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WP Engine Acquires StudioPress: The Future of Genesis Themes Is Stronger Than Ever

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There’s big news in the WordPress ecosystem this week! Our favorite WordPress web host has acquired our favorite WordPress theme shop — besides us, of course — and its cornerstone framework Genesis.

“If a company with greater resources than ours could demonstrate that they understand the multi-faceted value and go-forward potential of StudioPress and Genesis, it was worth considering. More importantly, any suitable successor to the brands needed to grasp the worth of the people within the vibrant community of designers and developers who have built businesses around Genesis, the broader StudioPress customer base, and our StudioPress team.”
Brian Gardner, StudioPress founder

That’s right, WP Engine, “the WordPress digital experience platform,” purchased StudioPress and their “themes and tools that make WordPress easier.” VP of Web Strategy David Vogelpohl says WP Engine is “investing heavily in Nathan [Rice] and the engineering team, and they’re excited for the next evolution of Genesis and the SP themes.”

That means the de facto community of businesses and sites who have built on and around Genesis aren’t going anywhere, 9seeds included.

We all go way back

To give you an idea of how far, we started this agency almost a decade ago. For that entire time, the Genesis framework has ridden shotgun on our journey. It’s been a core component of a vast majority of the bespoke custom sites we’ve built.

We benefit by bringing back what we learn from other frameworks and integrating it into our build process. So along the way we’ve dabbled with other frameworks, from _s to the latest compelling framework WP Rig. In the end, however, we always return to Genesis. We’re wiser for having taken the detour but get pulled back by the simple fact that Genesis is the hands-down fastest and most powerful framework for doing what we do.

9seeds hasn’t just been WP Engine customers since their inception. We’ve also been WP Engine agency partners since the very beginning. Over the years that program has given us a lot of inside access to WP Engine. It also offers insight into what’s coming and the ability to help shape some of that. I’ve been sincerely impressed by the resources WP Engine pumps into engineering and development.

While I occasionally drop the “I remember when WP Engine had five employees and I knew them all personally” line, when I visited their Austin offices last September it was hard to find someone I recognized to show me around. At that point, I think they were over 300 people occupying three floors. These days it’s 500+. That growth didn’t come at the cost of their service, either. We’ve interacted with WP Engine support hundreds (maybe even thousands) of times over the years, and they’re consistently great.

“There are many founding moments in a company.”

Two of 9seeds’ best friends getting hitched is awesome news. This is a landmark “founding moment,” and we look forward to seeing what it gives rise to.

Genesis has long been the much-favored and most robust framework for building WordPress sites. In recent years, there have been conversations within the WP Genesis community regarding the slow pace of Genesis development. Our team has often been appreciative of the deliberate, keep-it-simple methodology StudioPress practices. But there’s some legitimate concern about keeping pace with increasingly critical features like web accessibility guidelines, Google AMP, and that hot topic everyone’s talking about: Gutenberg.

So what now, then?

Brian Gardner addressed ongoing Genesis development, saying, “WP Engine has committed time, resources, and money toward the development of the framework and those who build around it.”

WP Engine leadership has been quick to assure the public that Genesis development and support will continue well into the future. They’ve also made it clear via social media channels that they’ll be honoring all existing customer commitments. Continued lifetime support, documentation, and upgrades for Genesis and StudioPress child themes were specifically mentioned. Pro Plus users will still have access to the full StudioPress catalog.

“I would characterize our attitude as ‘Genesis Community First.'”
Jason Cohen, WP Engine founder

As many of you know, we sell the Jessica theme both in our shop and via the StudioPress marketplace. WP Engine has confirmed that there’s no plan to change any existing third-party Genesis developer agreements, so Jessica will remain available in both places. You can also rest assured that (just like Genesis) we’ll continue supporting Jessica for a long time to come.

Happy 15th Birthday, WordPress

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This past weekend people all over the world joined together to celebrate WordPress’ 15th anniversary. That’s a mighty impressive life for an open source software project whose mission statement is “democratizing publishing” and which now powers a third of the internet. And the WordPress meetup has become a staple of our community.

To celebrate this auspicious date, I attended a WordPress meetup group in Bucharest, Romania. (I’m here before moving next door to Belgrade, Serbia for WordCamp Europe next month!) Big thanks to the Bucharest crew for their hospitality, and for the cake. Mmmmm, cake.

I’ve been to a lot of meetups around the world, and they never fail to impress me. They’re one of the most dynamic things about the community around WordPress. Universally, I find them to be places web professionals and hobbyists come together to share knowledge.

Meetups Create Relationships and Grow Your Skills

We say it a lot, but the spirit of WordPress community has run strong and deep here at 9seeds since we were founded as an agency nine years ago. Do yourself a favor: find the nearest WordPress meetup — even one of the smaller ones — then go check it out. Gather up your skills and your questions and take them there. Then keep doing that.

You can start your search for a WordPress meetup here. And if you ever spot any of the 9seeds gang at one, please come over and say hi.

4 of the Best WordPress Themes for Genesis

We’re Genesis Child Theme Champions in the WP Arena

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Part of WP Arena’s stated mission is to elevate WordPress by providing valuable resources. Toward that end, they recently published a list of over 30 themes that they’ve dubbed “the best Genesis child themes ever created for WordPress.”

The 9seeds team is feeling the love because four of our themes made the cut:

  • Jessica, a super-flexible e-commerce theme
  • Lisa Marie, a theme for hairdressers, salons, and spas
  • Patricia, our theme for non-profits
  • Sarah Ellen, a feminine theme for bloggers and other digital professionals

 

Here’s how they each shook out in the lineup

Patricia is our theme built specifically for non-profits. Loaded with useful tools, it grabbed the #2 spot.

Lisa Marie was created for salons, independent hair professionals, and spas. It came in at #7, described as “…perfect for the beauty industry.”

Sarah Ellen, the #31 pick, has always been billed as a blog theme with a feminine flair. But WP Arena dubbed it a ‘great choice’ for a professional website, saying “It’s not only for feminine blogs; the theme is actually versatile with its clean and modern design.”

Jessica is our e-commerce theme and rounds out the list at #36. “Jessica is one of the most robust Genesis child themes for building online stores.”

It’s a great compliment to have even a single one of our themes considered a valuable Genesis resource, much less four. And 9seeds being listed alongside some of the best theme shops in the WordPress community is gratifying.

Thanks to WP Arena and Ben Shepardson for the hat tip in our direction!

Adjusting Code Increases MemberPress Value

Using MemberPress to Get that Magazine Feeling

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Our customers come up with the best ways to use software sometimes. I recently had to have my eyes opened to the fact that just because we are in a digital age doesn’t mean we have to abandon all the old tools available to us.

Let’s say you want to do a magazine style site where monthly content is given to subscribers. A standard way of implementing this with membership software is to charge for a monthly subscription which gives you access to everything, Then if you cancel, you lose access to the site. In one respect this model gives people the incentive to remain a customer but in another sense, it’s not exactly fair.

  • If a customer paid for a subscription and received 3 “issues” why wouldn’t they retain access to that over time?
  • Another thing to think about is that if you are expecting your customers to pay monthly, you have to keep the prices low enough such that they don’t notice it on the bill. This is how Time gets away with it at just $2.50/mo. That’s low enough to just pay forever without worrying about it and having access to (quick google search) 93 years worth of back-issues.
  • If you want to charge a higher subscription rate you have to offer a little more and one of those things can be the fact that they get to retain access to issues they were subscribed.

So… how to implement this? Without code there really isn’t a way to accomplish this. The reality is it completely breaks the concept of a membership site to allow people access to premium content after they are no longer a member.

MemberPress developers to the rescue.

MemberPress recently implemented a rule which allows for this exact scenario. At its simplest form it states, “Even though you have access to this resource, I’m going to deny you anyway.” The way we correct this is to simply not protect the magazine issues and instead write a little snippet of code which asks, “This issue was published on March 9th, does the user attempting to access this issue have a transaction for March 9th?”

With the chunk of code below we check and make sure they have a transaction covering the time period they’re trying to access. If they do, we allow them to see what they’ve already purchased.

We love taking awesome products like MemberPress and tweaking them to provide the exact functionality our clients desire. If you have a WordPress or MemberPress customization project, please get in touch:

Get in Touch with 9seeds

add_filter('mepr-last-chance-to-block-content', 'deny_selective_access_9s');
function deny_selective_access_9s($deny,$current_post,$uri) {
    //short circuit if it's not even a magazine issue post type
    if($current_post->post_type != 'magazine-issue')
        return $deny;

    //if there isn't even a user block access. We don't want to do a lot of 
    //work looking up transactions if they aren't even logged in
    $user = new MeprUser(get_current_user_ID());
    if(!$user->ID)
        return true;

    //add a custom where to get transactions by user by date
    add_filter('mepr_transaction_get_complete_by_user_id_custom_where', 'deny_selective_access_where_9s');
    
    $num = get_all_complete_by_user_id( $user->ID,
        '', //order by
        '', //limit 
        true, //count only
        true, //include expired
        false, //include confirmations
        true //include custom where
    )
    
    //do not leave this filter lying around to confuse other parts of the memberpress software
    remove_filter('mepr_transaction_get_complete_by_user_id_custom_where', 'deny_selective_access_where_9s');

    if(!$num)
        $deny = true;

    return $deny;
}
function deny_selective_access_where_9s($where,$user_id){
    global $post,$wpdb;
      $where .= $wpdb->prepare(
        'AND %s > t.created_at  AND %s < t.expires_at ', $post->post_date,
        $post->post_date
      );
    return $where
}
9seeds Founder Jon Brown Sponsors WordCamp Phoenix

WordCamp Phoenix Grows Open Source Community

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Last month 9seeds Founder Jon Brown attended WordCamp Phoenix, witnessing the growing WordPress community in Arizona. Held at a co-working space named Galvanize, the open venue offered plenty of seating and was a natural space to gather as WordPress users.

WordCamp Phoenix was smaller than expected at under 200 attendees (another larger version is planned for February 2018), and only showcased a single panel of speakers. Initially this seemed odd, but it meant that each speaker benefited from a larger crowd and that each attendee had exposure to new topics. The successful format illustrates that bigger isn’t always better.

WordCamp Phoenix attendees included a wide mix, with sponsors and advanced users mingling with beginning and intermediate users.

A beginner workshop was held alongside the speaker track on Saturday morning speakers for several hours, in the large co-working room. After the workshop concluded, speaker presentations and panel discussions could be heard and seen virtually in the extended space. It was a different approach, but seemed to be welcomed.

Session topics included the REST API, Business, Poetry, Data and Analytics, Security and others. You can see the schedule here.

Held the weekend before Halloween, the WordCamp Phoenix After Party turned into a costume party. The After Party was combined with local AIGA members who finished up their own conference that same weekend. All in all, WordCamp Phoenix proved to be a great way to grow the open source community and we are happy to have been able to attend the event and make many more friends in Phoenix.