger into Copyblogger Media later in 2010 and eventually its acquisition by WP Engine in 2018.

Looking Ahead to March 2010

March was expected to bring further 3.0 development, including decisions on the fate of the Kubrick and Classic themes once the new default was ready. WordPress was also preparing its Google Summer of Code 2010 application, and many community members were heading to South by Southwest in Austin.