Today is Election Day in the United States. Please Vote!

A few weeks ago we announced our partnership with voter-registration initiative TurboVote Challenge. Well, today is the day! From coast to coast, voters in the United States head to the polls for the 2018 midterm election.
Hopefully, by now you’ve made a plan to get to the polls. If you have any questions about your polling location (or if you need help getting there), we have some important resources for  you below.
If you’ve voted, like this post, share it with […]

Introducing Activity

Knowing what’s going on behind the scenes of your site is key to engagement and security.  Who published a post? What comments need to be approved? When was a plugin activated or deactivated? What images were added to a specific page?
Now, there’s a new tab in WordPress.com where you can see all your site’s activity outlined in an organized, readable way: It’s called Activity, because monitoring your site should be as simple as possible.
Activity shows you a chronological list […]

New Theme: Photos

Today we’re happy to introduce Photos, an image-centric theme with a clean layout and a design that showcases your favorite snapshots.

When we designed Photos, we put extra care into making it look and feel great on mobile devices. But that’s only one of the theme’s highlights — here are a few others.
Photos first: Photos features a familiar three-column grid to display your photos on your blog’s homepage, archive pages, and search results. The full-width grid appears on smartphones and […]

National Voter Registration Day 2018

Did you know that today is National Voter Registration Day? 
At Automattic, our mission is to make it easier for people to speak their mind and connect with communities across (and beyond) the web — every WordPress.com website, and every blog post you publish with the tools we build, is part of a broader conversation. With the midterm elections coming up in the U.S. in November, we’re thrilled to announce that we’re a proud member of the TurboVote Challenge, a […]

Try Simplenote, Our Fast and Easy-to-Use Notes App

A great note-taking app can help with all kinds of daily routines like taking class notes, writing a shopping list, or jotting down ideas for your next great blog post.
At Automattic, we love using Simplenote, which is an easy way to create notes, lists, and more. Our favorite part? It’s backed by a powerful sync engine that syncs notes across all of your devices swiftly and smoothly — and for free! — so our notes are accessible everywhere.
The Simplenote experience […]

New in the WordPress.com Business Plan: Jetpack Search

The WordPress.com Business plan combines fully managed hosting with the freedom to grow and scale your site without limits. Today we’re adding Jetpack Search to WordPress.com Business so you can enjoy powerful and fast on-site search functionality as part of your plan.
 

Once you activate Jetpack Search, you’ll be using the same search engine powering some of the largest sites on the web. Jetpack Search provides a more engaging experience for your visitors: it relies on modern search algorithms that […]

Introducing the Simple Payment Widget

Since the introduction of the Simple Payment Button, we’ve been looking for more ways to streamline payments on WordPress.com and Jetpack-enabled sites. Today, we’re introducing a new variant of the Simple Payment Button, available to WordPress.com Premium and Business plan subscribers and to Jetpack sites on Premium and Professional plans.
Take payments anywhere on your site with the Simple Payment Widget
Use the Simple Payment Widget to add a quick payment option to the sidebar or footer of your WordPress.com or […]

this is about me

this is about me.
 
i was raised
in a pyramid of power,
in a circle of hatred and violence.
driven by ego,
fuelled by fear.
 
i was raised
homophobic, transphobic, sexist,
racist, carnist, elitist, capitalist,
etc.

all these absolutisms
governed the development of my brain.
formed my cognitive and moral foundation,
my thought patterns,
my language.
 
all these absolutisms,
in their own unique ways,
eventually led to loneliness.
 
but i realized,
i am not alone.
this circle of hatred and violence,
surrounds many
from an early, malleable age.
 
it’s really hard to break out of it,
and really easy to stay stuck.
as it inherently […]

ego vs. eco

ego is poison.
family is antidote.
if we all are a healthy family, certain members can be weak sometimes, without a problem.
cherish others FOR their weaknesses AND their strengths.
show your vulnerability.
when you feel like crying, cry.
don’t let it stew, don’t let it turn into violence.
show that you can’t always be strong.
and when you are, it is for them.
even if it is for you, it is for them.
because we are integral parts of each other’s lives and therefor each other!
try to show your […]

Gamify your tea, gamify your dog, gamify your life

So, back to the topic of games.
Here is a fun try to solve one of the worlds pandemics for a design course: people who don’t talk (for what ever reason). Use their weakness – they occasionally need to drink. Use this wisely.
click Here for the manual

Путы

Бредёшь дорогою в тумане
чужими мыслями гремя.
Оковы мнений, петли знаний,
но, есть лишь это у тебя.
Всё уже смысл потеряло…
Вчерашний день туман съедает
и память тихо исчезает,
о том, что нужно ключ найти,
и с этом крылья обрести…
что в одиночестве – ответ…
и что вокруг тумана нет…
что всех дорог не перейти…
что, иногда, пересекаются пути…

Paths

Through many landscapes of this world
you slowly walk towards a fork.
Another choice, another split,
and still, you aren’t allowed to quit.
You cry out loud and then move on,
fog hiding paths for your return.
And as the echo settles down
on dusty road, in muddy ground,
a thought drifts in a misty cloud:
“That was unnecessary loud…”