While this month we focused on building new features for WordPress core, we advanced other areas of the project too. Read on to learn more about what the WordPress project accomplished during the month of October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The annual WordPress User Survey is a great opportunity for you to provide your feedback about how you use WordPress. This year is no exception, as the 2017 WordPress User Survey<\/a> is out now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The information collected in the survey is used to make informed decisions about improvements across the WordPress project, so your answers are incredibly valuable and help shape the future of the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of October, WordPress 4.8.3 was released<\/a> containing an important security fix for all previous versions of WordPress. If your WordPress installation has not updated automatically, please update it now to protect your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This security issue was brought to light by a community member, so if you ever discover a security vulnerability in WordPress core, please do the same and disclose it responsibly<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress 4.9 was in rapid development this month. We released four beta versions and published a release candidate<\/a>. The target for shipping WordPress 4.9 is November 14 \u2014 just two short weeks away. With many new features, this is a hugely exciting release that improves WordPress\u2019 user experience considerably. Notably, you\u2019ll see improvements to the theme selection experience<\/a>, plenty of widget enhancements<\/a>, drastically improved code editing<\/a>, and much better user role management<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To get involved in building WordPress Core, jump into the #core channel in the Making WordPress Slack group<\/a>, and follow the Core team blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the last few years, the number of do_action series of WordPress charity hackathons<\/a> has grown around the world. What started as a community event to assist local nonprofit organizations, has become something many WordPress communities are replicating in an increasing number of cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of this month, do_action events have been hosted in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, Beirut, Lebanon, Austin, Texas, and Montr\u00e9al, Canada. In addition, events are now scheduled for Bristol, England<\/a> and Zurich, Switzerland<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To get involved in organizing a do_action event locally, read the do_action organizer\u2019s handbook<\/a> and join the #community-events channel in the Making WordPress Slack group<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While work steadily continues on Gutenberg \u2014 the new editor for WordPress core \u2014 one update from this month addresses one of the primary concerns that some people shared about the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Up until the release on October 24<\/a>, Gutenberg did not support the meta boxes that so many WordPress content creators rely on. The new editor now has initial support for meta boxes as well as a host of other critical features for content creation in WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Test out Gutenberg<\/a> right now and help develop it by joining the #core-editor channel in the Making WordPress Slack group<\/a> and following the Core team blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWordPress 4.8.3 Security Release<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
WordPress 4.9 Nearly Ready for Release<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
WordPress Charity Hackathons are Growing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Gutenberg Development Advances<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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