coriander in pho

I’m not sure when this “issue” started, because I know WordPress 6.9, the latest major version, was released back in December 2025, I spent quite some time in January (? February?) 2026 redesigning this blog, and I didn’t find this issue. I also checked the theme — Twenty Twenty Four a.k.a. TT4 — and its last update was in December 2025. Which means, most probably, this comes from the Gutenberg update, which just updated recently.

The “issue” was The Case of “Missing” Block. I’m not sure from where and how I should start this, and whether this is actually normal (but I guess it’s not?) but here goes.

I logged in to my blog dashboard just now, as I want to update the Content Block settings. I accessed the Site Editor as follows: WP Admin > Appearance > Editor. That one is pretty straightforward. I thus got directed to the Site Editor, as expected, and I opened the List View as usual.

I expected to see the Content Block perched nicely and quietly as part of the Query Loop Block on the List View sidebar as usual. I thought I could just… You know, work on my blog then call it a day. But no. This was what I saw.

The pattern “Header”, I get it. The pattern “Footer”, I get it. Now, the Query Loop Block is changed to the pattern “Standard”, because… I guess that’s how it works now? The problem is, when I clicked the dropdown arrow to expand the content, since I expect to see the Content Block inside that pattern, there is still no Content Block? Title Block, Post Date Block, Categories Block, and Tags Block. Where is my Content Block? 🥲

I did find the Content Block by clicking the “Edit section (on the right sidebar). Make sure you have the pattern “Standard” clicked, then click the “Edit section”.

Then, and only then, you will see the Content Block appear. For some reason, the blocks changed, too. From:

• Title
• Post Date
• Categories
• Tags

… to:

• Post Template
  • Title
  • Group
    • Post Date
    • Categories
    • Tags
  • Spacer
  • Content
  • Spacer

The second one would be the expected view. I did put the Post Date Block, Categories Block, and Tags Block in one group using the Group Block. I don’t know why it’s not reflected as such prior to the template “Standard” being edited. At least, now we know what to do next (a.k.a. Click everything and pray that it works.)

Now! I wanted to edit my Query Loop Block because of this:

The block now has a filtering feature where we can choose the type of posts we want to display based on their taxonomies (categories, authors, and tags). The problem was that it used to be able to only display them, not exclude a specific category or tag. Imagine this situation: You have ten categories on your blog, and your goal is to display all posts from all categories except one category. In the old days, you needed to list the categories you wanted the posts to be visible in, instead of telling the system: “I want to exclude category XYZ.”

The proposal was suggested back in the 2023 on the Gutenberg’s GitHub: Query Block: add ability to exclude terms.

In order to exclude a particular category or tag from the Query Loop block, one must manually add all other categories/tags to the block, leaving the “excluded” option out. This is time consuming and laborious, and would be a better experience to have the option to exclude by taxonomy as well as include.

I supported the proposal, and commented on the GitHub post:

+1. I’m currently working on my blog, and I was hoping I could exclude a category from the main content view and treat it like a “microblogging” on the sidebar. I have been moving away from social media and treating my blog as a one-place-for-all. Having the ability to exclude taxonomies would be really helpful.

It was then in December 2025 that the plea answered and worked on: Query Loop: Exclude terms support, and it was included with the Gutenberg update on ver. 22.4. Now, everyone, let’s all say thank you to Nik Tsekouras 🫡 THANK YOU, NIK! 🙌

What does it mean? It means that you won’t see any posts under the category “Bookmarks” on my blog’s main page, but yes, you can still see them by accessing the category page: https://corianderinpho.com/category/bookmarks/ 🙂 — The same goes with the category “Aside”. This category will serve as the “microblogging” aspect of this blog.