a:4:{s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"rss";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:3:"


";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"version";s:3:"2.0";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"channel";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:61:"
	
	
	
	




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:75:"WPTavern: Inside DE{CODE} 2024, WP Engine’s Upcoming Developer Conference";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=155005";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:80:"https://wptavern.com/inside-decode-2024-wp-engines-upcoming-developer-conference";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10592:"<p>If you ask a WordPress builder or developer to list the most important tools in their toolkit, chances are that at least a few will be <a href="https://wpengine.com/">WP Engine</a> products and possibly their managed hosting platform itself. Plugins like Advanced Custom Fields have a pretty passionate fanbase, so it shouldn’t be a surprise the WP Engine’s employees are just as passionate about their products too.&nbsp;</p>



<p>All of that passion goes on full display every year when WP Engine hosts DE{CODE}, their popular developer conference, now in its fifth year. DE{CODE} 2024 will happen March 19th &amp; 21st, with the one-day-long agenda repeated across three global regions. The online conference is free to attend, and <a href="https://events.wpengine.com/event/f5972890-64b0-4934-9b39-2e704bf34725/websitePage:7b184ebe-3411-489f-bc0c-f76fe90d1ce5">registration is now open</a>.</p>



<p>I connected with some of the team members behind the conference, and behind WP Engine’s products, to get a (quite candid) behind-the-scenes look at what many would consider a fairly unique approach to a conference in the WordPress space.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Giving Tech Conference Vibes&nbsp;</h2>



<p>In the tech industry more broadly, the idea of a company-centric conference is pretty standard fare. I’m sure your inbox is full of invitations from AWS re:Invent and Stripe Sessions, though I think a more apt comparison might be something like <a href="https://conference.convertkit.com/">Craft + Commerce by Convert Kit</a>. In the WordPress community, it’s not as common.</p>



<p>Lexi Mostek is the Lead Event Manager at WP Engine helping to bring this vision to life. I asked her about the background of the event and how they think about the balance between company and community.</p>



<p>“We started this virtual event before Covid even existed,” she told me, “because developers a lot of times don&#8217;t have the budget to travel and we don&#8217;t want to charge for this event. We want to make it free. We definitely started out heavily promoting a lot of our own products and having a lot of internal speakers, which I think you can expect from a company putting on a conference. What we have tried to do is grow our roster of other people in the community, other speakers and other topics that support that. So I think we just added on our 46th speaker. And roughly half of those are external.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>This is WordPress after all, so I’ll be clear now that this is not a WordCamp. That said, alongside WP Engine product updates and tutorials, you’ll get to hear about WordPress 6.5 from the core Editor Triage Release Team and about AI from Zack Kass, the former Head of Go-to-market at Open AI. If it’s anything like years past, the sessions don’t feel like a sales pitch, they more often take the shape of hands-on tutorials and best practices.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Rob Stinson is a Product Marketing Manager at WP Engine whose domain includes Local, Advanced Custom Fields, and many of the other developer tools they’ve added from deals <a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-engine-acquires-5-plugins-from-delicious-brains">like 2022’s acquisition of plugins from Delicious Brains</a>. </p>



<p>“One of the sessions I’m involved in is an ACF Blocks deep dive,” said Rob. “We&#8217;ve seen this feature really emerge as a hero of ACF over the last few years and we&#8217;re doing more and more in the product itself to improve that feature set. So myself and Liam Glady (Senior Engineer at ACF) will go through four different custom blocks, the first one being a very basic one to showcase the nuts and bolts of it for anyone who is not familiar with how to do custom blocks with ACF. But then we sort of progress and showcase some more interesting ideas that really leverage interesting features.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>That sort of practical approach is key to many of the sessions. For WP Engine, the return on their investment into the conference comes by being seen as the hosting company who is most focused on providing value to developers. The goal is brand awareness more than immediate conversions.</p>



<p>“WP Engine obviously has a long history in the Managed WordPress space,” he said, “offering WordPress solutions at scale. Something that we have learned &#8211; and it does seem obvious when you&#8217;re in the midst of it &#8211; is providing value through developer and builder tooling is just immensely impactful. There’s value to our customers and there’s value for the broader WordPress ecosystem.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>Clearly being the company behind WordPress’ most popular local development tool is helpful, otherwise Automattic wouldn’t be <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-doubles-down-on-the-developer-community">bringing their own competitor to market</a>. Even outside of WordPress, you can see other open source platforms working to own the comprehensive developer experience, from coding to deployment.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A Most Unusual Format</h2>



<p>One interesting feature of DE{CODE} is that the conference is streamed live, but sessions are all pre-recorded and presumably polished ahead of time. Then the conference happens &#8220;live&#8221; three times in three distinct time zones, making it more accessible to a global audience. One side effect of this approach is that the speakers and panelists are often in the live chat engaging with the audience and answering questions during their own talks. I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;ve really seen this approach before.</p>



<p>Imran Pervez, the Global Head of Event Marketing at WP Engine, talked to me about the thinking behind this.</p>



<p>“When I go to a conference,” he said, “I personally don&#8217;t enjoy watching a thirty-minute session with only a 5 or 10-minute Q &amp; A at the end. That’s hardly enough time for a meaningful discussion. So with the approach we take, if a session is 40-minutes long, you can be asking Q &amp; A the whole time and make full use of the subject matter experts. If a speaker isn&#8217;t able to attend a session–given the range of timezones we’re serving–then we have a mix of subject matter experts per session on hand to interact and respond on chat.&#8221;</p>



<p>The first time I attended this conference, I was definitely confused that the person on the screen was also responding to me in the live chat, but I have to admit it really makes for a more collaborative experience as an attendee. It&#8217;s one of the more engaging live chats I&#8217;ve seen at a virtual conference, and conversations can continue on in virtual “hallways” between sessions.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">AI is Kind of a Big Deal</h2>



<p>The keynotes of the event, as you’d expect in the Year of our Lord 2024, center around AI. Before you wind up that massive eye roll, it is worth thinking about AI in the context of WordPress and maybe looking at some of the names on those panels.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Rob drew the connection between generative AI today and the WordPress landscape:</p>



<p>“If you think about the last 24 months, you know, AI has become a thing, right? The three areas where the best use cases have emerged are code, text, and images. Interestingly, the best technical representation of those three things in the world is actually WordPress.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>I would add a fourth dimension to AI’s current skillset, which is finding answers from massive amounts of content. In other words: search. If you&#8217;ve been responsible for a large-scale WordPress site or WooCommerce store, then you might know how tricky it is to get search right. But &#8220;search&#8221; as an internet concept has been evolving this last year as AI tools are changing the game, both around data indexing as well as user interface expectations.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“And so it&#8217;s just interesting and exciting,” he continued, “to see the broader WordPress ecosystem figure this out. Ask ourselves ‘What does this look like?’ Experiment with things. As these use cases are evolving and starting to mature, I think the implementation of AI through WordPress in the coming 12 months, 24 months is going to be really impactful.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>If that does sound interesting, there are a number of AI sessions, including one on AI search, the Zack Kass keynote mentioned above, and another keynote panel featuring Jason Cohen, WP Engine’s founder with a group of notable community members.</p>



<p>“What we decided to do with our keynote,” Lexi explained, “is bring in some external people like Amber Hinds, David Dicamillo and Lucky Gobindram, who are doing things and actively working on WordPress projects in different areas of expertise. Because this conference isn&#8217;t only about us and our products, it&#8217;s about the community.”</p>



<p>There’s interesting agency teams and product owners throughout the agenda. The third keynote panel focuses on the business of WordPress and includes Sujay Pawar of Brainstorm Force, Miriam Schwab of Elementor, and Lesley Sim of Newsletter Glue. Beyond business and AI, there are sessions covering marketing, performance, SEO, and ecommerce.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">More than WordPress &#8220;Developers&#8221;</h2>



<p>Looking at the topics listed, you might be wondering why it’s called a “developer conference.” In the WordPress ecosystem, we can often take a broad view on who we consider developers. More than just developers, WordPress is a community of builders and extenders.</p>



<p>“It is developers,” Imran said, “but actually it&#8217;s those that have a technical interest in what&#8217;s happening. We also welcome marketers, business leaders and those that wear multiple hats in their businesses. We make sure there is technical content, but a lot of it isn&#8217;t necessarily hardcore- it&#8217;s applicable for someone that could also be less technically advanced.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Do you log into the WordPress admin at least once a month?” added Rob. “You&#8217;ll get something out of it.”</p>



<p>Even if you&#8217;re not a developer, I would encourage you to <a href="https://events.wpengine.com/event/f5972890-64b0-4934-9b39-2e704bf34725/websitePage:da1bec15-c84c-4f09-b103-71d8ae90b856">browse the agenda</a> and see if anything looks interesting.</p>



<p>DE{CODE} 2024 is on March 19 (North America and APAC) and March 21 (EMEA). Registration is free.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 Mar 2024 15:13:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Brian Coords";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"WPTavern: Reflections on My 2 Weeks Writing for The Tavern";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154968";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wptavern.com/reflections-on-my-2-weeks-writing-for-the-tavern";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13778:"<p>As my 2 weeks as a guest writer at The Tavern wind down, I thought y’all might be curious to hear some of my reflections on the experience.</p>



<p>As James wrote, bringing 7 writers in for 2-week stints is <a href="https://wptavern.com/wptavern-launches-writer-hunger-games">kind of like The Hunger Games</a> &#8211; many go in, two get the job.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>That “Hunger Games” analogy seems to have stuck &#8211; many of the people I conversed with for stories over the past two weeks asked me a variation of the, “How is The Hunger Games treating you?” question.</p>



<p>The truth is that every interaction I’ve had with one of my fellow writers has been a combination of productive, nice, charming, and helpful.&nbsp;</p>



<p>When fellow writers finished their trials, I mostly felt sadness. Not only will I miss our conversations on The Tavern Slack channel, but I’ll also miss the energy and reporting they brought to The Tavern.&nbsp; This version of The Hunger Games has been a ray of sunshine to my eyes.</p>



<ol><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/reflections-on-my-2-weeks-writing-for-the-tavern#how-did-i-decide-what-to-write-about">How did I decide what to write about?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/reflections-on-my-2-weeks-writing-for-the-tavern#emotions-emotions-emotions">Emotions Emotions Emotions</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/reflections-on-my-2-weeks-writing-for-the-tavern#what-did-i-learn-in-these-2-weeks-of-writing-for-the-tavern">What did I learn in these 2 weeks of writing for The Tavern?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/reflections-on-my-2-weeks-writing-for-the-tavern#i-hadn-t-applied-to-a-job-in-decades">I hadn’t applied to a job in decades.</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/reflections-on-my-2-weeks-writing-for-the-tavern#what-is-it-like-working-with-matt">What is it like working with Matt?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/reflections-on-my-2-weeks-writing-for-the-tavern#how-would-i-improve-the-tavern">How would I improve The Tavern?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/reflections-on-my-2-weeks-writing-for-the-tavern#what-s-next-for-me">What’s next for me?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/reflections-on-my-2-weeks-writing-for-the-tavern#would-i-do-it-again">Would I do it again?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/reflections-on-my-2-weeks-writing-for-the-tavern#comments">Comments ↓</a></li></ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="how-did-i-decide-what-to-write-about">How did I decide what to write about?</h2>



<p>I was surprised by the different types of content each of us writers produced for The Tavern.&nbsp; One of us did long-form video content, some of us were curious about reporting on new and interesting things in the WP community, some of us shined a light on long-underreported people in our community, some focused on tech, others focused on humans, etc.</p>



<p>As you likely noticed, I am, personally, curious about how the WP community changes and rolls with the times. For example, you saw me writing about <a href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business">how small businesses are taking on the big dogs</a>, an <a href="https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is-best-fun-with-theme-download-stats">analysis of popular themes on wp.org</a>, and <a href="https://wptavern.com/certain-wp-form-plugins-make-accessibility-easy">how plugin shops have integrated accessibility best-practices into their day-to-day jobs</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="emotions-emotions-emotions">Emotions Emotions Emotions</h2>



<p>While I felt very prepared to do the work that would be required, I was unprepared for the whirlwind of emotions that would flood my body during these two weeks.</p>



<p>Almost everyone I spoke with for my articles was exceedingly professional and helpful.&nbsp; In fact, some people went out of their way to help me find sources and to cajole quotes out of people.  </p>



<p>And yet, at times my discomfort with waiting for email/Slack responses to my inquiries left me an emotional wreck (“Are they ignoring me? Did I offend them? Were my questions stupid?&#8221; etc.).</p>



<p>Then there were times I accidentally manufactured discomfort &#8211; like when I pushed to get a straight answer about a difficult topic out of a PR person at a big WP plugin shop.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>There was the scary time when an online accessibility forum misunderstood my line of questioning and came after me with pitchforks (for the record, my articles highlight people who are making a positive difference on the accessibility front).&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>I think the waves of emotion I experienced are part of starting something new and challenging.&nbsp; I hadn’t written articles with this intensity for decades &#8211; it makes sense that I would be forced to deal with my internal emotional issues.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-did-i-learn-in-these-2-weeks-of-writing-for-the-tavern">What did I learn in these 2 weeks of writing for The Tavern?</h2>



<p>Over the past couple of weeks writing for The Tavern, I learned so so so much.&nbsp; Here are some of the many lessons I learned since Feb. 29:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>I learned that people appreciate being part of a good yarn. My articles on plugin businesses and people doing great work on web accessibility seemed to be appreciated by both the commenters and the people featured in the articles.</li>



<li>I learned that hitting “Publish” can be scary.&nbsp;</li>



<li>I learned off-the-record conversations are oftentimes more fun than on-the-record ones.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>



<li>Related, I learned that off-the-record conversations build trust that a reporter can leverage into more compelling <em>on</em>-the-record interviews and articles later.&nbsp;<br />For example, one of my off-the-record conversations led me to a curious string about a sensitive topic &#8211; I pulled that string, and before you know it, we agreed to put that part <em>on</em>-the-record and included it in an article.</li>



<li>I learned the hard way that you’ve got to be careful about how and where you tell people you are a journalist.&nbsp; That lesson cost me a lot of heartburn and sleep.</li>



<li>I learned that I need to help people help me.&nbsp; One person I interviewed early on asked, “What’s your angle?&nbsp; I want to give you a quote that’s relevant.”&nbsp; That question saved us from a lot wasted of back-and-forth time.</li>



<li>I learned that some people want The Tavern to be hard-hitting “gotcha” news source. <br />(Fwiw, I see The Tavern’s role in the community a little differently &#8211; It needs to be a trusted source of information and a hub for conversation in the WP community.)</li>



<li>I learned (to no surprise) that the writers at The Tavern truly do have the editorial freedom to cover topics that are critical of WP power brokers, including the people paying our paychecks.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>



<li>Interacting with the other 6 writers led me to believe that any of us 7 would make great next-generation leaders of The Tavern.&nbsp; Seriously &#8211; I’d trust any of them with leading my beloved Tavern moving forward.</li>



<li>I learned that reporting on WP stuff is not an easy job.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>



<li>I learned that the 2-week timeframe was both a positive driver and a limiter of output. Deadline pressure in journalism is real any way you slice it.&nbsp; Deadlines force you to get creative &#8211; to say&nbsp; “good enough”, hit the “Publish” button, and move on to the next challenge.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>



<li>I learned that not as many people read The Tavern as I thought.  
<ul>
<li>When I told my mom and sisters that I was picked to write for The Tavern, they were like, “Uhh huuuh.&nbsp; That’s nice, sweetie,” and more or less patted me on the head before returning to their respective days. </li>



<li>I was surprised to learn that even some of the WP pros I quoted in my articles did not check wptavern.com to read the articles.&nbsp; When I spoke with them a week after one article posted, they said, “Oh! Is that article live?”</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li>I learned that, based on The Tavern’s Jetpack stats, these articles do have an extremely wide reach by my standards.&nbsp; For example, one article I posted has garnered over 2,000 views on the web, over 2,000 email opens, and 70 clicks from email.  (I joked that I had 300 million impressions and 4,070 conversions &#8211; that’s a conversion rate of .0013%.&nbsp; Not great if it was a paid ad campaign, but, personally, I was thrilled with the numbers!)</li>



<li>I learned that constructive criticism I received on my article drafts from my fellow writers made my writing better.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="i-hadn-t-applied-to-a-job-in-decades">I hadn’t applied to a job in decades.</h2>



<p>One thing I found personally fascinating was the application process &#8211; because I have no idea how to apply for a job.</p>



<p>The last job I applied for was a student life position at the University of Minnesota in 2004. I quit that job in 2006 to become a <a href="https://themightymo.com">WordPress consultant</a>, which has been my primary job since.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Writing for The Tavern is a dream job for me.&nbsp; In my application, I wanted to communicate my vision for the job, my unique life experiences that might make me a great fit, my view that the news is a critical component of our democracy, as well as my quirky personality (didn’t want to surprise anyone there).&nbsp;</p>



<p>My application was a long email highlighting my experiences reporting the news, blogging, and contributing to the WP community.&nbsp; It also mentioned my respect for The Tavern’s history (I’ve been reading The Tavern nearly every day for 10 years or so).</p>



<p>When I didn’t hear back after a short amount of time, I got antsy and sent this follow-up:</p>



<img width="1920" height="2560" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/hire-me-or-not.jpg" alt="A piece of crumpled up notebook paper with " />When I didn&#8217;t hear back on my original application after a week, I sent this follow-up email.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-is-it-like-working-with-matt">What is it like working with Matt?</h2>



<p>One of the more popular questions people asked me over the past two weeks was, “What is it like working with Matt Mullenweg?”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Matt was true to his tongue-in-cheek word from <a href="https://wptavern.com/whats-next">his Nov. 2023 post</a>: “You can ask previous writers how much I was in their hair.”&nbsp;&nbsp;I had very few interactions with Matt or the Automattic/Audrey team.</p>



<p>I felt prepared to do the work of The Tavern, and I saw the lack of interactions with Matt as a sign that he trusted me to do that work.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>I felt like Matt was available via Slack if I needed him, however the only time I needed him was when I needed access to the X.com account.</p>



<p>Also, I had read <a href="https://scottberkun.com/yearwithoutpants/">The Year Without Pants</a>, so I was expecting this trusting, hands-off approach to leadership.</p>



<p>So, with all that in mind, it was great working with Matt!</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="how-would-i-improve-the-tavern">How would I improve The Tavern?</h2>



<p>I have a great love in my heart for The Tavern.&nbsp; Regardless of who takes over the reins, I hope they continue to pursue a deeper connection to the WP community.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>The Tavern is a hub of our community &#8211; a place where people go to learn and to be heard. The format and history of The Tavern communicate an openness that has proven tough to replicate elsewhere on the web.</p>



<p>At the end of the day, wptavern.com is the humans who write, run, and interact on the website.&nbsp; I hope whoever takes over continues to push those traditions.</p>



<p>I see an opportunity to have the Tavern community provide more input into what gets reported on. </p>



<p>I can see the next leader reimagining the WP Tavern Forums, doing more outreach on other platforms, and looking for other ways to increase engagement on-site.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-s-next-for-me">What’s next for me?</h2>



<p>I don’t know what’s next.&nbsp; I feel like I could add some very positive and subjective direction to The Tavern based on my unique experiences in the WP community.</p>



<p>To be honest, I would love to be involved with The Tavern in any capacity that it needs me.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="would-i-do-it-again">Would I do it again?</h2>



<p>It’s been a thrilling couple of weeks, and I’ve gone through a rainbow of emotions and learnings.</p>



<p>I would absolutely 100% do it again.&nbsp; And who knows &#8211; maybe you’ll see this smiling face at The Tavern again someday!</p>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Toby Cryns is a freelance CTO, WordPress consultant, and teacher at <a href="https://themightymo.com/">The Mighty Mo! Design Co.</a> in Minneapolis, MN, USA.</div>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="comments">Comments ↓</h2>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 Mar 2024 23:29:39 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Toby Cryns";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:2;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"WPTavern: #111 – Josepha Haden Chomphosy on Navigating WordPress’ Evolution, Growth and Change";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=154957";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:108:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/111-josepha-haden-chomphosy-on-navigating-wordpress-evolution-growth-and-change";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:54095:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley. Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, how WordPress is managed and directed.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice. Or by going to WPTavern.com forward slash feed forward slash podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>



<p>If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea featured on the show. Head to WPTavern.com forward slash contact forward slash juke box and use the form there.</p>



<p>So on the podcast today, we have Josepha Haden Chomphosy.</p>



<p>Josepha is the executive director of WordPress, a role she&#8217;s held since 2019. She&#8217;s been contributing since 2012, and has a special fondness for brand new to WordPress learners.</p>



<p>During the episode, Josepha shares her insights on overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic. She talks about the positive strides made within the Gutenberg project, and the need for improved change management during its implementation.</p>



<p>We also explore the significant achievements of WordPress, reflecting on its growth to power 43% of the web. This gets us into the objectives for future WordPress expansion. Despite some current stagnation, Josepha explains her ambition to reach 51% market share. She talks about the potential in the enterprise sector, and the importance of reshaping walled gardens into community gardens. A metaphor for an inclusive and participatory ecosystem.</p>



<p>We also discussed the semi anarchic nature of participation in WordPress, acknowledging the diverse perspectives of for profit motives, and those who contribute for nonprofit motives.</p>



<p>We contemplate increased diversity and restructured WordPress events, with aspirations of up to 160 word camps a year. And we discuss recent experimentation in the event space.</p>



<p>Expressing her journey from hands-on community management, to her executive role, Josepha explains her optimism for WordPress, with passion and authenticity. She emphasizes the responsibility of aligning contributions with strategic roadmaps, ensuring that each initiative within WordPress delivers meaningful impact.</p>



<p>Towards the end, we discuss how the success of WordPress can be measured. This is focused upon metrics like attendance, engagement, and community contributions as a way to gauge the vitality, and sustainability of the WordPress ecosystem.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in the WordPress project as a whole, and how it&#8217;s run and directed this podcast is for you.</p>



<p>If you want to find out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading over to WPTavern.com forward slash podcast, where you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes as well.</p>



<p>A quick note, before we begin. This was recorded live at WordCamp Asia. There was quite a lot of background noise to contend with, and I&#8217;ve done my best to make the audio as easy to listen to as possible.</p>



<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Josepha Haden Chomphosy.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Hello.</p>



<p>[00:04:00] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Hello. How&#8217;s it going, Nathan?</p>



<p>[00:04:02] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Very, very good. We&#8217;re in the, I actually don&#8217;t know the name of the venue, but we&#8217;re in the venue.</p>



<p>[00:04:06] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> I know it by its acronym, which is TICC.</p>



<p>[00:04:10] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay. That&#8217;s where we are. We&#8217;re in the media room. It&#8217;s Word Camp Asia. It begins today, we had the contributor day yesterday. As I said at the beginning, I&#8217;m joined by Josepha, but I think probably for the community who don&#8217;t know you, could you just tell us who you are? Give us your bio, what your role is in the WordPress project, because it&#8217;s quite a significant role.</p>



<p>[00:04:29] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Yeah. I&#8217;ll give you the mini bio, so that we have a little bit of extra space for the what I do, because it is significant. So I&#8217;m Josepha Haden Chomphosy. I&#8217;m the executive director of the WordPress Project, and I came to this work kind of through marketing and other ways.</p>



<p>I learned about WordPress in 2000 and like 10, 2011. Made my way, over the course of my career, through marketing, and data analysis strategy, and then wound up here in the WordPress project. I did some community stuff first, and then took over some core work, and then did what I do now, which is as the executive director.</p>



<p>And so what I do as the executive director is I, for one, make sure that all of the bits and pieces, that are working across the project, are kind of aware of each other. It&#8217;s very hard to see how everything is interconnected. But I also make sure that we have some focus and effort around specific projects. Things like making sure we have volunteers coming in, and contributors that are trained, and some way for new attendees to figure out how to learn WordPress, or learn how to contribute, however that goes. And making sure that we have time and attention, funding in the project as a whole. So it&#8217;s a bit project management, it&#8217;s a bit funding and resource management, and quite a bit of strategy as well.</p>



<p>[00:05:42] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It really sounds like rather a lot. Do you find yourself working a regular shift? You know, do you begin at nine in the morning, and finish at five at night? Or are you 24/7, having to wake up because people in, for example, Asia are doing things at certain times?</p>



<p>[00:05:54] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Yeah, so when I first started doing the work, I would work anytime, and kind of just let my day fill up as it would, because it always does. As we ended up with more contributors, and for my teams at Automattic, as I ended up with more and more people there, it became really clear to me that, like a goldfish, it&#8217;s just going to grow to the size of the container you have for it.</p>



<p>And so I do really try now to fit it into set times. And, you know, I&#8217;ll get up early, work a bit late if we have synchronous talks that have to happen. And when I go to WordCamps, I just, you know, work 16 hour days, because that&#8217;s how you do at a WordCamp.</p>



<p>But yeah, for the most part, I really try to make sure that I guard my personal time pretty jealously, and that when I am working, try to make the best use of my time, and everyone&#8217;s time that&#8217;s working with me. Because we all have finite resources in that space. Like, we all have the same number of hours in our day, and my time isn&#8217;t more important than anyone else&#8217;s. And if I consider my time important, I should treat everyone else&#8217;s time as important too.</p>



<p>[00:06:54] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You must have had a great sense of optimism when you began in 2012, to have risen in the way that you did. You must have enjoyed it, threw yourself into it I&#8217;m guessing. Do you still have that same sense of optimism about the project in 2024, that you did in the 2012, 2013, 2014, or is your role, the nature of the role that you have, mean that you view it from a different angle?</p>



<p>[00:07:14] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> So, to answer the question specifically, to answer that particular question, I do really still have a lot of optimism. Like, there&#8217;s so much that we can do for the project to get it moving faster in specific directions, and kind of get everyone in here and working on it in a way that is impactful for them, but also is valuable to our CMS and our community.</p>



<p>But I wouldn&#8217;t say that my career progression was because of optimism, right? Like, I try to be a realist. Pragmatic optimism is kind of how I like to really hone in on that. But I continued to see the need for someone to come and do the work that I am specifically skilled at doing, and also was really prepared to take on the responsibility.</p>



<p>It wasn&#8217;t necessarily like, I&#8217;m optimistic, and therefore I will do this forever. It was, I see the importance and the value of having this available, long after any of us want to stop working with it. And so I have the skillset, I have the attention, I have some of the connections, and I accept the responsibility to help move this forward, and keep it moving in a good direction, for as long as they&#8217;re willing to have me. So I guess it was less because of optimism I did, and more of a, because I can accept that kind of responsibility, I will.</p>



<p>[00:08:28] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> At WordCamp Asia you&#8217;re giving a talk, and the title of that talk is converting walled gardens into community gardens. And I&#8217;m just going to read a little bit of the blurb that goes with that. You mentioned the fact that WordPress is this giant CMS, and you say that it&#8217;s grounded, it&#8217;s got an ethic, it&#8217;s got maybe some morals in there. But there&#8217;s obviously some point of concern in your mind, because you say the following, how are we managing our distractions and feeding the opportunities around us? What are the distractions that you are thinking of when you put this talk together? What are the distractions that the community is experiencing?</p>



<p>[00:09:01] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Yeah so, firstly, I have to acknowledge that sometimes when folks work closely with me, they see that I am highlighting potential risks in a plan. And I never do that because I think that it&#8217;s a bad plan, I do that because I believe, probably, it&#8217;s the right way to go. And if we don&#8217;t know what is in the landscape for us, we can stub our toe on rocks. Like, I&#8217;m just trying to find the rocks we are going to stub our toes on.</p>



<p>So I do have some questions around that. I think the last time that this came up, this question of what is going to distract us from doing the things that help us move faster, or move better, or be more relevant? It&#8217;s always the question of, are we contributing things that are specifically related to the roadmap?</p>



<p>There is, for open source, this basic philosophy of contributors are here to contribute without the expectation of reciprocity, and without an agenda. But I have always really felt like the without an agenda part, is not as nuanced as it should be. Because everybody does have a plan. They&#8217;re trying to do things. Like, people are contributing some functionality, because it fixes a problem they had.</p>



<p>And so that doesn&#8217;t fit with the idea of no agenda. And also, we don&#8217;t want aimless contributions. When you support 43% of the web, it&#8217;s so difficult to move that number of people in any sort of direction. That if people show up with kind of aimless contributions, you aren&#8217;t able to have a clear direction for where the software&#8217;s headed, or the community&#8217;s headed. And it&#8217;s not a good contribution experience either.</p>



<p>They don&#8217;t feel like they have a clear impact. It&#8217;s not clear how their project gets into the CMS over time, or gets rolled into our event series. And so I just, I don&#8217;t have any concrete examples at the moment, because they will all belong to someone, and I&#8217;m not going to have them experience this on a podcast.</p>



<p>But like, you&#8217;ve always got to watch out for those things where, this project that we were working on, it worked really well when TikTok wasn&#8217;t where everyone was. This worked really well when Reddit was in its heyday, or whatever. Like, it was stuff and communication processes, and methods that made sense for the context of the time. And I just want to make sure that everything that we&#8217;re doing makes sense for the context of now, where it&#8217;s reasonably possible.</p>



<p>[00:11:13] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So, what&#8217;s your guiding principle? What&#8217;s your North Star? Because I&#8217;m guessing that maybe you speak to Matt, Matt Mullenweg. In the pyramid of WordPress and organisation, you are right near the top.</p>



<p>Where do you get your inspiration, for what the project should be doing? Where do you find that? Do you come up with ideas? Toss them around between the people that you work with? Or is it really a process of getting in the Slack every day, and just listening, and percolating, and filtering the ideas out?</p>



<p>Because it feels like, if WordPress were a blue chip company, and it was a for-profit organisation, you&#8217;d have this hierarchy, wouldn&#8217;t you? And right at the top would be the CEO, and they would make the decisions with the board, and those decisions would then trickle down, and everybody would have to obey.</p>



<p>But that&#8217;s not the way it works. So I&#8217;m genuinely curious. Where do you get your intuitions, as to what we should be doing? And how do you sort of shepherd that conversation, so it doesn&#8217;t feel like, well, we&#8217;re being told what to do, more we&#8217;re being guided, here&#8217;s some things we could do?</p>



<p>[00:12:06] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Yeah. I&#8217;m going to try to answer them sequentially and do my best. And if I get lost, you&#8217;re going to have to bring me back. So the first question you had was, what is my lighthouse? What is it that I&#8217;m aiming for? So I do kind of have this dream of like WordPress being the thing that secures the future of the open web. And it is literally a dream, because we actually don&#8217;t have that much agency. Like we, even if we get to 51% of the web, will not actually have the ability to just say, and now the open web is here forever. Like, that&#8217;s not within our control. So it is a bit of a dream.</p>



<p>But there is, for me and my decision making, an overarching vision of what we can offer as a project. And a lot of my decisions are based on that. So I believe that the WordPress project and ecosystem should be able to offer an excellent open source alternative to every tool that is required to get a business started online, to get your project started online.</p>



<p>And that feels attainable, right? Like, the CMS, done. Open source CMSs, in place of proprietary CMSs, that&#8217;s good. But also things like Openverse, and the photo directory, and how that can compete if we figure out a couple of provenance issues, and maybe like micropayments. How that can compete with Getty images.</p>



<p>And I think that that&#8217;s a really compelling offer and opportunity, especially because, as people are coming into this community, so much of what they&#8217;re looking for is kind of a more equitable access to a network. To not only succeed at their learning and connection to their local community, but then also to succeed with their business goals, however they are.</p>



<p>And so that is my guiding principle from just like what we have to do here standpoint. And then there are the philosophical principles that we all kind of hold in the WordPress project, which is the four freedoms of open source, those are in there. The five good faith rules of community that we have.</p>



<p>And so we&#8217;ve got the ethical principles that are in there. We have the pragmatic things, like always decisions, not options. And I feel like they all ladder up into this concept of like, we could be the primary open source alternative to make a business happen. To make your dream happen. To make your story known online. So there&#8217;s that. And immediately, I forgot the 17 other questions.</p>



<p>[00:14:18] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It was really about what is your North Star, and how do you decide what&#8217;s important?</p>



<p>[00:14:23] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Okay, so for one, there are a lot of like literal decision making tools that I use. But I know that&#8217;s not the question you&#8217;re actually asking. The question you&#8217;re asking is, how do I keep track of the information that comes in, and where do I find the best guesses about the future? So that we can choose the right product choices. We can make the right event and ecosystem decisions. And fortunately, I have the incredible good fortune of having my own leadership team inside Automattic.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ve got three people who work directly with me. Héctor Prieto, Chloé Bringmann and Angela Jin, and probably everyone will recognise all three of those names, work with me to help keep track of everything that&#8217;s happening across the ecosystem, and the programs, and the CMS.</p>



<p>But there are also about 10 people that I really rely on in the community, and they are from across different companies, and different disciplines, they have different roles. We have people who like specialise in product or project management, and people who are core developers.</p>



<p>And so like I have a lot of people who are helping to flag issues, and flag potential future opportunities that I otherwise wouldn&#8217;t have seen. And I rely heavily on them to talk through like, what is the essential pros and cons of this discussion that&#8217;s being had here? What is the relative impact to like performance in the CMS? What&#8217;s the relative impact for attendees, if we make this change versus that change?</p>



<p>And so I do a lot of discussion with a lot of people and, yeah, it&#8217;s based on like stuff that&#8217;s happening in Slack, and Post Status, and Twitter, and kind of all around. I am just one person, and it has been probably more than a decade since one person could know everything that was going on in WordPress. And so I&#8217;m very lucky to have probably a good collection of 12 to 15 people that are helping me do that.</p>



<p>[00:16:08] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> If you were the CEO of a blue chip company, I&#8217;m guessing that the metric for success would be profitability. Are we in the black? Are we in the red? What did we do to go into the red? What did we do to go into the black? What&#8217;s the guiding principle there? When you look back over the last, let&#8217;s say, couple of years, what do you see as the moments that were successful? You know, it doesn&#8217;t have to be specific, it could be more of a general question in terms of, what does success look like? What are you looking for there?</p>



<p>[00:16:33] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> It&#8217;s different in different places. So there are kind of four big focuses in the WordPress project. You&#8217;ve got the CMS and related software elements. You have our programs and event series, which are WordCamps, meetups, and then also all of the things that keep volunteers feeling like they are included in our project.</p>



<p>We also have the ecosystem, which is like the marketplaces that we have, with the plugin directory, and the theme directory, things like that. And then we kind of have a fourth that is our communications and operations side of things.</p>



<p>And so for each four of those, there is a different metric. We don&#8217;t have a lot of early indications. All of what we can look at is primarily just like a result, as we are working through things. And so we can&#8217;t make a lot of early course correction, just because we don&#8217;t. take data for anyone to have WordPress. We have instituted auto updates, and so like we can&#8217;t really follow downloads as a proxy for how many people are using WordPress, like things like that. And so the indications, the metrics, if you want to call them that, are different for different things.</p>



<p>But ultimately, I really believe that our best proxy for understanding how vital WordPress is to our own ecosystem, is seeing how many people are still trying to learn WordPress. How many people are attending our events? How many people are showing up to help build it? Although that is a very long tail kind of thing.</p>



<p>It can take anywhere from, you know, five months to five years for somebody to go from using WordPress to finally contributing to WordPress. And so that one has a really long latency period.</p>



<p>But also there are normal things like, how many new followers do we have on our social media channels? How many new users do we have in Slack that are participating actively? How many contributors do we have, as we are just kind of running through our annual milestones of flagship events, or WordCamps overall, or major releases?</p>



<p>It&#8217;s a bunch of things. I think that once a year at State of the Word, kind of point all those out. So we don&#8217;t like have dashboards or anything that keeps track of it. But I do have a general sense for where things are over the course of the year.</p>



<p>[00:18:33] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> If we were to go back to 2012, I don&#8217;t know what percentage of the internet was using WordPress, but it certainly wasn&#8217;t 43%. At the moment, 43 ish, thereabouts, 43%. It&#8217;s highly improbable, I would&#8217;ve thought, that looking back 10 years, you would&#8217;ve said approximating half of the internet would be using WordPress.</p>



<p>So it&#8217;s had this really unprecedented growth. Monumental growth. So if you were to look back at any one of those years, probably the numbers tick up each year, and let&#8217;s just use that one metric, the percentage of the internet. Do you have any intuitions as to whether that 43% is in a state of ascendancy still? Are we looking into 2024, 2025, are we looking for it to be 44, 45, 46? Has it plateaued? Is it maybe going down? Do you have any expectations of where the project will be in a year, two years?</p>



<p>[00:19:20] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> So, for one, one of my big success indicators would be for our percentage to get to 51%. Because that approximates out to like 75% usage, which is a ton. I realise 51% is a really big percent of the web. And it&#8217;s like, you know, eight percentage points away.</p>



<p>Now the question of, are we still growing? Do we expect more growth? Do we expect like incremental, or another big spike? We do. I think we all can see that we currently have a little bit of a plateau. But also, in my big picture goals post for 2024, I called out very specifically, like, I see that this is something that we all kind of started talking about in 2022.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s the first time that we all sort of had a question around like, is this plateauing? Is it an unlimited plateau? Do we think we can do something to change it? And I do think we can do something to change it. But I also think what has to happen will really take a lot of concerted effort, for two reasons.</p>



<p>For one, because in order to do any last mile work, like the last mile of a delivery is always the most expensive. That is going to be our hardest work, to get from 43% to 51%. Just because you have kind of sold to everyone who already knew they needed you, right?</p>



<p>And then the second part of the problem is that, everyone else that is available to, quote unquote, sell WordPress to, are companies and business deciders, who maybe don&#8217;t know that they need a CMS. Which is a different proposition than companies or business deciders, who know they need a CMS, they know they need a website, they&#8217;re just trying to figure out which one. We can certainly make a strong case for why WordPress is the best long-term solution for them.</p>



<p>But if they don&#8217;t agree that they need a website, or that if they do need a website, that it needs to have enough functionality for them to grow, or whatever reason they have, that&#8217;s a different sales proposition. And getting into that enterprise space, getting into that corporate area, as you mentioned, there&#8217;s a bit of a shift that you have to make in your mind.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s a feeling of open source means everything&#8217;s free, because it says it right there, free and open source software. But free in this context means, you know, about speech, and freedom, and copy left, right? And less about no money.</p>



<p>No one ever said that you should not be able to make money in an open source project, or using open source software. Like, it is seen all over the internet right now, that you can build a business on top of open source technologies.</p>



<p>And so that is a big shift in mindset. WordPress has always been very pro business. If you look at our plugins, it&#8217;s not a bunch of plugins that are like, here&#8217;s how you paint on WordPress or something. Like, that&#8217;s not the plugins we have. We have plugins that are like, we want you to be able to convert into your contact form better. We want your contact form to be easier, and more enticing, so that you can have those contacts, so you have the opportunity to pitch your product, or pitch your service.</p>



<p>If you look at what we have around, we do want people to accomplish business tasks, on top of any other sort of thing that they&#8217;re wanting to do here. And so I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s as big a shift as we worry that it is. I think it&#8217;s always been there, and we just are a little scared of the idea of it. It feels like we kind of have to lose that original ethos, and I don&#8217;t necessarily know that that&#8217;s the case.</p>



<p>[00:22:43] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You mentioned in the blurb for your talk, you were talking about distractions, and we covered that off a little bit. But you talk about the sprawling nature of the future of our projects. And I&#8217;ll just quote, in your talk you are going to look at what the sprawling future of the project could be, as we continue to convert walled gardens into community gardens. What do you mean by that? What are the walled gardens that you&#8217;re talking about, and what are the community gardens that you wish to have?</p>



<p>[00:23:07] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> You&#8217;ll have to come to my talk. Nathan! But also, I will give you an elevator pitch of it. So there&#8217;s a concept of walled gardens in technology. It historically, or in recent history anyway, has referred to marketing platforms. And a good proxy for that, if that doesn&#8217;t make immediate sense is, you know, like Facebook, and Instagram, Twitter, things like that. Where the audience is contained in the platform.</p>



<p>And so if you enter the platform, you have an audience, and you just have to say compatible things to get the audience to you. That&#8217;s it. That&#8217;s what&#8217;s considered a walled garden right now.</p>



<p>And community garden is actually not something that people use when they&#8217;re talking about software, but I want us to. And so that is also a big part of my presentation.</p>



<p>But a community garden is, you know, in the US it&#8217;s a plot of land, generally in a city, that&#8217;s broken up into smaller pieces, where anyone who&#8217;s in that local community can come and garden in it.</p>



<p>[00:24:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> We call it the commons.</p>



<p>[00:24:01] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Right. People say that often. But I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s a very accessible term for anyone anymore. I have found that when we talk about that and we&#8217;re like, people putting sheep in the fields. Like, it&#8217;s a very cute idea, but it&#8217;s not the visual thing, in my experience, hasn&#8217;t kept up with what people understand now.</p>



<p>A lot of us might understand a community garden, where you have small plots, you can do your gardening. If there&#8217;s anything left over, the entity, the community that is managing the larger group can redistribute that, and make it available to other people in the community. If that&#8217;s what they&#8217;re trying to do, they can donate it to community food banks, or sell it to other members of the community, and use the proceeds to make better beds in their community garden, or improve the ground that&#8217;s in there, or pay somebody to do administrative work, something like that, you know.</p>



<p>I think that&#8217;s much more modern, evocative. Like, it has a much more modern experience than taking sheep out to fields. I know that there are still people who take care of sheep, I&#8217;m not saying that. I&#8217;m saying that we probably don&#8217;t have, actually, a bunch of local common grasslands for people to all take their uncommon sheep to, in the one common place. Like, that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m saying. It&#8217;s just a more modern concept, and I think a more understandable concept as a result.</p>



<p>[00:25:12] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> If we just put to one side, that the walled garden of Facebook, and the walled garden of all those proprietary platforms, and we just think about our community. What are your feelings in 2024 about how it&#8217;s going? How the WordPress community is going? I mean, we&#8217;re gathered, there&#8217;s probably 2000 or so people at this event. We&#8217;re obviously, all of us, optimistic about WordPress. We probably think about it far more than is healthy for us. We are all really into it.</p>



<p>But there&#8217;s been, over the last few years I&#8217;ve seen posts by various different thought leaders, for a want of a better word, in the WordPress space, about what&#8217;s happening in the community. You know, whether the for-profit motive in the community is kind of undermining the sort of more open source nature.</p>



<p>I don&#8217;t really have a question here, it&#8217;s just more, what are your thoughts about whether the WordPress community is bifurcating, whether we&#8217;ve got this, you know, for-profit, not-for-profit, if it&#8217;s getting shattered? How easy is it to steer that ship?</p>



<p>[00:26:06] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Sure, well, for just big picture context, it is worth remembering that open source, as a concept, is semi anarchical. And so like, a little bit, you will always have people who are here for the philosophy, and the ethos, that are like, all money is bad. And I get it. I get it. I understand that concept. But, in my experience, one, it has always been true of every WordPresser I&#8217;ve ever met, that they have, what I believe is a healthy skepticism about major corporations that move in.</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s not because the corporations are necessarily bad. It&#8217;s not because the folks who are here, doing these individual pieces of work, contributing personally of their time, are necessarily more right than anyone else. It&#8217;s just a thing that takes place, because of the values that we have as open source contributors and philosophers, for lack of a better term.</p>



<p>And so I don&#8217;t think that what we&#8217;re seeing, like I know some of the posts that you&#8217;ve mentioned, where people are like, everybody&#8217;s everywhere, no one&#8217;s in a single direction. I agree. We are lacking a little bit of direction. But I don&#8217;t actually think that it is an unsolvable problem. And I don&#8217;t think that it is a pernicious kind of existential issue. I think it&#8217;s been here for the whole time, and it goes in cycles.</p>



<p>As we have been working our way back out of the incredible lull that we had during Covid, where we had no in-person events, because the best way that we could pull together for each other was to stay apart. Which does not make sense to people in WordPress. We&#8217;re like, no, we&#8217;re together all the time. We&#8217;re shoulder to shoulder, looking at the problem. Don&#8217;t make me stay away from the people I love. Like, this is how we are. I get it.</p>



<p>Coming back out of that, the human nature part that your brain enacts to kind of work as a coping mechanism, to make sure that they understand what, from a flight or fight perspective, will hurt them or not, really goes into overdrive when you&#8217;ve spent a lot of time in isolation. It becomes harder and harder to see the people who are definitely like you, and the organisations that are definitely like you, versus those that are not.</p>



<p>And so you look for, because your brain has a negativity bias, because it&#8217;s what keeps you alive. You look for the things that definitely are not the same. Because that is the most important thing to look at, rather than what is definitely the same. And so that&#8217;s why it feels so exacerbated right now, I believe. And this does go in cycles.</p>



<p>We had a little bit of this in 2018, as we were working toward moving Gutenberg into core. And now we have it again here, coming out of Covid. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s unsolvable. It is a big problem. But also, like I know this community is able to see each other as more than that person whose plugin competes with my plugin, or that person who disagreed with me on Trac or GitHub. Like, I know that these people believe in each other more than that. And so, yeah, I see it. I agree. It&#8217;s a problem, we should fix it. But I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s an intractable problem.</p>



<p>[00:29:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You mentioned that one of the four things that you have to do is community engagement events, that kind of thing. Has it returned? Obviously we had this lull, the pandemic Are we back to where we were in 2019?</p>



<p>[00:29:14] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> No.</p>



<p>[00:29:14] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Is there any intuition that it will get back to that?</p>



<p>[00:29:17] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Obviously I hope it does. That is a goal. I think that 2019 had our highest number of WordCamps. I think that was 140 in the year. I definitely would like to get back to it. This WordCamp that we&#8217;re at, is the 1999th WordCamp. So the next one that happens, and I don&#8217;t know which one it is off the top of my head. Congratulations, you&#8217;re WordCamp 2000.</p>



<p>But it&#8217;s not back to where it was, just because it takes a long time. Like, we have a flywheel effect, that is broken. And we have a very clear concept of what a good WordPress event is about, and what it&#8217;s like, and how it needs to be organised. And it takes a lot of training to get that done.</p>



<p>And so like our just consistent pipeline of new organisers, it&#8217;s pretty shallow at the moment, but the team is working on it. Both by kind of diversifying the types of events that we offer to folks, to make them either hyper-local, or very specific to a niche. Or just being clear that like we can have just one track of content, or just one speaker, and then we do this other thing. Like, we&#8217;re trying to diversify those, and really reinvigorate the local communities, especially in our larger cities across the globe. And I think we&#8217;ll get back there.</p>



<p>We have continually, more attendees every month, than we had months prior. And then that goes into every year, more attendees as we go. I, at one point, felt like my goal for the community, as a whole, was to get to like 400 WordCamps in a year. I don&#8217;t think that is a reasonable goal now, because that&#8217;s a lot. It was a lot at the time, I just didn&#8217;t know how to set that goal I think.</p>



<p>[00:30:50] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That&#8217;s a nice number with two zeros.</p>



<p>[00:30:52] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Yeah, I was like, that&#8217;s a nice round number, I think I can do that. And, you know, we went from 60 a year to 140, during the time that I was helping to guide that program. So like it seemed plausible, but probably I think a bit too big ultimately. I would like to get us back to 140. I think up to 160 is probably good.</p>



<p>But I think maybe, along with this diversification of events that the community team is working on, we might also want to take a look at how we actually stack up our events. So like we have meetups, WordCamps, regional camps, flagships right now, you know, in a pyramid.</p>



<p>And I just wonder if, based on what attendees need from these events now, we might need to look at something a little bit different. Whether it&#8217;s meetups and then WordCamps that are specific and niche, and then regional WordCamps and a single flagship. Or if we want to have smaller numbers of meetups, and anything that has a clear shared topic. We make those into hybrid WordCamps, and then continue up in there. I have a lot of thoughts about the fact that we have attendees that still need us, and still need what we are offering, just not in the same proportions that we have been offering it up until this point.</p>



<p>[00:32:04] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It sounds like experimentation is the goal for the next period, with events in particular. Play with events, come up with different ideas. It&#8217;s a bit like throwing spaghetti at the wall, see what sticks, try something out. And at this event, we have this notion of invited speakers, which is of interesting and new.</p>



<p>[00:32:19] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Well that&#8217;s always been around.</p>



<p>[00:32:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah.</p>



<p>[00:32:20] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> A lot of people don&#8217;t know.</p>



<p>[00:32:21] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think maybe it was the magnitude of some of the names that I saw, you know, people who have fame and familiarity outside of the WordPress space, such that it could almost attract people in, just because they&#8217;re on the roster. Thought that was quite an interesting idea.</p>



<p>But nevertheless, the idea is to experiment with different things inside of events, and see what works, and keep doing more of those. But it does sound like you&#8217;re optimistic. It does sound like it&#8217;s crept up. And whilst it might not be what it was in 2019, it&#8217;s going in the right direction.</p>



<p>[00:32:49] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Yeah. And had you asked me this a year ago, the answer would&#8217;ve been different. So I was still optimistic, because I believe in the strength of a good meaning group of people, like a good hearted group, which WordPressers generally are.</p>



<p>So it still would&#8217;ve been optimistic. But we had actually not, I feel, gotten to kind of a critical mass. We hadn&#8217;t gotten through the hardest part of the work, at this time last year.</p>



<p>It wasn&#8217;t until, I think it was probably a month a WordCamp Europe last year, where I felt like, okay, we have done enough of the foundational work that the flywheel effect can start to take place again. And so that obviously requires a bit of a shift in the way that folks who are working on building the community, and managing the community events.</p>



<p>It requires a little bit of a change in how you see those events functioning in the ecosystem. I&#8217;m absolutely optimistic. I think that we have gotten past the hardest part of rebuilding, which is making sure that your foundations are right.</p>



<p>[00:33:44] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay. The next two questions are retrospective. I want you to look back in time.</p>



<p>[00:33:49] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Those are better than predicting the future.</p>



<p>[00:33:50] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Then we get to that, I&#8217;m afraid. If we were to look back over, let&#8217;s just pick a number. Let&#8217;s go for five years. If we were to look back over the last five years, what&#8217;s made you happy about what&#8217;s happened in WordPress? So that could be the code, it could be the community, it could be anything you like. And also, what do you wish had been done differently? So let&#8217;s look back. What makes you happy? What do you wish had happened in a different way?</p>



<p>[00:34:10] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> So something that has made me happy in that timeframe, is that the bet that we placed on Gutenberg seems to have really paid off. Like, we went from 23% to 43%, in that time span. And I know that I was very anxious about the Gutenberg project. I didn&#8217;t talk, I fought full throatedly with Matías about the best ways forward on it, and if we were fully considering the user in the way that WordPress wants to, and should do.</p>



<p>And so he and I really got in the trenches on that, for all of 2017 and 2018, it feels like. And the bet of, for such a dramatic change, bringing in more people than we otherwise would have. I wanted it to be true, and I was experimenting with a full and confident heart, but also my brain was very concerned about it.</p>



<p>And so in the last five years, I am so glad that all of the work that we put into, not only making sure that the software that we were building was valuable for people who want to use WordPress, but also that the work that we did to communicate around it, and bring the community with us, worked. Because if we had not really committed to the change, you can sabotage anything by just not doing something.</p>



<p>And so my teams at Automattic, and then also the contributors in the WordPress project, just came with us on this with, I wouldn&#8217;t say gleeful abandon, that is not what they did. But certainly with the sort of critical feedback, that implies they believe that it could be possible. They saw that there was a possibility there. And so that&#8217;s my favorite thing that happened, in the last five years.</p>



<p>What I wish would&#8217;ve gone better is, I wish that we had done some of that change management work earlier. We ended up, for most of 2019, and I think this may be at the top of 2019, is when I first met you, at WordCamp London potentially. And I specifically went there, I spent the first six months of 2019 traveling to the communities that had told us that we had created the most chaos with merging Gutenberg. And just having y&#8217;all tell me what you hated the most about everything. And almost always the answer was, you might be right about the future of this software, and why Gutenberg needs to exist, and I just wish you had done it in a different way.</p>



<p>And so that&#8217;s what I wish we had done differently, is to do a bit better change management. Because all change, whether it&#8217;s a good change or not, represents a loss. And so if you cannot say at the start, this is great for where we are, but it&#8217;s not going to get us into the future. I think this is why we have to leave this point, and then I believe that this is probably the next point that we&#8217;re going to, help me find the way there. If you haven&#8217;t said very clearly, and with lots of confidence, why today won&#8217;t get us to tomorrow, you&#8217;re not going to get people to comfortably come with you into tomorrow.</p>



<p>We did do that work, and it was a lot of work. A number of contributors in Automattic, and in WordPress, and in other sponsoring companies, put in so much effort into training, and communications, and mediation, and just like listening. And I think that we could have done a little bit less of that, if we had done a little more proactive work, and just letting everybody know why we felt like WordPress needed to change.</p>



<p>[00:37:37] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. If everybody working in the WordPress community was an employee, then you could distribute the memo, couldn&#8217;t you? You could just say, this is the intention, off we go. But you&#8217;ve got this massive diaspora. And some of the people, you know, some of them are paying incredible attention to everything that is going on. Other people are just, oh look, it&#8217;s been updated, I wasn&#8217;t anticipating that.</p>



<p>But I think about it a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, the whole project, but Gutenberg in particular. And it feels like now that we&#8217;re in 2024, it felt like there were just one or two pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. And we knew that there was going to be this complete puzzle. But now it&#8217;s got a little bit more fleshed out. The communication got better. Most people seem to be on board. Everybody can anticipate what power behind it is. And I feel very confident that that was the right decision. I think you&#8217;re right, it was hard to communicate all that.</p>



<p>Okay, we won&#8217;t stare five years into the future. Let&#8217;s go for a year, because that&#8217;s enough. What are you excited about over the next year in WordPress?</p>



<p>[00:38:29] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> So, this is going to be back office excitement. This feels like the year that WordPress, and its community, is going to like get really aligned on what we&#8217;re trying to do. Like, I feel as though we have enough people in the community, and enough really big voices in the community saying, we need to all just get pointed in the right direction, and everybody row in that direction. There&#8217;s a lighthouse, don&#8217;t hit the rocks. We&#8217;re going to do the thing. Like, we have enough people that are all saying that we really need to band together on this.</p>



<p>I think we&#8217;re going to be able to get that done this year. And I don&#8217;t really know what that looks like. But I do, especially like in this particular event, hearing the contributors, and how excited they are. And we had like 75% new contributors. I thought they said 35%, but everybody keeps telling me I misheard, and it&#8217;s 75.</p>



<p>Like, 75% new contributors. These are people who have never cared to come and do this, either because they didn&#8217;t know that the community existed, or because they were busy trying to get their own businesses set up, so that they had the luxury to contribute some time to WordPress. For whatever reason, regardless, 35% is also a giant number. 75 is enormous, but 35 is really big.</p>



<p>Hearing the excitement that people have around what they could do, if they understood what our goals need to be. People want to see the direction they&#8217;re supposed to be headed in, and that WordPress is supposed to be headed in, so that we can make sure that it goes a bit further, a bit faster. And I love seeing that because I agree. We would love to go a bit further, a bit faster, and see what is around the corner.</p>



<p>[00:39:54] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You genuinely sound incredibly optimistic.</p>



<p>[00:39:58] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> And here I am saying I&#8217;m a pragmatic realist.</p>



<p>[00:40:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It&#8217;s really not coming from a point of, you know, I don&#8217;t get the sense from you, that you are saying this because it&#8217;s a trope that you&#8217;ve got to give me. I feel that you passionately believe everything that you&#8217;ve just said. It&#8217;s an important piece of work that you&#8217;re doing. You are completely aligned with it. You sound like you&#8217;ve got real optimism for the future. That&#8217;s great.</p>



<p>[00:40:17] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> I&#8217;ll give you a secret. And it&#8217;s a thing that I wish I could tell everybody, and so hopefully you have all of the WordPress project listening to this podcast. So, you know, you&#8217;ve got a task. So I cannot pull together enough words to express how much I care about this community, and what they want to be able to do with a software like this.</p>



<p>10 years ago, I did not understand what a software like this means. I was just like, someone, quote unquote, someone out there is giving away a whole software for free, neat. I didn&#8217;t get it. And the more and more that I learned about it, the more and more that I just, it&#8217;s so much more than any one of us. Which is an amazing thing to be able to say about a piece of software.</p>



<p>And as I moved from, in 2015, to my role of managing meetups, which is what I was hired to do, all the way to 2019, when I became the executive director, and then also became the leader of the open source division at Automattic, my work changed so much in that one moment.</p>



<p>And the thing that I hate the most, is that I think that our community of contributors, and especially the ones that are not just replete with hours to contribute to WordPress. I hate so much that they will never know how much I care about their success. That was always my favorite thing when I was working with events.</p>



<p>To see people come back year after year, and not only be like, Josepha, I took the advice that I got at this event last year, and look, I have my business up, this thing is thriving. Not only be able to come back year after year, and like be able to celebrate what they enacted, with what they learned the year prior. But then also, to be able to say, at some point, I have all of this success, because of what this community does. And so now I&#8217;m going to be part of that community, so other people can have that success.</p>



<p>Those were my favourite, favourite, parts. And I miss working with events all the time, giving presentations to help people learn how to do this better. Whether this is like literally blogging, or running a business in WordPress, no matter what. I miss giving people that kind of information.</p>



<p>But also, I know that I can make a much bigger impact with this work that I have now. And the fact that the way that I have to do my work doesn&#8217;t let me be very clear with everyone that I love their journey. I desperately want them to succeed, and I desperately want them to succeed with WordPress especially, but like open source overall. Like, it really pains me all the time, that people will never know how much I care about that.</p>



<p>[00:42:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Your enthusiasm is genuinely highly infectious. Amazing. So, we&#8217;ll just round it off. Firstly, for all of the hard work that you&#8217;ve done to get you where you are, thank you for that. In anticipation of all the hard work that you are going to do, over the next few years, again, appreciated.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m sure that your job, in many ways, is a thankless task. You know, you&#8217;ve described that you would like to be able to speak to everybody, and reassure them, that&#8217;s not going to be possible. But for what you&#8217;ve managed to tell us over the last half an hour or so, I really appreciate it.</p>



<p>[00:43:13] <strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy:</strong> Well, thanks for making the time.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">Josepha Haden Chomphosy</a>.</p>



<p>Josepha is the Executive Director of WordPress, a role she&#8217;s held since 2019. She&#8217;s been contributing since 2012 and has a special fondness for brand-new-to-WordPress learners.</p>



<p>During the episode Josepha shares her insights on overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic. She talks about the positive strides made with the Gutenberg project and the need for improved change management during its implementation.</p>



<p>We also explore the significant achievements of WordPress, reflecting on its growth to power 43% of the web. This gets us into the objectives for future WordPress expansion. Despite some current stagnation, Josepha explains her ambition to reach a 51% market share. She talks about the potential in the enterprise sector, and the importance of reshaping &#8216;walled gardens&#8217; into &#8216;community gardens&#8217;, a metaphor for an inclusive and participatory ecosystem.</p>



<p>We also discuss the semi-anarchic nature of participation in WordPress, acknowledging the diverse perspectives of for-profit motives and those who contribute for non-profit motives.</p>



<p>We contemplate increased diversity and restructured WordPress events, with aspirations of up to 160 WordCamps a year, and we discuss recent experimentation in the event space.</p>



<p>Expressing her journey from hands-on community management to her executive role, Josepha explains her optimism for WordPress with passion and authenticity. She emphasises the responsibility of aligning contributions with strategic roadmaps, ensuring that each initiative within WordPress delivers meaningful impact.</p>



<p>Towards the end, we discuss how the success of WordPress can be measured. This is focussed upon metrics like attendance, engagement, and community contributions as a way to gauge the vitality and sustainability of the WordPress ecosystem.</p>



<p>If you’re interested in the WordPress project as a whole, and how it’s run and directed, this podcast is for you.</p>



<p>A quick note. This was recorded live at WordCamp Asia. There was quite a lot of background noise to contend with, and I’ve done my best to make the audio as easy to listen to as possible.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Useful links</h2>



<p><a href="https://openverse.org/">Openverse</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html#four-freedoms">Four freedoms of open source</a></p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2024/01/19/big-picture-goals-2024/">Big Picture Goals 2024</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 Mar 2024 14:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"Akismet: 26 Ways to Reduce Form Abandonment and Capture Lost Leads";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://akismet.com/?p=283797";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"https://akismet.com/blog/form-abandonment/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26335:"<p>Imagine if every single site visitor converted. Every time you led someone to your landing page, they signed up for the free trial. Every time someone clicked through from social media, they made a purchase. How soon could you buy that private island and retire if you decrease form abandonment to&nbsp;zero?</p>


<p>A 100% conversion rate is about as realistic as stumbling upon an extra billion dollars in your sofa cushions. But there <em>are </em>things you can do to maximize your results.&nbsp;</p>


<p>People hate filling out CAPTCHAs, for example. They could be <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/burszstein_2010_captcha.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reducing your conversions</a> by as much as 40%. For most marketing campaigns, that’s way more than the difference between winning and losing.&nbsp;</p>

<p>But CAPTCHAs are just one of dozens of reasons why people look at forms and even begin to fill them out, only to end up quitting the&nbsp;process.</p>


<span id="more-283797"></span>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why form abandonment matters so&nbsp;much</h2>


<p>Form abandonment costs you big money. Depending on the purpose of the form, you’re either missing out on a sale now, or missing out on future purchases that person would have made.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In other words, the more traffic or potential customers your company has, the more online form abandonment will cost you.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And the two overarching reasons most people abandon forms are mistrust and frustration. Either they don’t trust something about your company or the form, or they get frustrated at trying to navigate the process.&nbsp;</p>



<p>So whether you own a relatively new or small business, run a mid-sized company, or are working on a campaign for a large multinational company, reducing form abandonment by even a few percentage points can result in big revenue that you would have otherwise missed.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Use the checklist below to reduce your form abandonment rate. Do the easy ones first if you need to tackle a lot of these ideas. Or, if you’ve been at this for a while, scan through the list and find the one or two ideas you haven’t yet implemented, and get your form abandonment rate to tick down just a little bit&nbsp;more.</p>

<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Proven ways to reduce form&nbsp;abandonment</h2>


<p>Yes, your company is unique. Nobody does <em>it </em>quite like you. But the principles of high-converting lead generation forms are fairly universal. Review the list below and choose a few to implement today for a better tomorrow.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">1. Keep forms simple and&nbsp;short</h3>


<p>Only ask for information you need right now. You may want more information for future marketing purposes, but you can find other ways to collect some of that later. Focus on the most essential and critical information related to the purpose of each individual form. That might just be a first name and an email. It might include a location. It could also include something that allows you to segment your audience.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">2. Break longer forms into multiple&nbsp;steps</h3>

<p>For longer forms, especially surveys and forms related to making a purchase or registering for an event, you’ll do better by turning one long form into several smaller forms with fewer steps on each screen. This makes the process seem faster, and it’s much easier to navigate on mobile&nbsp;devices.</p>


<img src="https://akismet.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/image.png" alt="progress bar on a contact form" class="wp-image-2464" />


<p>This is probably the primary reason why<a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-email-lead-capture"> Hu</a><a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-email-lead-capture" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">b</a><a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-email-lead-capture">Spot reports</a> that multistep forms convert 87% better than single step forms.&nbsp;</p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">3. Place your forms above the&nbsp;fold</h3>


<p>If the primary goal of a particular web page is to get people to fill out your form, then don’t bury it. Make sure the online form appears above the fold and is visible the moment people reach that page.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If the page has a lot of content, include the same form again either at the end of the page, in the middle, in the sidebar, or in multiple places.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">4. Avoid CAPTCHAs (and reCAPTCHAs) at all&nbsp;costs</h3>

<p>If form abandonment was a living, breathing monster, its favorite snack would be CAPTCHA. What is CAPTCHA? You’ve certainly encountered it yourself. It’s a little annoying puzzle you have to fill out before the website you’re on will let you complete the&nbsp;form.</p>


<img src="https://akismet.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/image-1.png" alt="example of a CAPTCHA" class="wp-image-2465" /><em>Photo from </em><a href="http://www.captcha.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>http://www.captcha.net/</em></a>



<p>A CAPTCHA might require you to decipher a word that’s very hard to read. reCAPTCHAs usually ask you to do something like pick out all the images with bicycles or stoplights.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Of course, no one on Earth likes puzzling through CAPTCHAs. They’re a chore we loathe. And that’s why, as mentioned at the outset, CAPTCHAs lead to a high form abandonment rate.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In a lot of cases, people don’t even try to complete the puzzles. They see a barrier and instantly surrender.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Needless to say, CAPTCHA is a form completion destroyer.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">5. Prefer non&#8209;intrusive spam&nbsp;protection</h3>

<p>CAPTCHAs cause major issues for your users (and your bottom line). But they also stop spam, and you don’t want that, either. Otherwise, you’ll add hours of work for someone in your organization (possibly an entire full time team) who has to sort through that mess each&nbsp;week.</p>

<p>The solution?&nbsp;<a href="https://akismet.com/">Akismet</a>.</p>


<img src="https://akismet.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/image-2.png" alt="Akismet homepage with the text " />


<p>This program stops spammers from filling out your forms but without the frustrating CAPTCHA. Using advanced AI and an enormous database of experience, Akismet works in the background of your site to identify and block spammers and bots from completing your&nbsp;forms.</p>


<p>Your users don’t even know it’s there. They just get to enjoy completing your forms without stress or frustration. That means more conversions, less form abandonment, and higher revenue.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For large companies, there’s an <a href="https://akismet.com/enterprise/">enterprise solution for Akismet</a>.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">6. Aim for fast load&nbsp;times</h3>


<p>Slow websites drive people away. You have mere seconds to keep them from abandoning the page — especially on mobile devices. Forms are no different; They’re part of the page, and they need to work quickly. Don’t clutter up the page with oversized images or other features that slow things down.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Use a free service like<a href="https://pagespeed.web.dev/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> PageSpeed Insights</a> to enter your URL and see if there are any ways to speed up the loading of your pages that include forms.&nbsp;</p>


<img src="https://akismet.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/image-3.png" alt="core web vitals assessment for akismet.com" class="wp-image-2467" />


<p>Using WordPress? A tool like <a href="https://jetpack.com/boost/">Jetpack Boost</a> could provide a major lift with almost no&nbsp;effort.</p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">7. Optimize for mobile&nbsp;devices</h3>


<p>When filling out a form, mobile devices aren’t as easy to use as a desktop or laptop computer. So you need to make accommodations. Other items on this list will help you optimize for mobile technology, such as single column forms and multistep forms. But don’t forget font size and readability, either. On the much smaller screen, it needs to be easy to read the field labels and button copy.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">8. Add security badges and trust&nbsp;signals</h3>

<p>Trust is getting harder to presume in the online world. Security badges and other trust signals hold significant influence in reassuring people your forms (and your company’s technology) are safe and trustworthy. Do what it takes to obtain a few of these and place them in or around your&nbsp;forms.</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">9. Display social proof&nbsp;</h3>



<p>A great way to reduce form abandonment is to show testimonials and reviews that speak highly of your company. It’s even better if the reviews relate specifically to what the form is promising. Either way, collect some testimonials, star reviews, and screenshots of real customers rating your service or products, and place them around your form.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Again, a primary cause of form abandonment is a lack of trust.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">10. Ensure forms are visually&nbsp;appealing</h3>


<p>There are forms that look like they’re from the 1990s, and there are forms that look good. Even using pre-existing templates, it’s very easy to create simple forms that look sharp. If you haven’t updated your form’s appearance for a while, this is an easy item to check off your list.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And while you want your form to fit in well with the rest of your site design, you don’t want it to blend in so well that people scroll right past it. Your forms need to stand out so they’re impossible to miss and tempting to complete.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">11. Provide a clear incentive to complete the&nbsp;form</h3>


<p>“Join our newsletter!” Even in 2024, you still see this type of copy on so many email signup forms. The question is — why? Why should we join your list? Why do we want the free download? What value am I receiving? Should I give you my spam email address or the one I actually use?&nbsp;</p>



<p>So you need to quickly, and clearly, explain why someone should register for your event. What’s in it for them? Why should they sign up for a webinar, or start a free trial, or fill out a survey?&nbsp;</p>


<p>Your form is the closer. The visitor is looking at your website, your offer, and your form. They’re considering filling it out. But the form itself owns the task of convincing them to follow through and actually do it. So give them a good reason to do so. Make an appealing, irresistible offer or incentive that takes away whatever resistance may still be holding them back — and include it in the form copy&nbsp;itself.</p>


<p>That incentive is what will motivate them to follow through and complete the form, and not abandon it halfway.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">12. Use engaging microcopy around&nbsp;forms</h3>


<p>Likewise, use engaging sales copy in and around the form. Restate the offer. State something about what they can expect after completing the form. Tell them what they get — something good that happens after they finish filling it out.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">13. Provide live chat support on form&nbsp;pages</h3>

<p>If someone runs into a technical issue, a live chat option may be able to keep them from abandoning the form. This will capture people who really do want to fill out the online form but are having a little trouble. It will also capture anyone who has questions they need answered before completing the&nbsp;form.</p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">14. Arrange fields in a single column&nbsp;layout</h3>

<p>This has been tested numerous times for many years, and the verdict is in. In one study,<a href="https://www.foxit.com/blog/elements-of-good-form-design-single-column-beats-multi-column-forms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> users completed</a> the single column form 15.4 seconds faster than the multi&#8209;column form. That’s quite a difference. Many other tests have confirmed that single column forms convert better. And again, with the advent of mobile, the preference for single column forms is essentially a non&#8209;issue. There is no other reasonable way to do&nbsp;it.</p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">15. Ensure all fields are uniformly&nbsp;styled</h3>


<p>This is a trust issue. Make sure you’re using the same font color, size, and type across your form fields. You can use different traits for the form title if you want to draw attention to it. But the fields need to have a consistent design.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">16. Clearly label each&nbsp;field</h3>


<p>You can put field labels next to the field, above the field, within the field, or perhaps below it. Whichever approach you choose, make sure it is clear and easy to read and navigate.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">17 Indicate mandatory&nbsp;fields</h3>

<p>This is another easy one. By now, most people are familiar with the idea of mandatory fields. This feature adds a little star next to the required fields. People appreciate this because then they know which ones they have to fill out, and which ones are optional. Plus, they won’t get upset about all the information you’re asking for if only some of it is&nbsp;required.</p>

<p>If you want to collect more information from people but don’t want to overburden them with a long form, using mandatory and optional fields strikes a good balance. For people willing to fill out every field, you’ll have more information about those customers. For people who just want to complete it and move on and don’t want to share certain information, they will do just the minimum — as long as you tell them which fields are&nbsp;mandatory.</p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">18. Limit dropdown&nbsp;fields</h3>


<p>Dropdown fields add steps to the process of filling out a form. With a dropdown, you have to click and interact differently than with text-based fields. Plus, you have to scan the choices. There’s more to do, and more to think about.&nbsp;</p>


<p>If you have a dropdown menu you feel you really need, it’s okay to use it. But there shouldn’t be more than one of these in most forms. And even if you feel like you need one, can you collect the same information with radio buttons or checkboxes? This is a user experience&nbsp;issue.</p>


<img src="https://akismet.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/image-4.png" alt="WooCommerce form with checkboxes and short fields" class="wp-image-2468" />


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">19. Provide real&#8209;time inline&nbsp;validation</h3>


<p>One of the most frustrating experiences when it comes to filling out forms is getting to the end, clicking the button, and then learning you made a mistake, and all the information you entered vanishes. You have to start over.&nbsp;</p>



<p>While you can (and certainly should) set up your forms to not cause entered data to disappear, an even better approach is to use real-time inline validation.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This means the form itself tells the user they haven’t entered something correctly, or that they missed a mandatory field. For example, they might enter the date using an incorrect format, or an email address missing the ‘@’ symbol or that says ‘cm’ instead of ‘com’.&nbsp;</p>



<p>With real-time validation, users will know they made a mistake and can easily fix it before clicking the button. This validation can also show up after they click so they can quickly find their mistakes. But users appreciate it most if it operates while they’re filling it out the first time. Making them go back up and find a mistake increases the risk of form abandonment.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Real&#8209;time inline validation is one of the best strategies for improving form abandonment&nbsp;rates.</p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">20. Use autofill where&nbsp;possible</h3>


<p>With some data, autofill can greatly accelerate the process of filling out a form. This can help with email addresses by filling in the ending such as “@yahoo.com”. It can also help with dates in some cases, as well as other fields. For people who have visited your site previously, even some of their personal information can autofill.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Fast is good. And autofill makes the process of filling out forms much faster and less tedious.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">21. Pre&#8209;select common options to reduce&nbsp;friction</h3>


<p>Depending on the purpose and specifics of your form, you may be able to pre-select certain items or options that most people choose. That way, most people will have one less item to fill out to complete your form.&nbsp;</p>



<p>You have to be careful with this one, though. You don’t want to pre-select things that relate to money. Some entities offering monthly subscriptions have been known to pre-select the monthly option over the one-time purchase option. Needless to say, customers don’t appreciate finding out on their credit card statement that they accidentally signed up for a recurring charge.&nbsp;</p>



<p>So only use this strategy if there is something in your online form that is benign, and that most people tend to select or type.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">22. Show or hide fields based on user responses (conditional&nbsp;logic)</h3>


<p>Some forms include fields that only apply depending on what a user selects earlier in the form.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For example, suppose you have an event registration form, and one of the items lets the user choose between three different meal options. Then, it asks if they have any food allergies, and includes a list of allergies they can choose. If a user says they do not have any allergies, you can make the form hide the allergy selection field, and thus simplify the form.&nbsp;</p>


<p>In other cases, you might expand the form to add fields based on user responses. Though this makes the form longer, the user won’t mind because they chose that option, which means they want to supply whatever information it’s asking&nbsp;about.</p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">23. Show progress indicators for multistep&nbsp;forms</h3>


<p>If you’re already using a multistep form or are planning to switch to that type after reading this checklist, look to also add a progress indicator. As the user completes each step in the form, the progress bar shows how much closer they are to finishing.&nbsp;</p>



<img src="https://akismet.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/image-5.png" alt="progress bar on a multistep form" class="wp-image-2469" />



<p>People like finishing things. The progress bar serves as a visual motivator and reminder that they are that much closer to finishing the form. It increases their desire to complete the task.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">24. Include a link to your privacy&nbsp;policy</h3>


<p>For email opt-in forms, a privacy policy link is often a requirement due to anti-spam laws such as GDPR. So you have to have this for email forms.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For other forms, while the privacy policy link may not be required, it’s still good practice because it expresses your commitment to respecting the privacy of the data your customers and leads are giving you in this form. You want customers to know they can trust you with their data, and are doing what you can to keep it safe and not share it.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Does anyone actually read privacy policies? It’s probably rare. But having a policy assures people they can find out what you’ll do with their data.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">25. Use motivating button&nbsp;copy</h3>


<p>Don’t use button copy that sounds like it was written by a computer. Submit. Enter. No — this is not the language of joy, excitement, interest, or desire.&nbsp;</p>


<p>Your button is the final step in the process of filling out a form. Let the user finish on a high note. Make them feel good about sending their information to you. There are various ways to do this with button copy, such&nbsp;as:</p>


<ul><li>Emotionally affirm them: “You’re&nbsp;in!”</li>

<li>Personalize it: “Sign me&nbsp;up!”</li>

<li>Inject personality or humor that fits your brand: “Fight spam!”&nbsp;</li>

<li>Clearly describe what’s about to happen: “Register for&nbsp;webinar”</li>

<li>Remind them of the incentive: “Send my free&nbsp;book!”</li>

<li>Remind them of urgency: “Reserve my&nbsp;spot”</li></ul>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">26. Regularly A/B test your forms and&nbsp;fields</h3>


<p>You can A/B test many of the ways to reduce form abandonment that you see in this checklist.&nbsp;</p>


<p>You can test font type, font color, number of fields, required fields, the effect of dropdown menus, security badges, button copy, multistep vs single&#8209;step, and so many other&nbsp;things.</p>

<p>Set up one version of the page with one form, and another version with the altered form. Give the page enough time to collect a valid set of data, and then examine the results. If you see a notable difference in form conversions or abandonment rates, use the version that performs&nbsp;better.</p>

<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Frequently asked&nbsp;questions</h2>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What is form&nbsp;abandonment?</h3>


<p>Form abandonment happens when a visitor to a website begins to fill out a form, such as an email signup form or a webinar registration form, but then fails to complete it and leaves the page.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Why is reducing form abandonment&nbsp;important?</h3>


<p>If users who intended to complete an action on your website end up not doing so because of a preventable reason, you’ve lost whatever revenue that action represents.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For example, if someone fills out your email signup form, you can begin sending them email marketing, which may lead to future purchases and revenue for your company. But if they abandon the form, all that potential revenue is lost.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">How can I identify which fields cause users to abandon my&nbsp;form?</h3>


<p>You can use form abandonment tracking software to collect data that will reveal how people are engaging your forms, where they’re getting stuck, and when they’re quitting.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What are the best practices for mobile form&nbsp;design?</h3>


<p>Single column and multipage forms are much easier to engage on a mobile device than other form types. With a touchscreen, and a much smaller screen, these form designs fit better on the screen and deliver simpler functionality and a better user experience.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Additional best practices include using large enough fonts to be able to read them on the smaller screen, including the form field labels and button copy.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">How does a multistep form improve conversion&nbsp;rates?</h3>


<p>For longer forms, many fields can seem intimidating. multistep forms make the process feel simpler and easier by breaking it up into smaller chunks. Completing each step takes much less time, and the user experiences the positive feelings associated with making progress.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What are some effective incentives for form&nbsp;completion?</h3>

<p>This depends on the purpose of the form. Examples include discounts, free gifts, exclusive invites, access to special information or VIP services, free guides, reports or other information, and time&#8209;limited&nbsp;offers.</p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">How does A/B testing improve form&nbsp;performance?</h3>

<p>It’s hard to know how well an online form is performing, or if it could perform better, unless you run an A/B test. Pick one characteristic on the form, such as the button copy, and create two forms with two different versions of the button. With enough data from people encountering these two versions, you’ll see if one version of button copy outperforms the other and improves the form’s conversion rate. You can test just about any feature in your form using this&nbsp;approach.</p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What are the best ways to build user trust in a&nbsp;form?</h3>


<p>You can build trust in your forms by adding social proof, security badges, and links to your privacy policy, as well as giving the form a clean and consistent appearance and functional technology that works quickly and effortlessly. Having a live chat option also increases trust.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What are some common mistakes in form design to&nbsp;avoid?</h3>


<p>Don’t use more than one column for your form fields. Don’t make your buttons too small or hard to read. Don’t design the form such that it blends in too well with the rest of the page. And avoid asking for unnecessary information, especially if you make all the fields mandatory.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Why should CAPTCHA be&nbsp;avoided?</h3>


<p>CAPTCHA greatly depresses form conversion rates and increases form abandonment rates. The struggle and annoyance of trying to solve these puzzles leads a sizable percentage of users to give up and abandon the form.&nbsp;</p>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What is Akismet, and how can it help reduce form&nbsp;abandonment?</h3>

<p>Akismet prevents spammers and bots from filling out your forms, but without requiring the user to do anything or even know it’s happening. Akismet happens in the background, and uses AI to identify when bots and spammers are attempting to complete your forms so it can prevent them from&nbsp;succeeding.</p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">How many websites trust&nbsp;Akismet?</h3>


<p>More than 100 million websites are currently using Akismet, and as of this writing, it has prevented over 525,000,000,000 pieces of spam from being submitted through things like forms and comment sections. Global companies such as Microsoft, ConvertKit, and Bluehost trust Akismet to keep bots away without gumming up the user experience with their forms.&nbsp;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 Mar 2024 13:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Jen Swisher";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"WPTavern: The WordPress Training Team’s Big Changes: Learning Pathways and Website Redesign";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154924";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:100:"https://wptavern.com/the-wordpress-training-teams-big-changes-learning-pathways-and-website-redesign";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10504:"<p>Knowledge and training for WordPress has traditionally been very decentralized. There&#8217;s the official documentation, the developer documentation, the support forums, WordPress.tv, and then the wide array of community blogs, tutorials, and YouTube videos. Resources like documentation and support forums exist to answer questions and explain features, but their purpose is not to teach a person what it means to use WordPress. That&#8217;s the goal of Learn WordPress, managed by the WordPress Training team and living at the easy-to-remember URL <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org">learn.wordpress.org</a>. </p>



<p>Learn WordPress has existed in some form for the last decade, but the current iteration was <a href="https://wptavern.com/learn-wordpress-platform-launches-with-free-courses-workshops-and-lesson-plans">launched by the training team in 2020</a>, with free workshops and courses offering guided instruction through a number of topics, from basic site customization to block development. Now that three more years of educational content has been published, the team has been <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-training-team-seeks-community-feedback-on-learning-pathways">revisiting the structure of the website</a> itself.</p>



<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s be honest, if you hit the Learn WordPress home now, finding the right information for your specific needs isn&#8217;t the most intuitive process.&#8221;</p>



<p>That&#8217;s Jonathan Bossenger, a Developer Educator sponsored by Automattic. He&#8217;s actively involved in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2023/07/07/project-thread-learning-pathways-on-learn-wordpress/">Learning Pathways</a>, a new initiative launched last fall to address some of these architectural problems by July 2024. We spoke about his team&#8217;s goals with this new project.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What is a Learning Pathway?</h2>



<p>&#8220;The Learning Pathways,&#8221; he explained, &#8220;are trying to solve [this problem]: allowing folks who come to Learn WordPress to find the specific content they need, whether they are brand new to WordPress, or have some experience and want to take that experience to whatever the next logical level is for them.&#8221;</p>



<p>Currently, content on the Learn site is organized more like a blog: it shows the newest content first, roughly categorized by concept. To help users find what they need, the new pathways will more effectively categorize courses based on three different types of learners: Users, Developers, and Designers. Then the content for each user type is organized by skill level, starting with Beginner, moving through Intermediate, and then Expert.</p>



<p>&#8220;Under the hood,&#8221; Jonathan explained, &#8220;the learning pathways are essentially courses, they use the same custom data types and quiz/activity functionality that courses currently do. But they are bigger, more encompassing courses, each with multiple modules that have a specific focus, containing one or more lessons to achieve the learning outcomes of that focus.&#8221;</p>



<p>So a developer or a designer coming into WordPress could look at their learning pathway and determine where they want to start: are they a Beginner or are they ready to level up their Advanced skills? Not all of the content has not been created yet, but existing courses are being repurposed and used as the foundation for pathways.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Curating Content for Modern WordPress</h2>



<p>As a developer who has learned WordPress over the last decade, one concern I had was the sheer amount of knowledge you might need to grapple with. Just from the development side, there&#8217;s PHP, JavaScript, React, and dozens of APIs for everything from adding new settings to interacting with the database.</p>



<p>&#8220;Believe me, as the person spearheading the developer learning pathways, even I was surprised how much there is to dive into,&#8221; Jonathan added. &#8220;So for me personally, I&#8217;m a big fan of building a solid foundation, and then building on top of that. I&#8217;m pretty happy about how the beginner developer learning pathway has turned out, but I can see the future learning pathways we create on top of that being kind of fluid.&#8221;</p>



<p>This opens the question of just how the team is handling the transition of WordPress through its Gutenberg era, and whether they&#8217;re creating content for &#8220;Classic&#8221; features like shortcodes and widget areas.</p>



<p>&#8220;The factor that we are always keeping in mind is that we build those pathways to be about WordPress of today and the future,&#8221; he said, &#8220;not WordPress of the past. So while legacy APIs like the Shortcode API are useful to know about, it&#8217;s more important to teach someone about something like the REST API first, because that&#8217;s a big part of how WordPress works today, and probably for the future.&#8221;</p>



<p>When it comes to legacy WordPress educational content, there&#8217;s plenty of it around the internet. Hundreds of articles and demo plugins exist to teach you about shortcodes, whereas modern WordPress development is still uncharted territory. That said, Jonathan clarified that Learn WordPress &#8220;is focused more on what&#8217;s fully baked, not what&#8217;s still experimental.&#8221; If you&#8217;re interested in the bleeding edge, he recommends the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/">WordPress Developer Blog</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A Well-Informed Redesign</h2>



<p>The Learning Pathways project also includes a complete redesign of the Learn WordPress site. This new design will use the same visual language and underlying block-based parent theme that we&#8217;ve seen for other recent redesigns, like <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-relaunches-showcase-powered-by-blocks">the Showcase</a>.</p>




<img width="1280" height="2854" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Landing.png" alt="A screenshot of the new " />



<img width="1280" height="3456" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Learn-WP-Courses-Landing.png" alt="Screenshot of the " />




<p>Managing this entire project is Destiny Kanno, Head of Community Education at Automattic. She told me that her focus is “ensuring that the Training Team and Design Team are in constant collaborative communication [and that] the new Learn site follows modern learning website design principles and UI/UX.”</p>



<p>Destiny wasn’t just overseeing a redesign, but an entirely new approach to how educational content is being served, including a shift to making more content available on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/wordpress">YouTube</a> instead of WordPress.tv.</p>



<p>“I performed market research of both WordPress-specific and non-WordPress specific learning sites,” she explained. That included sites like WPBeginner, WPMU DEV blog, and WP101 as well as larger learning platforms like Codecademy, Khan Academy, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning. Some of the things she looked at include the types of audiences and the user experience.</p>



<p>Some of those user experience updates require a lot of collaboration not just with design, but with the developer teams as well.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Technical Challenges</h2>



<p>Adding to the complexity of the project is the fact that much of the content is actually multilingual. As of right now, there’s no <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/Learn/issues/2231">multilingual plugin on the site</a>, so the structure of this content has been an issue as the site continues to grow.</p>



<p>“At the moment we host many content types,” Destiny told me, “Tutorials, Lesson Plans, and Courses&#8211; each with duplicative resources. When providing localized educational resources, being able to update content at scale is critical. With our move to only have Courses and Lessons going forward (courses are made up of grouped lessons), we are working to reduce duplicative content creation and localized content efforts.”</p>



<p>Another interesting update could be the inclusion <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/Learn/pull/2264">of interactive code blocks</a> inside of lessons, powered by the <a href="https://wordpress.org/playground/">WordPress Playground</a>, a WordPress instance that can run completely inside of your browser. The team behind WordPress Playground is helping address specific requirements around functionality and accessibility with the hopes that their <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/interactive-code-block/">WordPress Playground Block</a> plugin can power more interactive lessons in the future.</p>



<p>What makes me most excited about the ongoing redesign of WordPress.org is that they&#8217;re fully committed to using block-based themes, at a scale of content and traffic that&#8217;s pretty overwhelming. If you want to learn more about how important this redesign project is, then check out <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-developer-docs-shows-off-a-new-block-based-redesign">this recent conversation with Nick Diego</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;I think you have to agree,” said Jonathan, “the <a href="https://www.figma.com/file/ZKaf6u8mIHkAanluWafXAp/Learn?type=design&node-id=2211-18443&mode=design">new designs are rather exciting</a>, if you compare them to what we currently have from 2020.&#8221;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Next Steps</h2>



<p>While the current pathways only cover three different user types, Jonathan and I mused about other potential pathways they could define in the future, like a &#8220;contributor&#8221; pathway or a &#8220;marketer/SEO&#8221; pathway. WordPress is used by a variety of creators and across large organizations.</p>



<p>&#8220;As a writer myself,&#8221; said Jonathan, &#8220;I&#8217;d love to create a &#8216;WordPress writer learning pathway&#8217;. We could have a module on the basics of WordPress, and then dive into using drafts, scheduling posts, sharing to social, and adding newsletters&#8230;&#8221; </p>



<p>For now, the team will remain focused on three specific Learners: Designer, Developer, and User. Follow along with their progress in the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RW657Q">#training</a> channel in Make WordPress Slack or on their project blog, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/">Make WordPress Training</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 12 Mar 2024 17:46:57 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Brian Coords";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 6.5 Release Candidate 2";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=17053";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/03/wordpress-6-5-release-candidate-2/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9507:"<p>The second release candidate (RC2) for WordPress 6.5 is ready!&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>This version of the WordPress software is under development</strong>.<strong> Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites.</strong> Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC2 on a test server and site.</p>



<p>While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.5 is the best it can be.</p>



<p>You can test WordPress 6.5 RC2 in four ways:</p>



<table><tbody><tr><th>Plugin</th><td>Install and activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).</td></tr><tr><th>Direct Download</th><td>Download the <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.5-RC2.zip">RC2 version (zip)</a> and install it on a WordPress website.</td></tr><tr><th>Command Line</th><td>Use the following <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/cli/">WP-CLI</a> command:<br /><code>wp core update --version=6.5-RC</code>2</td></tr><tr><th>WordPress Playground</th><td>Use the <a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/#%7B%20%22preferredVersions%22:%20%7B%20%22php%22:%20%228.0%22,%20%22wp%22:%20%22beta%22%20%7D,%20%22features%22:%20%7B%20%22networking%22:%20true%20%7D,%20%22steps%22:%20[%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22login%22,%20%22username%22:%20%22admin%22,%20%22password%22:%20%22password%22%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22importFile%22,%20%22file%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22url%22,%20%22url%22:%20%22https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wpaccessibility/a11y-theme-unit-test/master/a11y-theme-unit-test-data.xml%22%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22importFile%22,%20%22file%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22url%22,%20%22url%22:%20%22https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WordPress/theme-test-data/master/themeunittestdata.wordpress.xml%22%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22query-monitor%22%20%7D,%20%22options%22:%20%7B%20%22activate%22:%20false%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22create-block-theme%22%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22debug-bar%22%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22health-check%22%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22test-reports%22%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22user-switching%22%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D%20]%20%7D">6.5 RC2 WordPress Playground instance</a> (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup.</td></tr></tbody></table>



<p>The current target for the WordPress 6.5 release is <strong>March 26, 2024</strong>. That’s a mere two weeks away! Get an overview of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-5/">6.5 release cycle</a>, and check the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">Make WordPress Core blog</a> for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/6-5/">6.5-related posts</a> in the coming weeks for further details.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What to expect in WordPress 6.5 RC2</h2>



<p>Thanks to the many contributors testing up to this point, this release includes approximately 20 bug fixes for the Editor and 30+ <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&changetime=03%2F05%2F2024..03%2F12%2F2024&resolution=fixed&milestone=6.5&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&order=id">tickets for WordPress Core</a>. For more technical information related to issues addressed since RC1, you can browse the following links:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/commits/wp/6.5?since=2024-03-05&until=2024-03-12">GitHub commits for 6.5</a> since March 5</li>



<li><a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&changetime=03%2F05%2F2024..03%2F12%2F2024&resolution=fixed&milestone=6.5&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&order=id">Closed Trac tickets</a> since March 5</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Update on content overrides for synced patterns</h3>



<p>As synced patterns evolve and improve, every enhancement must continue to provide the best experience possible. With this in mind, WordPress 6.5 <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/07/unblocking-wp6-5-font-library-and-synced-pattern-overrides/">will not include the ability to override content in synced patterns</a>. This allows more time for feedback and testing to ensure it can really shine. Expect this feature to debut in the next major release!</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Contribute to this release</h2>



<p>WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Get involved in testing</h3>



<p>Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2024/02/28/help-test-wordpress-beta-3/">This detailed guide</a> will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.5. For those new to testing, follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2024/02/15/help-test-wordpress-6-5-beta-1">this general testing guide</a> for more details on getting set up.</p>



<p>If you encounter an issue, please report it to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta area</a> of the support forums or directly to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">WordPress Trac</a> if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">known bugs</a>.</p>



<p>Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/">testing initiatives in Make Core</a> and join the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/messages/core-test/">#core-test channel</a> on <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/">Making WordPress Slack</a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Search for vulnerabilities</h3>



<p>From now until the final release candidate of WordPress 6.5 (scheduled for March 19), the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/security/2024/02/12/welcoming-2024-with-wordpress-6-5-beta-1/">monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities</a> is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the <a href="https://hackerone.com/wordpress">HackerOne page</a> and in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/security/">security white paper</a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Update your theme or plugin</h3>



<p>For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.5 beta releases. With RC1, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the <em>“Tested up to”</em> version in your <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/how-your-readme-txt-works/">plugin’s readme file</a> to 6.5.</p>



<p>If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">support forum</a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Help translate WordPress</h3>



<p>Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本? हिन्दी? বাংলা? You can <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev/">help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Release the haiku</h2>



<p>RC2, a bridge,<br />From development to launch,<br />One more step forward.<br />&#8211; <em>submitted by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/huzaifaalmesbah/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>huzaifaalmesbah</a></em></p>



<p><em>Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dansoschin/">@dansoschin</a></em>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/get_dave/">@get_dave</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/">@audrasjb</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 12 Mar 2024 16:58:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Lauren Stein";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"WPTavern: Bluehost Announced New Cloud Hosting Built on WP Cloud";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154810";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:75:"https://wptavern.com/bluehost-announced-new-cloud-hosting-built-on-wp-cloud";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3088:"<p>Bluehost, one of the leading web hosting providers, has announced <a href="https://www.bluehost.com/hosting/cloud">Bluehost Cloud</a>, an innovative cloud-based hosting solution specifically designed for WordPress users. It is built on <a href="https://wp.cloud/">WP Cloud</a> infrastructure, in collaboration with WordPress.com, to provide robust support for websites with high traffic and demanding performance requirements. Bluehost is one of the three WordPress.org <a href="https://wordpress.org/hosting/">recommended hosting providers</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Bluehost Cloud promises managed WordPress hosting with 100% network uptime, faster page load time, and better performance. It targets professionals and agencies and can handle any traffic spikes without charging customers extra for such spikes.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“In the realm of website creation, every pixel counts, every second matters, and every client’s satisfaction is paramount. With the launch of Bluehost Cloud, a collaborative effort between industry titans Bluehost and Automattic, we’re ushering in a new era of confidence for website professionals, agencies and freelancers. From a 100% uptime SLA to lightning-fast page load speeds, Bluehost Cloud is backed by our unparalleled WordPress expertise and expertly designed for high traffic and high-performance websites,” said Satish Hemachandran, SVP of Hosting at Newfold Digital, parent company of Bluehost. “Bluehost Cloud marks an exciting expansion into the agency market, complementing our long-time commitment to serving small businesses around the world, and it sets the new standard for WordPress speed, reliability, scalability and support,” he said.</p>



<p>Bluehost Cloud uses WP Cloud infrastructure, “the only cloud platform built from the ground up just for WordPress.” WP Cloud ensures robust security with real-time backups, anti-spam measures, and malware scanning. With features like a built-in CDN, 28 global data centers and automated WordPress edge caching, it guarantees incredible website speed.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>We built WP Cloud so every hosting company can provide the safest and fastest WordPress experience available.</p>
<cite>Matt Mullenweg</cite></blockquote>



<p>Bluehost Cloud offers four packages: special early access pricing starting from $29.99/mo for 1 website to $109.99/mo for 50 websites. The regular prices start from $79.99. Bluehost Cloud is also showcased on WordPress.com’s <a href="https://wordpress.com/pricing/">pricing page</a>. All plans come with:&nbsp;</p>



<ul>
<li>100% network uptime</li>



<li>24/7 priority support voice chat</li>



<li>DDoS Protection</li>



<li>A web application firewall</li>



<li>Automated daily backups</li>



<li>Let&#8217;s Encrypt SSL</li>



<li>2-Factor Authentication.</li>
</ul>



<p>As of now, Bluehost Cloud does not support WordPress Multisite. However multiple websites can be created as independent WordPress installations under a single Bluehost Cloud account.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 12 Mar 2024 12:49:42 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Jyolsna";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"WPTavern: Surprising Tech Trends in WordPress and Beyond";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154834";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16705:"<p>As you likely know, <a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/traffic/Entire-Internet">WordPress software powers 46% of all websites on the Internet</a>.&nbsp; I thought it would be fun to dive a bit deeper and note some trends that affect the WP community.</p>



<img width="1470" height="1224" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/WordPress-powers-46-of-the-Internet.jpg" alt="A pie chart showing WordPress has a 46% cms usage on the internet, Wix has 11%, Squarespace has 4%, and " />WordPress powers 46% of all websites on the Internet



<ol><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#wordpress-usage-remains-dominant-and-steady">WordPress usage remains dominant and steady</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#antiquated-software-is-still-used-quite-a-bit-in-the-wp-community">Antiquated software is still used quite a bit in the WP community</a><ol><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#antiquated-wordpress-core-installs">Antiquated WordPress Core Installs</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#antiquated-php">Antiquated PHP</a></li></ol></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#jquery-is-still-riding-high">jQuery is still riding high! </a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#react-usage-is-up-for-the-top-1-million-sites-but-way-down-overall">React usage is up for the top 1 million sites but way down overall</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#wordpress-competitors-are-rocking">WordPress’ competitors are rocking!</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#what-about-e-commerce">What about e-commerce?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#mailchimp-is-down-zoho-mail-and-google-business-are-up">Mailchimp is down; Zoho Mail and Google Business are up.</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#how-is-our-old-friend-php-doing">How is our old friend, PHP, doing?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#about-the-data">About the Data</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#related-historical-links">Related Historical Links</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#what-do-you-think">What do you think?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/surprising-tech-trends-in-wordpress-and-beyond#comments">Comments ↓</a></li></ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="wordpress-usage-remains-dominant-and-steady">WordPress usage remains dominant and steady</h2>



<p>Since its founding in 2003, <a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/WordPress">WordPress usage has risen steadily and consistently</a>:&nbsp;</p>



<img width="1480" height="1268" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/wordpress-high-and-steady.jpg" alt="A line graph showing WordPress usage is up in a linear fashion from 0 to 30 million sites since 2003" class="wp-image-154858" />WordPress usage is consistently up over the years.



<p>WP consultants who are old enough will recall that Drupal and Joomla commanded a large share of the market early on &#8211; not anymore. </p>



<p>Both are down considerably since their peaks around 2015:</p>



<img width="1490" height="1282" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/joomla.jpg" alt="A line graph showing Joomla's market share down considerably since 2015. It shows there are currently around 1.5 million Joomla websites." class="wp-image-154859" />Joomla usage down considerably since 2015



<img width="1488" height="1256" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/drupal.jpg" alt="A line graph showing Drupal's market share down considerably since 2015. It shows there are currently around 550,000 Drupal websites." class="wp-image-154860" />Drupal usage down considerably since 2015



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="antiquated-software-is-still-used-quite-a-bit-in-the-wp-community">Antiquated software is still used quite a bit in the WP community</h2>



<p>Getting people to update software and run security patches is difficult on any platform.  WP and related tech seems to be no exception to that rule.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="antiquated-wordpress-core-installs">Antiquated WordPress Core Installs</h3>



<p>Almost 20% of all WP sites are running a very old version of WP, the good news is that old versions of WP are still patched for security vulnerabilities.</p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/about/stats/">5% of WP sites are using the 4.x branch</a>.&nbsp; That’s approximately 1.7 million websites worldwide that are running this old branch.&nbsp; <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/releases/#branch-49">Version 4.9 was released in 2017</a>.</li>



<li>Around 13% of WP sites are using the <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/releases/#branch-59">5.x branch</a>, which had its last feature update in January 2022.  </li>



<li>All told, at least 18% of WP websites haven&#8217;t upgraded to the current 6.x branch yet. </li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="antiquated-php">Antiquated PHP</h3>



<p>As we&#8217;ll see below, 3-out-of-every-4 WP installs are potentially insecure due to antiquated versions of PHP running on the server.  </p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/about/stats/">Almost 75% of WP sites are using unsupported versions of PHP</a>.&nbsp; If you are running PHP 8.0 or earlier, then you are running a version that has already reached “end of life” and might not receive security patches.<br /></li>
</ul>



<img width="2560" height="855" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/php-support-scaled.jpg" alt="A chart showing that versions of PHP prior to 8.1 have reached " />PHP 8.1 and above is currently supported. Previous versions have reached &#8220;end of life&#8221;



<img width="1068" height="1016" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/php-market-share-in-wp.jpg" alt="A pie chart showing that 43.3% of WP sites are using PHP 7.4" class="wp-image-154888" />PHP 7.4 powers 43% of WP sites even though it has reached &#8220;end of life&#8221; and might not receive security patches.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="jquery-is-still-riding-high">jQuery is still riding high!&nbsp;</h2>



<p>What’s not to love about jQuery?!&nbsp; You can quickly write code that does all sorts of fancy animations and other things without knowing a whole lot about javascript.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>It’s not clear how much of this high jQuery usage is due to tech debt vs new code, but what is clear is that jQuery is one of the most-used languages in WordPress:</p>



<img width="1498" height="1292" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/jquery-is-high.jpg" alt="A line graph showing jQuery usage has levelled out at a high point since around 2014" class="wp-image-154864" />jQuery has consistently-high numbers



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="react-usage-is-up-for-the-top-1-million-sites-but-way-down-overall"><a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/javascript/React">React usage</a> is up for the top 1 million sites but way down overall</h2>



<p>As you likely know, <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/platform/">React is used to build most Gutenberg blocks</a>, so it is now widely-used in the WP community.  The story is more nuanced when looking at sites worldwide.</p>



<p>React seems to be gaining popularity in the top 1 million websites:</p>



<img width="1498" height="1264" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/react.jpg" alt="A line graph showing React usage has consistently gone up in the top million websites since 2013" class="wp-image-154865" />React usage has mostly been going up for the top 1 million sites since 2013



<p>However, React usage is way down Internet-wide:</p>



<img width="1516" height="1276" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/React-internet-wide.jpg" alt="Line graph showing React usage skyrocketing to almost 4 million sites in 2019 before plummeting back to 250,000 sites in 2021 and remaining there through today." class="wp-image-154914" />However, when looking at <em>all</em> sites, React was plummeting back to Earth in 2021.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="wordpress-competitors-are-rocking">WordPress’ competitors are rocking!</h2>



<p>Perhaps you’ve heard of two of WP’s main competitors: Squarespace and Wix.&nbsp; Well, <a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/Wix">they are both doing quite well</a>:</p>



<img width="1482" height="1280" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/wix-high-and-steady.jpg" alt="A line graph showing Wix usage has gone up over the years and remains consistently-high since around 2021" class="wp-image-154866" />Wix is up and shows no sign of decline!



<p><a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/Squarespace">Squarespace is up (mostly):</a></p>



<img width="1482" height="1282" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/squarespace-is-up.jpg" alt="A line graph showing Squarespace usage has gone mostly up over the years" class="wp-image-154867" />Squarespace is mostly up since 2004 with a little dip in the last year or so



<p>I&#8217;ve noticed in my WP consulting practice that a lot of my clients are using Hubspot Landing Page Builder <em>in addition</em> to WordPress &#8211; usually to host and track downloads of 1-off lead generation pdfs and related form leads.  So I was curious how Hubspot&#8217;s competing product is doing.</p>



<p>Hubspot Landing Page Builder usage has gone down a bit recently but still maintains a notable market share:</p>



<img width="1508" height="1302" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/hubspot.jpg" alt="A line graph showing Hubspot usage has gone up over the years but experienced a decline in late 2021" class="wp-image-154868" />Hubspot is down over the last year or so



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-about-e-commerce">What about e-commerce?</h2>



<p>WooCommerce and Shopify are in a head-to-head battle for the #1 e-commerce platform.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>According to BuiltWith.com, there are around 2.75 million websites using a WooCommerce checkout page (there are, apparently, also many Woo sites <em>not</em> using the standard checkout and/or any checkout at all).</p>



<p>Similarly, there are around 2.75 million Shopify sites.</p>



<p><a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/shop/Shopify">Shopify usage remains high</a> but has been decreasing since 2022:</p>



<img width="1504" height="1288" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/shopify.jpg" alt="A line graph showing Shopify usage has gone up over the years and experienced a dip since around 2022" class="wp-image-154869" />Shopify dipped around 2022



<p><a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/shop/WooCommerce-Checkout">WooCommerce e-commerce</a> is trending similar to Shopify:</p>



<img width="1510" height="1300" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/woocommerce-checkout.jpg" alt="A line graph showing WooCommerce usage has gone up over the years and remains consistently-high since around 2021, when it dipped slightly" class="wp-image-154870" />WooCommerce usage went down a bit in 2021



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="mailchimp-is-down-zoho-mail-and-google-business-are-up">Mailchimp is down; Zoho Mail and Google Business are up.</h2>



<p>This section includes some stats I found notable due to the fact that these are products many of the small business owners and WP consultants I converse with use and recommend regularly.</p>



<p>Mailchimp’s usage downfall seems to coincide with <a href="https://mailchimp.com/newsroom/intuit-completes-mailchimp-acquisition/">its acquisition by Intuit</a> in 2021:</p>



<img width="1492" height="1276" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/mailchimp.jpg" alt="A line graph showing Mailchimp usage has gone up over the years but dipped around 2021" class="wp-image-154871" />Mailchimp usage dipped in 2021 or so



<p>Zoho Mail, meanwhile, seems to be mostly successful with its low-cost/high-feature business model.</p>



<p>For example, Zoho Mail usage is up quite a bit since 2020, though usage dipped a little in 2022:</p>



<img width="1480" height="1282" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/zoho-mail.jpg" alt="A line graph showing Zoho usage has gone up over the years but dipped on 2022" class="wp-image-154872" />Zoho usage dipped in 2022



<p>Meanwhile, the old guard isn’t sleeping.  Google Workspace (formerly Google Apps for Business) is up up up:</p>



<img width="1510" height="1296" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/google-apps-for-business.jpg" alt="A line graph showing Google Apps for Business usage has gone up over the years and remains consistently-high since around 2020" class="wp-image-154873" />Google Workspace (formerly Google Apps for Business) usage keeps going up



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="how-is-our-old-friend-php-doing">How is our old friend, PHP, doing?</h2>



<p>PHP usage has been down considerably for 6 years but still powers around 35 million websites, most of which are, presumably, WP sites:</p>



<img width="1492" height="1278" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/php.jpg" alt="A line graph showing PHP usage has dropped considerably since around 2017." class="wp-image-154861" />PHP usage is down considerably since around 2017



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="about-the-data">About the Data</h2>



<p>I pulled this data from reliable Internet sources and linked those sources above.&nbsp; However, as with all data sets, it’s possible these sources are either incorrect or that the data doesn’t tell the whole story.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If you notice anything in my data sets above that needs to be corrected, let me know in the comments.&nbsp; </p>



<p>Similarly, if you find alternate data sources that tell additional stories, please let us know in the comments.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="related-historical-links">Related Historical Links</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-powering-practically-half-of-the-top-10000-websites">WordPress Powering Practically Half Of The Top 10,000 Websites</a> (WP Tavern, Aug. 2011)</li>



<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-dominates-global-e-commerce-platforms-passes-7-million-downloads">WooCommerce Dominates Global E-Commerce Platforms, Passes 7 Million Downloads</a> (WP Tavern, April 2015)</li>



<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/builtwith-reports-a-7-increase-in-wordpress-usage-from-january-july-2015">BuiltWith Reports a 7% Increase in WordPress’ Usage from January – July 2015</a> (WP Tavern, July 2015)</li>



<li><a href="https://themightymo.com/some-surprising-trends-in-website-development/">Some Surprising Trends in Website Development</a> (My analysis from 2022)</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-do-you-think">What do you think?</h2>



<p>Similar to <a href="https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is-best-fun-with-theme-download-stats">last week&#8217;s Tavern post about WP.org theme usage</a>, data found on this page is likely best used as a fun conversation starter rather than a place to draw firm conclusions about anything. What is your reaction to this data? <strong>Did anything surprise you?</strong> Let me know in the comments below.</p>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Toby Cryns is a freelance CTO, WordPress consultant, and teacher at <a href="https://themightymo.com/">The Mighty Mo! Design Co.</a> in Minneapolis, MN, USA.</div>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="comments">Comments&nbsp;↓</h2>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 12 Mar 2024 08:50:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Toby Cryns";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"WPTavern: Matt Mullenweg to Deliver State Of The Word 2024 From Tokyo, Japan";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154831";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-to-deliver-state-of-the-word-2024-from-tokyo-japan";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3696:"<p>WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg announced at the Q&amp;A session of <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/">WordCamp Asia 2024</a> that he would deliver the 2024 State Of The Word from Tokyo, Japan on December 16. This marks a significant moment for the WordPress community, as it&#8217;s only the second time the annual address is delivered outside of North America. Last year, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/12/state-of-the-word-2023-recap/">the event</a> took place in Madrid, Spain.</p>



<p>The State of the Word is a highly anticipated annual event at which Matt reflects on achievements, unveils his vision for WordPress&#8217;s future, and offers a peep into the upcoming features and developments. It’s an occasion for WordPress enthusiasts to come together to watch the event live streaming and celebrate their passion for the platform.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Matt had this to say about choosing Japan for the event: &#8220;The very first translation of WordPress, before we even had a framework for translating, was Japanese. It was the moment that opened my eyes to the possibility of WordPress being more than just a blogging tool for a few hobbyists speaking English. Almost 20 years later it&#8217;s exciting for Japan to host a State of the Word and really showcase how vibrant their community is. I&#8217;m so impressed with all of the books about WordPress there, the market share we have in that country, and the warmth of the events they do throughout the year.&#8221;</p>



<p>Japan is home to an amazing WordPress community. The Japanese community was behind one of the first <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/about/history-of-the-team/">internationalized versions</a> of WordPress &#8211; a Japanese WordPress site was set up in <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20031205101812/http://wordpress.xwd.jp/">December 2003</a>, just six months after WordPress was launched.&nbsp; The version originally called “WordPress ME” (WordPress Multilingual Edition) was maintained by a user called Otsukare who made a <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localization-help-needed/">multilingual edition hack</a>. His post in the Support Forum led to Matt chiming in, “Well the localization code should be rolled into the main release sometime. (Soonish.)”</p>



<p>The first WordCamp Tokyo was held in 2008, and subsequent editions were serious crowd-pullers. The adorable WordPress mascot, <a href="https://wapu.us/wapuu-history-origin/">Wapuu</a> originated from the 2009 WordCamp Tokyo after-party. Kazuko Kaneuchi later designed Wapuu as a free gift to the WordPress community in 2011.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Holding the event in Tokyo underscores WordPress&#8217;s massive and active user base in Japan and throughout Asia.</p>



<p><strong>Update: </strong><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/st810amaze/">Shusei Toda</a>, a Communication Designer based in Tokyo and one of the organizers of WordCamp Asia 2024 is all excited and shared: “We are happy to have the State of the Word coming to our country, marking a monumental moment for the Japanese WordPress community—one of the oldest global communities dedicated to WordPress. It’s an honor to be the second global host city after Madrid, Spain, underscoring our significant position within the global WordPress community. 82.3% of Japanese websites are powered by WordPress, and this event holds immense importance to our local web developers, bloggers, and digital creatives. Hosting the State of the Word in Japan is not just a testament to our community and also in Asia but also a celebration of the pivotal role WordPress plays in our digital landscape.”</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 11 Mar 2024 21:35:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Jyolsna";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"WPTavern: Automattic Doubles Down on the Developer Community";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154828";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://wptavern.com/automattic-doubles-down-on-the-developer-community";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:20996:"<p>There&#8217;s something in the water at Automattic, and I don&#8217;t think it just started with Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://ma.tt/2024/02/samattical/">samattical</a>&#8220;. The last few months have seen a number of interesting changes across the company and its approach to the broader WordPress community.</p>



<p>When I pull the various threads, it looks to me like Automattic is making a larger strategic pivot towards &#8220;developers&#8221; and “builders” as a target audience, for itself and quite possibly for WordPress. Automattic’s products have traditionally focused on the DIY side of the WordPress market, making tools for bloggers or creators building their own websites. That’s still largely the case, but recently, things have been looking a little different.</p>



<p>I was able to talk to a handful of people across the company and explore some of these major changes. While I was never given an answer on Automattic’s larger strategy, if such an answer even could be given, I think there’s enough out there to frame some initial thoughts on changes that might affect WordPress (the software) going forward.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Woo Express causes Woo Distress</h2>



<p>When Matt Mullenweg started his sabbatical, he did so with a tongue-in-cheek blog post titled &#8220;<a href="https://ma.tt/2024/01/automattics-big-re-org/">Automattic&#8217;s Big Re-Org</a>&#8220;. While there was no big reorganization, the post did announce that each team inside of Automattic is revisiting its position within the broader ecosystem. Decisions will be made based on whether a team’s goal is to be competitive with the other hosting companies (i.e. WordPress.com, Pressable, WordPress VIP) or to be completely host-agnostic and “Help the Hosts” by growing the ecosystem (WooCommerce and Jetpack).</p>



<p>It&#8217;s an interesting distinction because you could certainly make the argument that more tightly coupling the WooCommerce brand to WordPress.com’s hosting infrastructure could be a tactical advantage. In fact, they did make that argument when <a href="https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-launches-woo-express">they launched Woo Express </a>a year ago and then rebranded the team behind WooCommerce to <a href="https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-rebrands-as-woo">Woo a few months later</a>. A new call-to-action that funneled visitors to WordPress.com hosting plans rather than just the open source software raised more than a few eyebrows in the community.</p>



<p>The team was fairly quick to address the criticism, with Woo CEO Paul Maiorana taking in feedback and <a href="https://twitter.com/pmaiorana/status/1719714201378197894">responding openly to the community</a> on Twitter/X. They’ve since rolled back that specific onboarding funnel.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Matt Mullenweg directly referenced this experience and how it helped lead to these new changes:</p>



<p>&#8220;The big tension this surfaced was Woo Express, going forward that team is switching under WP.com, and Woo.com will recommend a variety of hosts (like W.org) to get started with Woo. Now people can meet with Paul Maiorana, who leads Woo, or James Grierson, who leads Jetpack, and know they have Help the Hosts cards as their teleological goal.&#8221;</p>



<p>So Woo Express is officially a <em>WordPress.com</em> product, competitive with the “managed WooCommerce” offerings from other hosting companies and treated (more or less) the same when you visit Woo.com. The end result is that Woo/WooCommerce will act more like WordPress.org and not completely favor Automattic’s hosting companies.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conflict of Disinterest</h2>



<p>I can see how important that separation is, but I can’t help but wonder if a one-click install of a new WooCommerce site wouldn’t have been a much better call-to-action for end users than what they get now: a link to a “<a href="https://woo.com/hosting-solutions/">Hosting Solutions</a>” guide and an additional burden of choice. I’m sure a Shopify-like onboarding experience happening directly on the homepage of Woo.com was a tempting strategy.</p>



<p>It’s not unusual for the owners of an open source project, specifically developer frameworks, to actively promote their own paid solutions. The homepage of <a href="https://nextjs.org/">Next.js</a> includes a callout to Vercel, <a href="https://laravel.com/">Laravel</a> includes links to products like Forge and Vapor. Those paid products (typically around hosting and deployments) can directly subsidize more contribution to the open source frameworks themselves.</p>



<p>WordPress has always held itself to a different standard in this regard, and part of that tension is because of the importance of <em>all of the</em> hosting companies to the broader ecosystem. The fact that I can go to any number of hosts and know that they’ll not only support, but also install WordPress for me is a major reason for the success and ubiquity of the software. As much as the community needs Automattic, it also needs the support, engagement, and contributions from the broader hosting ecosystem, a reminder that much of the WordPress you see in the world does not actually run on Automattic’s infrastructure (more on that later).</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">It’s Time to Build (on WordPress.com?)</h2>



<p>As part of the non-re-org, Matt announced that the WordPress.com user experience was about to change.&nbsp;From his blog post: &#8220;WordPress.com is going to orient itself more towards developers, and have an experience that feels similar to WordPress hosted other places, less Calypso more wp-admin.&#8221;&nbsp;</p>



<p>If WordPress.com is your only experience of WordPress, then this statement might not make that much sense. If you come from the world of self-hosted WordPress, however, you may know that the WordPress.com experience is wildly different from standard installations. WordPress.com still includes a number of premium upsells inside their version of the WordPress dashboard, including links to buy premium plugins on their <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-plugin-pages-add-download-link-for-using-plugins-on-self-hosted-sites">parallel plugin directory</a>. It’s been a somewhat controversial and convoluted approach, and you can still browse the WordPress subreddit and find the misconception that you can’t install your own plugins on their platform.&nbsp;</p>



<p>At WordCamp Asia this past weekend, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOF70YJLC5U&t=1297s">Matt was asked during a Q&amp;A</a> if he would ever retire the “WordPress.com” brand name entirely to clear up the confusion. Matt momentarily pondered whether this was “an original mistake in setting all of this up” and noted that he’d even considered “moving WordPress.com to wp.com or [&#8230;] trying to get w.com.” He ended the thought experiment pointing back towards these user interface changes coming to his platform to bring it more inline with self-hosted WordPress.</p>



<p>I reached out to Daniel Bachhuber, the long-time WordPress contributor who was recently tapped by Matt to lead the entire WordPress.com side of the company. I asked Daniel to tell me about this new vision of WordPress.com and who it might be for.</p>



<p>“WordPress.com has always been a platform for a variety of users,” he explained. “Over the last year, we’ve added more developer-specific features (staging sites, WP-CLI access, etc.) [&#8230;] Our hosting infrastructure, powered by WP Cloud, is best-in-class, but we need to communicate that better.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>From what I’ve heard about some of the upcoming developer features, his team is not kidding around. One tool that’s been quietly pre-announced is <a href="https://developer.wordpress.com/studio/">Studio</a>, a brand new tool to manage your local development environment. You can learn about it on the newly relaunched <a href="https://developer.wordpress.com/">Developer Resources</a> for WordPress.com (not to be confused with the newly relaunched <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/">Developer Resources</a> for WordPress.org, <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-developer-docs-shows-off-a-new-block-based-redesign">led by a team of mostly Automattic-sponsored contributors</a>, or the newly relaunched <a href="https://developer.woo.com/">Developer Resources</a> for WooCommerce that I’ll be getting to later. Do you see where I’m going with this?)</p>



<p>“The new developer.wordpress.com,” he explained, “is our place to connect with WordPress developers. We want to teach them how to use our developer tools, take advantage of our platform features, and help them achieve the best possible outcomes with their websites.”</p>



<p>The term “developer” is fairly broad, so I asked how they’re thinking about this new market segment internally.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“This is a really tricky question, in fact! What ‘developer’ actually means is variable based on perspective,” Daniel explained. “Our working definition of ‘developer’ is ‘someone who builds or manages sites for someone else.’ This is inclusive of the freelancer building client sites, agency developer maintaining ecommerce sites, or internal developer working on the backend of a multi-platform publishing system or decoupled site.”</p>



<p>As someone who has actually held each of those jobs at one point, all I can say is that his team has their work cut out for them. Luckily, WordPress.com does have the infrastructure and the talent to achieve the technical implementation. The much harder part will be establishing this new relationship with the broader WordPress developer community, basically from scratch. That’s where the team at Woo comes in.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WooCommerce Would Like to See You Now</h2>



<p>Because Developer Documentation redesigns are in the air this year, the team at WooCommerce also <a href="https://developer.woo.com/2024/01/31/introducing-new-woocommerce-developer-documentation/">announced a brand new relaunch</a>. More than that, the developer relations team has felt much more publicly engaged, recently resurrecting <a href="https://twitter.com/developwoo">their old Twitter/X account</a>.</p>



<p>Jacklyn Biggin is a Developer Advocate at Woo and has been one of the most visible forces for this change. I asked her if this was part of an internal strategy to increase their outreach efforts with the developer community.</p>



<p>“You’re not imagining things,” she told me. “Woo’s developer community is a huge part of what makes Woo successful, and we want to provide them with as much support as possible. We’re working to improve the feedback loop between the community and the Woo team, and relaunching @DevelopWoo is a small step in that process.”</p>



<p>She told me about some of the new things they’re trying, like hosting public GitHub Discussions for new features and having blog comments from developers piped directly into their internal Slack. I also asked her about the new documentation.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Historically, a lot of Woo’s developer documentation and resources were scattered across the monorepo, merchant documentation, the developer blog, and beyond,” she said. “Centralizing our documentation on our new Woo Developer Docs site aims to fix this. The current site you see isn’t a finished product &#8211; for example, we’re currently midway through migrating the WooCommerce Blocks docs to it &#8211; but we’re now in a position where we’re able to make these incremental improvements.”</p>



<p>WooCommerce Blocks was merged into WooCommerce core at the end of last year, making it possible to manage more of your store inside the block editor, and much of the work behind WooCommerce Blocks has directly influenced <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-block-bindings-api-brings-dynamic-data-to-blocks">development of core WordPress features</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Docs on Blocks&nbsp;</h2>



<p>If there’s one part of WordPress that’s been the most controversial, and given developers the most grief, it’s the block editor. Previously developers extending WordPress or Woo would achieve most advanced functionality with PHP. The block editor still requires that base knowledge of PHP, but adds the additional complexity of JavaScript and React now to make changes to the user interface.</p>



<p>As WooCommerce moves more of its functionality into the block editor, developers will need to keep up. And the team at Woo has to make sure those developers are motivated to keep up, if they want to continue to see the ecosystem thrive. Woo ultimately relies on the platform effect to remain relevant and attract new users. In general, developers will only build for the block editor if they think it’s being used, but users are waiting for developers to bring full compatibility to third-party plugins.</p>



<p>“The shift towards the block editor has been a pretty big change for developers,” she said, “and we’re working hard to provide useful resources. These include informational blog posts, tutorials and docs (note that these will move to the docs site soon). Over in our community Slack, we have a dedicated channel with direct access to the team working on Blocks at Woo, and we’re even hosting Office Hours focused on the new Product Editor next month.”</p>



<p>Daniel Bachhuber was quick to point out that emphasis on the block editor as well, telling me that, “it’s really matured in the last couple of years, and we’re excited to see the sites built with it this year. We want WordPress.com to offer the best possible user experience for block theme developers.” It’s an interesting turn of phrase. In theory, block themes shouldn’t need developers, instead offering a “no-code” experience building a WordPress site. If anything, the block editor has raised the expectations and need for developers in WordPress.</p>



<p>For now, it looks like most Woo stores <a href="https://storeleads.app/reports/woocommerce#themes">are running on classic themes</a>, though it makes sense that such a fundamental transformation will simply take a long time.&nbsp;</p>



<p>When I asked Jacklyn if she saw this shift towards developers more broadly in Automattic, she pointed me towards the changes happening at WordPress.com as well as a completely different side of the company, WP Cloud.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Another Automattic Host&nbsp;</h2>



<p><a href="https://wp.cloud/">WP Cloud</a> is Automattic’s completely in-house alternative to AWS or Google Cloud. It’s built specifically for WordPress. It’s the underlying infrastructure of WordPress.com and <a href="https://pressable.com/">Pressable</a>, a managed WordPress host under the Automattic umbrella.</p>



<p>To learn more, I connected with Jess Frick, Director of Operations at Pressable. From the outside, Pressable looks like any other managed host, albeit with a particularly enthusiastic user base. Where WordPress.com traditionally marketed toward the individual user, Jess describes Pressable as “an incredible choice for developers, agencies, and freelancers who want to host multiple WordPress websites – our performance test results and customer reviews speak for themselves.”</p>



<p>As WordPress.com makes moves towards that same user base, it’s worth noting that there are key differences. One big tradeoff with WordPress.com’s hosting offer is its deep integration with Jetpack, which may or may not work with a particular developer’s workflow.</p>



<p>“The Jetpack integration is one area where I think we will continue to differ,” she explained. “While we’re obviously big fans of Jetpack – especially the security benefits – we understand that some of our customers may have other solutions they prefer instead, so Pressable makes it easy to use it or exclude it.”</p>



<p>What’s even more important about Pressable is their license for experimentation towards what the future of managed WordPress hosting might be.</p>



<p>“One aspect of our role that is possibly becoming more clear to the outside world,” she said, “is our position as Automattic’s hosting lab. We are empowered to build interesting things that other brands can benefit from, and we’re given the freedom to do experiments.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>Results of those experiments can make their way to <a href="https://wp.cloud/">WP Cloud</a>.&nbsp;For more context, I’d recommend reading <a href="https://pressable.com/blog/what-is-wp-cloud/">Jess’s recent explainer on WP Cloud</a>, outlining what it is and just how involved Pressable has been with its development.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“We are both built on WP Cloud,” she explained, “and it is the platform that allows us to provide our hosting services. [&#8230;] We have been using what’s now known as WP Cloud for years before it became a product itself and I don’t see a future where we use something else. It’s truly incredible.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">I’ll take one WP Cloud, please</h2>



<p>But WP Cloud isn’t just for Automattic. It’s also slowly becoming available to other partners. Bluehost recently came out as a WP Cloud customer, offering a new cloud hosting tier to their customers. What’s more unusual about this deal is that WordPress.com is <a href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2024/03/07/wp-cloud-bluehost/">highlighting Bluehost on their pricing page</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>It’s a smart way for Automattic to grow revenue by leaning into what they’ve excelled at (infrastructure) while other brands (including their own) handle the marketing and user acquisition. Bluehost was one of the hosting options tied up in the initial launch of Woo Express, and it seems clear that Automattic learned something about how to better position these relationships from that messy process.</p>



<p>When I asked Jess if she felt a larger shift inside of Automattic, she told me that her “personal view is that this is a natural evolution, with Automattic responding to the needs of the market.”&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">We’re all in this platform together</h2>



<p>There’s so much more that I would’ve wanted to get into, from WordPress VIP to Jetpack’s “Manage” product for WordPress agencies. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230310000542/https://wordpress.com/">One year ago</a>, the WordPress.com homepage opened with the tagline “the world’s most popular website builder”. Today it highlights their “lightning-fast hosting”. That’s two completely different visions.</p>



<p>Regardless of your opinion of Automattic as a company, the fact that they’re in the midst of redefining their place in the broader community is important, especially with their outsized role in contribution to WordPress and their <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-faces-scrutiny-over-ai-access-policy">alleged content partnerships</a> with AI companies like Midjourney and OpenAI.</p>



<p>It’s always hard to say what’s going on in Matt Mullenweg’s head. The Gutenberg project is in its seventh year and still has two of four phases to go. I don’t know if anyone accurately predicted the scale and direction of the project’s current trajectory back then. In his initial manifesto on the topic, Matt said “<a href="https://ma.tt/2017/08/we-called-it-gutenberg-for-a-reason/">We Called it Gutenberg for a Reason</a>”:</p>



<p>“Ten years ago, agencies and developers worried that software like WordPress would ruin their business because clients wouldn’t need help updating their sites any more, and would maybe even just start building their own sites. But their worse fears didn’t come true — instead, it created new opportunities for everyone.”</p>



<p>As a developer, of course my theory is going to be that Automattic is starting to value the third-party developer and agency communities much more than it has in the past. That it sees itself less as a beginner’s version of WordPress, with its own Calypso-flavored interface, and more of the underlying infrastructure that agencies and builders can use to grow WordPress. That perhaps it’s turning to a vision of WordPress and WooCommerce as developer platforms for the internet, taking a role similar to other open source projects and focusing on providing infrastructure rather than competing with Squarespace.</p>



<p>It’s definitely a developer’s dream, an Automattic that fits in with the entire ecosystem, that values the builders, agencies, freelancers, and developers building WordPress websites, that offers its customers the same WordPress experience as the rest of us. Only time will tell where this dream leads.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 11 Mar 2024 21:20:41 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Brian Coords";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"Donncha: Gimme all your cache!";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://odd.blog/?p=89590464";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:49:"https://odd.blog/2024/03/11/gimme-all-your-cache/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4480:"<p>Today saw the release of updates to two plugins I work on. The first, unsurprisingly, is <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-cache/">WP Super Cache</a>, and it&#8217;s a bug fix release. It fixed a PHP8.2 warning, adjusted some labels on the settings page, solved a problem with &#8220;late init&#8221; and POST requests, and some other changes, but the major news I want to share is not about that plugin at all.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m on the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack-boost/">Jetpack Boost</a> team in Automattic, and for the last month or so, we&#8217;ve been working on adding a full-page cache to the plugin!</p>



<p>Jetpack Boost is already a pretty remarkable plugin, with what it does to CSS, JavaScript and images, so a page cache was an obvious next step.</p>



<img width="792" height="171" src="https://odd.blog/files/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-11-at-15.27.57.jpg" alt="Screenshot from the Jetpack Boost settings page.
It shows the " />



<p>If you&#8217;re already using WP Super Cache, but you&#8217;re not using any of the advanced features, I think you should give Jetpack Boost a go. It works really well at serving cached pages fast. Jetpack Boost will be a drop-in replacement if you have these features enabled in WP Super Cache:</p>



<ol>
<li>Simple caching</li>



<li>Caching Disabled for logged in visitors</li>



<li>Garbage collection set to one hour.</li>
</ol>



<p>You&#8217;ll have to disable WP Super Cache first before trying Boost Cache, as they both rely on the same mechanism to load. Disable Jetpack Boost to go back to WP Super Cache. You can enable Boost again, without using the Cache module, and the two plugins will happily co-exist.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ve been using it here for the last two weeks, and it has worked flawlessly. I post <a href="https://inphotos.org/">images daily on my photoblog</a>, and they get shared to Mastodon, where the expected deluge of requests from hundreds of servers happens each time. Between <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack-boost/">Jetpack Boost</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-rest-cache/">WP Rest Cache</a>, my server barely noticed. Just like with WP Super Cache.</p>



<p>&#8220;If it performs just like WP Super Cache, why should I use <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack-boost/">Boost</a>?&#8221; I hear you asking. For some, you&#8217;ll need the extra features of WP Super Cache, but otherwise, Boost may be just what you need. Apart from the cache, it also has remarkable features that will squash your CSS and JavaScript in various ways that load super quick. Give it a go, and let WP Super Cache handle the cache if you need to.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re still here, read on, and I&#8217;ll give you a whirlwind tour.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<img width="802" height="593" src="https://odd.blog/files/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-11-at-15.28.07.jpg" alt="The Cache module enabled with the expanded view showing the exceptions textarea and logging checkbox." class="wp-image-89590468" /></div>


<p>Boost supports an exception list like WP Super Cache does, and logging of activities in a similar, but easier to use way.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default">
<img width="1024" height="356" src="https://odd.blog/files/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-11-at-15.28.50-1024x356.jpg" alt="Output from the logging feature of the plugin shouwing date, pid, URL and description." class="wp-image-89590472" /></div>


<p>To simplify caching, only requests by logged out visitors are cached now, but that&#8217;s the recommended way of using WP Super Cache too.</p>



<p>Developers: like WP Super Cache, it also supports the &#8220;DONOTCACHEPAGE&#8221; constant. If you define that while a page is being created, then Jetpack Boost won&#8217;t cache it. If you can enable it before the page loads, then the plugin won&#8217;t serve a cached page either, but that will be difficult since the cache system loads so early.</p>



<p>To learn more, there&#8217;s a <a href="https://jetpack.com/support/jetpack-boost/caching-site-content/">fine manual to read</a>. It explains in detail how to enable the cache and how to use it. Yes, I&#8217;m biased, but I think you should give <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack-boost/">Jetpack Boost</a> a go! Caching helps a lot, but the extra CSS and JavaScript features help render the page quickly once loaded.</p>



<p></p>



<p></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 11 Mar 2024 16:51:27 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Donncha";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"WPTavern: WordCamp Asia 2025 Scheduled For Next February in Manila, Philippines";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154814";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-asia-2025-scheduled-for-next-february-in-manila-philippines";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1776:"<p>WordCamp Asia has unveiled its host city for 2025 &#8211; <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2025/">Manila</a>, Philippines. After Bangkok and Taiwan,  it is Manila&#8217;s turn to take center stage as the venue for the flagship event, tentatively slated for February 2025.</p>



<p>The host city was announced at the Taipei International Convention Center in Taiwan as the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/03/highlights-from-wordcamp-asia-2024/">WordCamp Asia 2024</a> came to a close. This year’s three-day event attracted over 1,300 attendees with an impressive lineup of <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/speakers/">55 speakers</a> including the WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and the Executive Director of the WordPress project Josepha Haden Chomphosy. </p>



<p>Asia has a very large WordPress community, and discussions about organizing a regional flagship event have been ongoing for years. However, due to the pandemic in 2020, it became the first international event to be <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-asia-2020-canceled-over-covid-19-concerns">canceled</a> and finally became a reality only in 2023. </p>



<p>Known as the Pearl of the Orient, Manila is the vibrant capital of the Philippines. Every corner promises to delight and charm the visitors, from the historic walled city of Intramuros to the bustling markets and majestic churches of Quiapo. </p>



<p>WC Asia 2023 had a dedicated team of 53 organizers while the 2024 version saw 46 individuals in action. The upcoming 2025 event, too, needs passionate organizers to make it a success. Interested candidates can now fill out the <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvdBfjyHqPJe7LTxWKF8mfh4aDjicDEqavEGASdsXdqD6pKQ/viewform">application form</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 11 Mar 2024 12:48:04 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Jyolsna";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:36:"Matt: Amazing Brad Mehldau Interview";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://ma.tt/2024/03/amazing-brad-mehldau-interview/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://ma.tt/2024/03/amazing-brad-mehldau-interview/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:193:"<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>



<p>Great for everyone, but if you know a little music theory or Bach you’ll appreciate it even more. It’s never too late to learn music!</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 10 Mar 2024 03:16:20 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:54:"WordPress.org blog: Highlights from WordCamp Asia 2024";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=17064";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/03/highlights-from-wordcamp-asia-2024/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5814:"<p>Over 1,300 attendees gathered at the Taipei International Convention Center in Taiwan for <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/">WordCamp Asia 2024</a>. This three-day event emerged as a vibrant celebration showcasing the collaboration, diversity, and innovation that drive the world&#8217;s most popular web platform.</p>



<p>The Asian WordPress flagship event started with a dedicated Contributor Day, followed by two days of engaging talks, panels, hands-on workshops, and networking. Notable guests, including WordPress Cofounder <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/">Matt Mullenweg</a> and Executive Director <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">Josepha Haden Chomphosy</a>, joined the diverse lineup of <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/speakers/">speakers</a>. Popular topics featured cutting-edge web technologies and trends, use cases, open source dynamics, and more. WordPress enthusiasts seized the opportunity to gain insights from international and local industry experts and to learn about the project&#8217;s future.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Converting walled gardens into community gardens</h2>



<p>On March 8, Josepha Haden Chomphosy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/UK7FnaEeTrU?si=0H6eEEijj4tDWm_t&t=30830">took the stage</a> for an insightful journey comparing and contrasting the “walled” and “community” gardens in software ecosystems, drawing an analogy between closed and open source platforms. After exploring both concepts, she posed an important question to the audience.</p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>What would it take for someone to move from a walled garden to a community garden?</p>
</blockquote>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p>Open source software, symbolized by community gardens, represents freedom from copyright restrictions and usage limitations. Unlike proprietary software (described as walled gardens), the core value lies in long-term empowerment, giving people control and ownership of their digital presence.</p>



<p>Acknowledging the longstanding values held by WordPress and its open source community for two decades, Josepha focused on the importance of caring for foundations that make us strong, managing what distracts us, and nurturing growth by embracing new opportunities. She celebrated the strengths of the WordPress community and how its shared ethos furthers a thriving ecosystem.</p>



<img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2024/03/wcasia-slide.png?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1" alt="Slide from Josepha Haden Chomphosy's presentation showing colorful flowers on a blue background and the quote, " />



<p>Quoting artist and activist Audrey Hepburn, Josepha expressed that, much like a community garden, the power of contributions—whether through time, knowledge, or product use— sustains and maintains shared spaces like WordPress.</p>



<p>In the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/UK7FnaEeTrU?si=pjg0nkwla-d7mP69&t=32274">Q&amp;A portion</a> of her presentation, Josepha addressed inquiries about community involvement and contributions. Highlighted resources included the <a href="https://jobs.wordpress.net/">WordPress job board</a> for opportunities within the ecosystem and the <a href="https://wordpress.org/data-liberation/">Data Liberation</a> project, emphasizing its role in fostering a more open web and helping the transition out of proprietary platforms.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Q&amp;A with Matt Mullenweg</h2>



<p>WordCamp Asia concluded with a live audience Q&amp;A session featuring WordPress Cofounder Matt Mullenweg. Attendees gained insights into the future of WordPress, including ongoing projects like <a href="https://wordpress.org/data-liberation/">Data Liberation</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/first-steps/inclusive-and-welcoming-events/community-inclusion-initiatives/">community inclusion initiatives</a>, artificial intelligence (AI), and more.</p>



<p>The atmosphere was filled with excitement when Matt revealed that this year’s State of the Word will take place in Tokyo, Japan, on December 16, 2024.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>



<p>Additional questions from this session will be addressed in an upcoming post on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/">Make WordPress Project blog</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Stay connected</h2>



<p><a href="https://events.wordpress.org/">WordPress events</a> enable technologists, open source enthusiasts, and community members around the globe to meet, share ideas, and collaborate to drive WordPress and the open web forward.</p>



<p>Don’t forget to mark your calendars for <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2024/">WordCamp Europe</a> (Torino, Italy), <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2024/">WordCamp US</a> (Portland, Oregon, United States), and next year’s <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2025/">WordCamp Asia</a> in Manila, Philippines!</p>



<p><em>Thank you to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/angelasjin/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>angelasjin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dansoschin/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>dansoschin</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/eidolonnight/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>eidolonnight</a></em>,<em> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bjmcsherry/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>bjmcsherry</a>, and the </em><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/organizers/"><em>WordCamp Asia organizers</em></a><em> who made this event and post possible.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 09 Mar 2024 13:39:27 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Reyes Martínez";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:63:"WPTavern: Which WP Theme is Best? Fun With Theme Download Stats";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154634";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is-best-fun-with-theme-download-stats";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14343:"<p>Today I embarked on a mission to figure out which WP.org themes are used the most and why.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="2240" height="1260" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Popular-WP.org-Themes.png" alt="" class="wp-image-154739" />



<p>As you likely know, “Top 5” lists, as a rule, are generally very opinionated and based on fuzzy assumptions and non-standard use cases.&nbsp; I want to assure you &#8211; this article is no exception to that rule.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>I had to make some very subjective leaps of logic with data to come to my conclusions.&nbsp; I hope you’ll enjoy being part of this fun conversation.</p>



<ol><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is-best-fun-with-theme-download-stats#astra-is-the-most-downloaded-theme-but-doesn-t-have-the-highest-usage-rate">Astra Is the Most Downloaded Theme but Doesn’t Have the Highest Usage Rate</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is-best-fun-with-theme-download-stats#oceanwp-and-generatepress-crush-hello-elementor-in-user-enthusiasm">OceanWP and GeneratePress Crush Hello Elementor in User Enthusiasm</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is-best-fun-with-theme-download-stats#let-the-best-theme-arguments-commence">Let the “Best Theme” Arguments Commence!</a><ol><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is-best-fun-with-theme-download-stats#random-best-theme-opinions-from-the-minneapolis-st-paul-wp-user-group">Random &#8220;Best Theme&#8221; Opinions from the Minneapolis-St. Paul WP User Group:</a></li></ol></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is-best-fun-with-theme-download-stats#about-the-data">About the Data</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is-best-fun-with-theme-download-stats#what-is-your-favorite-wp-theme">What is your favorite WP theme?  </a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is-best-fun-with-theme-download-stats#related-links">Related Links</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/which-wp-theme-is-best-fun-with-theme-download-stats#comments">Comments ↓</a></li></ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="astra-is-the-most-downloaded-theme-but-doesn-t-have-the-highest-usage-rate">Astra Is the Most Downloaded Theme but Doesn’t Have the Highest Usage Rate</h2>



<p>The top themes in wp.org with a minimum of 5 million downloads ordered by WP Data Dashboard&#8217;s “usage rate” are Hello Elementor, GeneratePress, Astra, Storefront, and OceanWP (a higher “usage rate” is better):</p>



<ul>
<li>Hello Elementor: 6+ million downloads, 15% usage rate.</li>



<li>GeneratePress: 5+ million downloads, 11% usage rate.</li>



<li>Astra: 11+ million downloads, 9% usage rate.</li>



<li>Storefront: 7+ million downloads, 1% usage rate.</li>



<li>OceanWP: 7+ million downloads, 1% usage rate.</li>
</ul>



<p>(<a href="https://wptavern.com/feed#about-the-data">How WP Data Dashboard&#8217;s &#8220;usage rate&#8221; metric is calculated</a>.)</p>



<p>For additional context, “usage rate” is the holy grail for commercial theme developers.&nbsp; In ad speak, “usage rate” is similar to “conversion rate.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>A higher “usage rate” means the theme owner’s marketing team gets more mileage from each annoying banner ad they force to the top of your WP dashboard.&nbsp; It means, potentially, more money in the theme owners’ bank accounts with less effort.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>And, more important to us in the greater WP community, a higher “usage rate” on the theme means more people might actually <em>like</em> it!&nbsp; (Imagine that!)  So, based on that &#8220;usage rate&#8221; number, Hello Elementor is the most-popular theme in the wp.org repo.</p>



<p>Oh wait&#8230;</p>



<img width="2560" height="1665" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/edward-howell-VlTJdP8ZY1c-unsplash-scaled.jpg" alt="Flowers arranged from short to tall so it looks like a chart." class="wp-image-154775" />Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@edwardhowellphotography?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Edward Howell</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/pink-flower-on-white-background-VlTJdP8ZY1c?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="oceanwp-and-generatepress-crush-hello-elementor-in-user-enthusiasm">OceanWP and GeneratePress Crush Hello Elementor in User Enthusiasm</h2>



<p>Below is an arbitrary metric I created called the “enthusiasm gap”.&nbsp; This is the number of 1-star reviews divided by the number of 5-star reviews (lower “enthusiasm gap” is better):</p>



<ul>
<li>GeneratePress: 1378 5-star reviews, &lt;1% enthusiasm gap.</li>



<li>OceanWP: 5412 5-star reviews, &lt;1% enthusiasm gap.</li>



<li>Astra: 5297 5-star reviews, 2% enthusiasm gap.</li>



<li>Storefront: 122 5-star reviews, 11% enthusiasm gap.</li>



<li>Hello Elementor: 90 5-star reviews, 14% enthusiasm gap.</li>
</ul>



<p>GeneratePress and OceanWP seem to have rabid followings based on this enthusiasm gap metric.&nbsp; Astra also has a great enthusiasm gap at 2%.&nbsp; But Hello Elementor…14% &#8211; that’s…high compared to the competition.</p>



<p>Theme reviews are, of course, totally subjective and can be manipulated by marketing pushes.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>However, it’s also possible that a high volume of 5-star reviews is <em>actually</em> an indicator of enthusiasm for the theme. For example, OceanWP has 5,412 reviews, whereas Hello Elementor has only 90 reviews.&nbsp;</p>



<p>What’s that say about those particular themes?&nbsp; Who knows?!&nbsp; It’s not clear why OceanWP has 60x the 5-star reviews of Hello Elementor, but surely something good is happening over at OceanWP, right?&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>And maybe Hello Elementor is awesome despite its low enthusiasm gap numbers. It is, after all, dominating the “usage rate” metric, which is the metric WP Data Dashboard endorses.</p>



<p>Perhaps my “enthusiasm gap” metric is pointless dribble that I made up on the spot as I wrote this article and didn’t run it through a deeper analysis to learn if my assumptions were sound. If you believe this reality (and, admittedly, I won’t deny it), then speak to me as if I were a golden retriever and let me know what’s wrong with my amazingly mathy “enthusiasm gap” metric.*</p>



<img width="1536" height="1152" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/900639d668411b027.88586866-1536x1152-1.jpg" alt="10 people in a line holding hands on a beach." class="wp-image-154779" /><a href="https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/">CC0</a> licensed <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/900639d668/">photo</a> by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/author/codexdemon/">Sanyogg Shelar</a> from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="let-the-best-theme-arguments-commence">Let the “Best Theme” Arguments Commence!</h2>



<p>To my great surprise, some members of my local Minneapolis-St. Paul WordPress User Group community <em>disagree</em> with my somewhat arbitrary and very mathy choice for the best theme available.&nbsp; What gives?!</p>



<p>Arguing about why one theme is better than another is part of the fun of being a member of the WP community.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Metrics like “usage rate” and “enthusiasm gap” add context in much the same way that “Free Throw %” does in basketball or “Shots Per Game” does in soccer.&nbsp; That is, these numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they sure can lead to some fun conversations!</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="random-best-theme-opinions-from-the-minneapolis-st-paul-wp-user-group">Random &#8220;Best Theme&#8221; Opinions from the <a href="https://mspwp.com">Minneapolis-St. Paul WP User Group</a>:</h3>



<p>I asked my local WP user group members what their favorite themes are.  Below are some of their opinions.</p>



<p>“Beaver Builder (specifically using the Beaver Themer plugin) because it is almost just as powerful as creating my own theme (what I used to do before Beaver Themer was released), but with the fast, easy and powerful features of Beaver Builder. I&#8217;m never going back!” &#8211; Barbara S.</p>



<p>“Impreza.” &#8211; Aaron H.S.</p>



<p>“I also use Beaver Builder/Themer, but not the theme. I’ve always used Genesis and still do. I use Mai Theme as my base, much to the horror of the dev who never intended it to be used with a builder. Sometimes I try to use the block editor on a basic page, but it still feels clumsy and unintuitive to me. I love Mai Theme because of the scalable fonts and spacing and the navigation is very well done.” &#8211; Jodi S.</p>



<p>“My favorite theme is either &#8220;Hello Elementor&#8221; (the barebones vanilla theme when building a site with Elementor), or just using Bricks.” &#8211; John V.</p>



<p>“+1 for Impreza! Have built 20-30 sites with it.</p>



<ul>
<li>$59 one time purchase.</li>



<li>Comes with WP Bakery Page Builder, which is my go to. Love the backend editor.&nbsp; Extremely intuitive.</li>



<li>Theme Options are very integrated with WP Bakery and include drag-n-drop Header/Footer builder, Reusable Blocks, Grid Builder, and Template Builder.</li>



<li>When used with ACF, I never have to touch code because WP Bakery has a Custom Field element that pulls in any ACF field I want.</li>



<li>Comes bundled with Slider Revolution, ACF Pro, to name a few.</li>



<li>Theme Support is incredible!</li>
</ul>



<p>My 2.7 cents!” &#8211; Matt C.</p>



<p>“My favorite theme is Enfold. They have a really nice drag-and-drop system and the theme is super versatile. Good customer support and good performance improvements as browser changes are implemented.” &#8211; Beth B.</p>



<p>“I’ve been a Divi user since almost the beginning. It also has a drag-and-drop system and a visual builder that allows edits from the front end as well as the dashboard.”—Lisa D.</p>



<p>“I have been using Astra theme a lot. Got a lifetime license for Astra Premium &amp; Astra Pro which has been so worth it for fast customization.” &#8211; Donna</p>



<p>“We have been using Astra a lot for the past three years or so. It has great benefits and a few unfortunate flaws, but on the whole it is a win for us. Astra is a more traditional theme than Genesis, easier to build child themes with, but it has a huge depth of hooks, making it just as flexible and customizable for our clients as we found with Genesis years ago.” &#8211; Eric C.</p>



<p>“GeneratePress is a powerful lightweight framework.” &#8211; David S.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="about-the-data">About the Data</h2>



<p>I used <a href="https://www.wp-data-dashboard.com/themes">WP Data Dashboard</a> as my data source.&nbsp; </p>



<p>WP Data Dashboard pulls raw data from the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress.org_API#Popular_theme_tags">WP.org API</a> and then give each theme a “usage rate”, to determine whether or not people actually like the theme enough to use it.&nbsp;&nbsp;[See <a href="https://github.com/luehrsenheinrich/wp-data-dashboard/blob/96784c60d91420f6617d214a84e21834f0d0218c/src/Service/WpOrgApiCrawlService.php#L672-L724">specific calculations</a>.]</p>



<p>“While the data from the&nbsp;data has it’s limitations and should be taken with a grain of salt, the available numbers paint a pretty clear picture of what users actually want to use,&#8221; says WP Data Dashboard founder, Hendrik Luehrsen said.</p>



<p>For example, Twenty Fifteen theme has a very high download count but very low “active install” numbers &#8211; It therefore has a very low “usage rate” on WP Data Dashboard.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Conversely, Twenty Twenty-Three theme, being a relatively new default theme, has both a high download count and high “active install” count, giving it a high “usage rate”.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>“A WP core update is a download of a ‘Twenty’ theme,” said a member of the WP Core team.&nbsp; “Even though the theme might not be in use, it’ll get a lot of downloads.”</p>



<p>Therefore, for the purposes of this article, I ignore all the default &#8220;Twenty&#8221; themes since their download counts are inflated:</p>



<p>Two final caveats on the data: </p>



<ol>
<li>Download counts can be inflated by releasing more updates to the theme, marketing efforts, purchased reviews, etc. </li>



<li>The download counts are correct, but the “active_installs” data point is capped at 1,000,000. So we have no idea if a theme has 1,000,000 or 5,000,000 installs. For example, Astra and Hello Elementor each have <em>at least</em> 1 million active installations.</li>
</ol>



<p>Still, this is the best data we’ve got, so let’s have some fun with it.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-is-your-favorite-wp-theme">What is your favorite WP theme?&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>



<p>Keep it light and share what your favorite theme is and why in the comments below.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="related-links">Related Links</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/">Popular Themes on WP.org</a></li>



<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTDS6SHwA6w">“Speak as you might to a young child or a golden retriever.”</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-data-dashboard-tracks-wordpress-org-themes-ecosystem">WP Data Dashboard Tracks WordPress.org Themes Ecosystem</a> (Oct. 2023)</li>
</ul>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Toby Cryns is a freelance CTO, WordPress consultant, and teacher at <a href="https://themightymo.com/">The Mighty Mo! Design Co.</a> in Minneapolis, MN, USA.</div>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="comments">Comments ↓</h2>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 08 Mar 2024 15:11:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Toby Cryns";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"WPTavern: Synced Pattern Overrides punted, Font Library approved, as WordPress 6.5 nears release";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154731";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:105:"https://wptavern.com/synced-pattern-overrides-punted-font-library-approved-as-wordpress-6-5-nears-release";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8226:"<p>As the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6.5/">WordPress 6.5 release date</a> is just around the corner, contributors have been racing to complete work on a few outstanding issues and bug fixes. Two of the most prominent features, Synced Pattern Overrides and the Font Library, have been stuck in critical debates until today when Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/07/unblocking-wp6-5-font-library-and-synced-pattern-overrides/">weighed in with an official response</a> and a path forward.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Font Library is Ready for Core</h2>



<p>When <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1708987810984969">conversation arose</a> in the Make WordPress Slack last week that the Font Library may not be ready for 6.5, there was a feeling of déjà vu. The Font Library <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-4-font-library-feature-punted-to-6-5-release">had already been punted</a> from the last few major releases as the team works to make sure the feature is fully future-proof. Luckily, the decision for 6.5 is that the Font Library will be shipping in core.</p>



<p>A handful of related issues were brought up, but the conversation centered mostly around <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/59417">where fonts would be stored for your WordPress website</a>. The Font Library includes a new directory in wp-content/fonts, at the same level as plugins, themes, and more. Because fonts are uploaded by users and fetched as resources, some contributors felt that they should live inside the wp-content/uploads directory, where other uploads and media are placed, and that their architecture should map <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/59387">more closely to Attachments</a> in WordPress.</p>



<p>On the one hand, it&#8217;s a bit of a philosophical debate: are fonts just &#8220;uploads&#8221; or are they something more fundamental to how we build websites?</p>



<p>&#8220;A large motivation behind the font library is to introduce fonts as a first-class object within WordPress—stored, described, and managed in a way that allows us to convey this distinct nature alongside other objects,&#8221; Lead Architect Matias Ventura <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/59417#issuecomment-1972978157">explained</a> in a recent GitHub issue. &#8220;So this is fundamentally an architectural decision we are making and not exclusively one of convenience, which aims to position fonts as a concept alongside themes, plugins, languages, and media uploads within wp-content.&#8221;</p>



<p>Contributors, including representatives from hosting companies, were concerned that this would cause downstream effects with filesystem security and some of the more complicated off-loading scenarios where assets like images and fonts are cached and distributed separately. Some hosts may even need to modify their architecture to work with this new directory structure. Fortunately <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-includes/fonts.php?rev=57777#L125">a filter to change the location of fonts</a> was included and iterated upon so that hosts could override the directory location and have more time to consider their approach.</p>



<p>The result is that users can look forward to the Font Library shipping in WordPress 6.5, and future work will be done to audit the result, flesh out more of <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/54186">the missing features</a>, and discuss the potential effects of adding this new directory. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Synced Pattern Overrides Gets Overridden</h2>



<p>Previously referred to as &#8220;partially synced patterns,&#8221; and tied up with the larger concept of the <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-block-bindings-api-brings-dynamic-data-to-blocks">Block Bindings API</a> in WordPress Core, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/53705">Synced Pattern Overrides</a> are not as easily defined as the Font Library. For site builders, though, the concept has been a bit of a holy grail. So it is with much disappointment, mixed with understanding, that the feature will not be shipping in WordPress 6.5.</p>



<p>&#8220;Synced Patterns&#8221; in WordPress (formerly &#8220;reusable blocks&#8221;) allow users to create block patterns in which any changes will show up automatically anywhere the pattern is used across your site. Synced Pattern <em>Overrides</em> introduced the next evolution of this feature, where you could &#8220;lock&#8221; the design of your pattern, but allow users to update some of the content, such as text or images, in each pattern instance.</p>



<p>Concern was raised over how Synced Patterns were defining their ability to have these &#8220;overrides&#8221;, both in the underlying structure and in how the feature was shown in the user interface. These types of &#8220;overrides&#8221; are considered foundational to many of the future goals of the block editor, so it&#8217;s important to get it right.</p>



<p>&#8220;For later, I’d like to note that the feature is not just about &#8216;making things overridable&#8217; by the user,&#8221; clarified Riad Benguella, Automattic-sponsored contributor and Editor Tech Lead for the current release. &#8220;While it’s the immediate use-case, we should think about this more holistically, it’s about separating content and presentation of patterns. It’s about providing a schema for the pattern.&#8221;</p>



<p>That separation of content and presentation has been a big issue for extenders trying to build maintainable sites using the Block Editor.</p>



<p>&#8220;My main issue is that this isn&#8217;t a decision we can reverse lightly,&#8221; noted Fabian Kägy, a contributor sponsored by 10up. He reiterated the importance of getting the feature right in Gutenberg before merging it into WordPress core, emphasizing that &#8220;the Gutenberg plugin is meant to be a playground for a feature to grow / iterate upon before it goes into core.&#8221;</p>



<p>So while the underlying architecture of the Block Bindings API will still ship with WordPress 6.5, one of its first visible implementations, Synced Pattern Overrides, will not.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Release Cycle Continues</h2>



<p>Both of these last-mile issues also highlighted the unique challenges we face when some of these large new features for WordPress are built inside the Gutenberg plugin, rather than in a separate feature plugin. The tradeoffs to this approach to feature development was one of the key issues <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenbergs-project-leadership-sits-down-with-new-outreach-team-to-discuss-problems-with-the-site-editor">discussed in a Hallway Hangout last week</a>.</p>



<p>In the meantime, contributors are racing to finish work or else document changes on many less prominent issues that were also discovered during the beta releases, including <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/59548#issuecomment-1980983287">an update to how HTML is parsed in code blocks</a> and issues with changes to make <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/59635">the block editor more accessible</a>.</p>



<p>When WordPress 6.5&#8217;s first release candidate was launched on Tuesday, the cycle transitioned into a &#8220;string freeze&#8221; so that translators could begin their work. The 6.5 Field Guide, Dev Notes, and Make Core announcements are all being drafted for publication. And all of this work is set to the backdrop of the flagship <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/">WordCamp Asia</a> conference going on now in Taipei and featuring much of the project&#8217;s leadership and core team.</p>



<p>WordPress 6.5, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6.5/">scheduled for March 26, 2024</a>, is shaping up to be quite the eventful release, and features like the Font Library, Plugin Dependencies, and the <a href="https://wptavern.com/interactivity-api-prepares-for-its-official-debut-in-wordpress-6-5">Interactivity API</a> have many in the community excited for what&#8217;s to come.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 07 Mar 2024 18:22:20 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Brian Coords";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"Do The Woo Community: What March is Looking Like Here at Do the Woo";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=79212";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://dothewoo.io/on-the-road-wordcamp-asia-cloudfest/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:395:"<p>With WordCamp Asia and CloudFest, our schedule will be a bit off but just wait for the recordings we will be getting while on the road.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a href="https://dothewoo.io/on-the-road-wordcamp-asia-cloudfest/">What March is Looking Like Here at Do the Woo</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce and WordPress Builder Podcast</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 07 Mar 2024 03:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"WPTavern: WordPress Developer Docs Shows Off a New Block-Based Redesign";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154710";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-developer-docs-shows-off-a-new-block-based-redesign";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10385:"<p>Over the years, WordPress&#8217;s developer documentation, originally the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/">Codex</a> but now the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/">WordPress Code Reference</a>, has served the project well. However, there&#8217;s been a sense in the community that much of the more recent documentation- for example, the JavaScript APIs and packages coming out of Gutenberg- has been inconsistent and harder to read and understand. Developers often find themselves navigating disconnected designs and organization throughout the various docs, guides, and handbooks for topics that might cover anything from the Shortcodes API to WP-CLI.</p>



<p>This past December, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2023/12/15/developer-resources-gets-a-refresh/">WordPress.org&#8217;s entire Developer Resources subdomain relaunched</a> with much more intuitive homepage, cohesive navigation, and a modern design. In developer circles and on social media, the relaunch was met with rave reviews, along with more than a few sighs of relief.</p>



<img width="1600" height="1246" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/developer-resources-homepage-grey-2.jpg" alt="Screenshots of the Developer Resources home page after and before the redesign." class="wp-image-154712" />After and Before. Source: make.wordpress.org



<p>Although the redesign appeared almost three months ago, it belongs in the WP Tavern as a modern milestone for the WordPress project. I caught up with Nick Diego, a Developer Advocate sponsored by Automattic, to learn more about the story behind the redesign and what else we can expect from WordPress.org&#8217;s multi-year migration to a new look and feel.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Defining a Project Scope</strong></h2>



<p>If you&#8217;ve seen Nick&#8217;s name recently, it may be from his popular WordPress plugins, such as <a href="https://wptavern.com/show-and-hide-content-via-the-block-visibility-wordpress-plugin">Block Visibility</a> and the <a href="https://wptavern.com/add-custom-svgs-via-the-icon-block-wordpress-plugin">Icon Block</a>, or else his work on the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/">WordPress Developer Blog</a>. The team of contributors running the Developer Blog have been busy educating readers on how to work with many of the new and experimental tools coming out of the Block Editor. But some of them are also deep in the trenches trying to rewrite twenty years of legacy developer resources, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2023/04/04/theme-handbook-overhaul-proposal/">like Justin Tadlock&#8217;s ongoing work with the Theme Handbook</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;One of the big focuses for my team,&#8221; Nick explained, &#8220;was to try and improve the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/">Block Editor Handbook</a> and the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/">Themes Handbook</a>. And so we&#8217;re working on the content of it, and there&#8217;s still tons of work to do there, but one of the things we identified early on was that the structure and the design of the site, it just made things worse.&#8221; (I&#8217;ll spare readers the links to my numerous Twitter and podcast rants on that exact topic.)</p>



<p>Once they realized this, the team was confronted with a choice. They could simply ignore the issues with the outdated design and continue updating content. They could completely rethink the way that the developer documentation for the project was built and start a massive restructuring. Or they could keep working within the existing architecture but focus on cleaning up the glaring gaps in design.</p>



<p>They chose that third approach &#8211; focusing on redesigning what they had, rather than trying to advocate for an entirely new documentation platform. That also freed up more time to continue updating the most important part: the content.</p>



<p>&#8220;I would rather spend my time fixing [the content],&#8221; Nick explained. &#8220;Because then if we ever get to a point where we want to re-architect the whole thing, then it&#8217;s an architectural problem and not an &#8220;oh, and all our content&#8217;s all wrong problem&#8217;.&#8221;</p>



<p>The team began work on updating the content and design in tandem, and Nick was able to draw on his experience helping out with the recent <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-relaunches-showcase-powered-by-blocks">redesign of the Showcase</a> on WordPress.org.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Documentation by Contribution</strong></h2>



<p>One important caveat for WordPress documentation is that it is also open to contribution, just like WordPress core. That means that the structure in which documentation is written, discussed, and hosted needs to be available to any contributor who might be able to help.</p>



<p>Some of the documentation, like the Theme Handbook, is actually post content inside of a WordPress installation. Nick explained that &#8220;it&#8217;s really hard to contribute to, because you can&#8217;t go write a pull request somewhere. You have to open an issue that says, &#8216;Hey, there&#8217;s a spelling error here&#8217; or &#8216;Hey, this paragraph should be changed&#8217; and then some docs contributor that has permission used to go in and make it. It is wildly challenging.&#8221;</p>



<p>If the team wants content to be collaborative, it ultimately needs to have some connection to GitHub, where collaboration tends to happen. The benefit to this approach is that developer documentation can be an onramp to becoming a WordPress contributor. Once you&#8217;ve made a small pull request fixing a spelling error, it becomes a little easier to consider making a PR with an actual code change.</p>



<p>&#8220;So we have some pieces of the site [in WordPress],&#8221; said Nick. &#8220;We have some pieces that are on GitHub. There&#8217;s other parts that are generated from source code, other pieces that are part of packages. So it&#8217;s a very complicated setup where there&#8217;s content in so many different places, and even with the stuff that&#8217;s in GitHub, it&#8217;s coming from multiple repositories.&#8221;</p>



<p>For now, any of the documentation that does live on GitHub has a link to &#8220;Improve it on GitHub&#8221; in the footer, taking you to its source.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Learning From Building Block Themes</strong></h2>



<p>Updating the Developer Documentation site to match the new design language rolling out across WordPress.org meant migrating it from a classic theme to the same underlying <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wporg-parent-2021">block-based parent theme</a> that all of the newly redesigned WordPress.org sites are using. What some might see as an insurmountable challenge, this team saw as a learning and &#8220;dogfooding&#8221; opportunity.</p>



<p>&#8220;The documentation section is huge,&#8221; said Nick, &#8220;How do you update that to a block theme? So we also looked at it as a project where Meta will learn a lot as the process goes.&#8221;</p>



<p>The team could take all of their experiences of migrating a massive website- hundreds of pages of content, some authored inside of WordPress but much of it populated by automated integrations with numerous GitHub repositories- and share the lessons they&#8217;d learn with the core team that was building the Site Editor itself.</p>



<p>One example that I&#8217;m sure any developer will resonate with was the issue of version control for a block theme.</p>



<p>&#8220;Everything in dot org needs version control,&#8221; Nick explained. &#8220;So the Site Editor works, but then you have to sync all the changes back to the template files in the theme. So there are definitely some challenges that the Meta team have had to circumvent because of the unique requirements of dot org. But it&#8217;s been a really interesting case study.&#8221;</p>



<p>Nick and his colleagues then used their experience to facilitate <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/discussions/59480">discussions on GitHub</a> with the broader developer community who are also grappling with these exact issues with block themes.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Redesign Continues</strong></h2>



<p>The WordPress.org redesign is a multi-year endeavor with a lot of concurrent projects happening. A few that Nick and his colleagues are focused on next include <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2024/02/15/project-thread-documentation-redesign/">redesigning the rest of the WordPress Documentation</a>, a segment of end-user-facing content known as the &#8220;HelpHub&#8221;, along with the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forums/">Forums</a> and the <a href="https://wordpress.org/patterns/">Patterns Directory</a>.</p>



<p>Along the way, their focus is on making sure the community is aware that these redesign projects are all public to review and engage with.</p>



<p>Nick added that &#8220;Figma is public, the GitHub&#8217;s public, but is it as public as it could be from a visual perspective within the community? No. And I think that that&#8217;s something that we&#8217;re trying to do better. So we&#8217;re trying to improve the process so it is more visible moving forward.&#8221;</p>



<p>The team has been more proactively posting updates on the Make WordPress blog as well as in a dedicated Slack channel, <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C04U953K77A">#website-redesign</a>. The end goal for these redesigns is to increase the quality and access to information, but also to make contribution to the project easier.</p>



<p>&#8220;One of the things that we&#8217;ve actually seen,&#8221; said Nick &#8220;is that once the redesign happened and there was a bit more spotlight on it and people started using it, then the problems with the UI kind of go away and then you start to see problems with the content, which leads to more people fixing the content.&#8221; </p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in contributing to the design or the content of some of these upcoming projects, consider joining the WordPress <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Slack</a> or following along in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/">Make WordPress blog</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Mar 2024 19:03:20 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Brian Coords";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress – February 2024";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=17030";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:72:"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/03/the-month-in-wordpress-february-2024/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10597:"<p>February saw significant progress towards the upcoming WordPress 6.5 release and final preparations for WordCamp Asia. The results of the annual WordPress survey were released, and discussions began on the next steps for the Data Liberation project. Read on for the latest happenings in the WordPress space.</p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Get ready for WordCamp Asia</h2>



<p>The stage is ready for the first WordPress flagship event of the year in Taipei, Taiwan. WordCamp Asia 2024 will kick off on March 7, promising three days of learning, networking, and inspiration.</p>



<p><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/schedule/">This year’s schedule</a> features an extensive lineup of speakers, including guests <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/speaker/josepha-haden-chomphosy/">Josepha Haden Chomphosy</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/speaker/ben-thompson/">Ben Thompson</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/speaker/noel-tock/">Noel Tock</a>, and <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/speaker/ju-chun-ko/">JU-CHUN KO</a>. To conclude the summit, attendees can engage with WordPress co-founder <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/speaker/matt-mullenweg/">Matt Mullenweg</a> in a Q&amp;A session. <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/03/wordcamp-asia-2024-qa-with-matt-mullenweg/">Find out how to submit your questions</a>.</p>



<p>Can’t make it to Taipei? Watch the event live stream on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/wordpress">WordPress YouTube channel</a>.</p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<a class="wp-block-jetpack-podcast-player jetpack-podcast-player__direct-link" href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/10/episode-64-patterns-in-wordpress/">https://wordpress.org/news/2023/10/episode-64-patterns-in-wordpress/</a>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Countdown to WordPress 6.5</h2>



<p>WordPress 6.5 is on track for its much-anticipated release on March 26. Following last month’s beta releases, the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/03/wordpress-6-5-release-candidate-1/">first release candidate (RC1)</a> is now available for testing—marking another milestone in the development cycle.</p>



<p>This major release will add finesse and fine-tuning to how you control your site-building experience, with lots to explore specifically for developers. Get a detailed overview of highlighted features in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/02/wordpress-6-5-beta-1/">Beta 1 announcement</a>.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-extra-large-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>Stay on top of the latest updates in WordPress development with <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/02/10/whats-new-for-developers-february-2024/">February’s edition of What’s New for Developers?</a></p>
</blockquote>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">New in the Gutenberg plugin</h2>



<p>Two new versions of Gutenberg shipped in February:</p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/14/whats-new-in-gutenberg-17-7-14th-february/"><strong>Gutenberg 17.7</strong></a> introduced multiple performance improvements, refinements to the link control UI, and shadow support for more blocks, among other notable highlights.</li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/28/whats-new-in-gutenberg-17-8-28-february/"><strong>Gutenberg 17.8</strong></a> focused on stability updates. New features included a grid layout variation for the Group block, bulk export of patterns, and the ability to browse and try alternative templates from the editor’s sidebar.</li>
</ul>



<div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile has-off-white-2-background-color has-background"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/10/core-editor-improvement-power-in-the-details/"><img width="1024" height="576" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2024/03/Core-Editor-Improvement-Power-in-the-Details-Featured-Image.png?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1" alt="Decorative blue background with text " /></a><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p>Beyond major features, many small yet mighty updates are coming in WordPress 6.5 that will make a big difference in your WordPress experience. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/10/core-editor-improvement-power-in-the-details/">Read more »</a></p>
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Team updates</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/02/2023-annual-survey-results-and-next-steps/">Results of the 2023 annual WordPress survey</a> were announced last month.</li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/19/data-liberation-next-steps/">An update on the Data Liberation project</a> informs the next steps of this initiative and how to contribute to current conversations.</li>



<li>The Community team shared <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2024/02/09/2023-wordpress-meetup-survey-key-findings/">key findings from the 2023 WordPress meetup survey</a>.</li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2024/02/16/contributor-mentorship-program-second-cohort-2024-q1/">Meet the new cohort</a> of the Contributor Mentorship Program.</li>



<li>The Photos team posted <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/photos/2024/02/02/alt-text-for-wordpress-photos/">recommendations for improving alternative texts</a> when submitting images to the Photo Directory.</li>



<li>Following discussions on the evolution of the Outreach Program, a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/27/connect-with-the-github-outreach-group-to-request-feedback-or-further-testing/">new outreach group</a> has been created on GitHub. This group will provide expertise and feedback to those seeking additional testing or perspectives on a new feature or solution.</li>



<li>Core team members introduced the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/22/introducing-the-wordpress-core-trac-sustainability-focus/">WordPress Core Trac Sustainability Focus</a>, a part of the Sustainability team&#8217;s effort to enhance the sustainability of the WordPress codebase.</li>



<li>A new release of WP-CLI is <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/cli/2024/02/08/wp-cli-v2-10-0-release-notes/">now available</a>.</li>



<li>Learn WordPress is regularly updated with new tutorials, online workshops, and more learning resources. <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/learn-wordpress-newsletter-march-2024/">Check out what’s new</a>.</li>



<li>The latest edition of People of WordPress features <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/02/people-of-wordpress-sunita-rai/">Sunita Rai</a>, a content marketer and volunteer translator from Nepal.</li>
</ul>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<a class="wp-block-jetpack-podcast-player jetpack-podcast-player__direct-link" href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/10/episode-64-patterns-in-wordpress/">https://wordpress.org/news/2023/10/episode-64-patterns-in-wordpress/</a>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Requests for feedback and testing</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/03/wordpress-6-5-release-candidate-1/">Your help testing WordPress 6.5</a> is key to ensuring everything in this release is the best it can be. New to testing? <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2024/02/15/help-test-wordpress-6-5-beta-1/">Read this post</a> for more details on getting set up.</li>



<li>The Training team is discussing <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2024/02/20/discussion-bringing-accessibility-first-approaches-into-content-development/">how to bring accessibility-first approaches</a> into their content creation and processes. Feedback is open until March 9.</li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2024/02/27/mobile-team-update-february-26th-2/">Version 24.3</a> of the WordPress mobile app for iOS and Android is ready for testing.</li>
</ul>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WordPress events</h2>



<ul>
<li>WordCamp Europe 2024 is <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2024/call-for-photographers-is-now-open/">looking for photographers</a>.</li>



<li>The WordPress Kerala Photo Festival wrapped up with great success. The event received over <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/t/wpkeralaphotos/">1,500 images</a> from 163 participants, contributing to the Photo Directory passing the 15,000 photo milestone. Winners were announced <a href="https://events.wordpress.org/kerala/2024/photo-festival/winners-of-the-kerala-wordpress-photo-festival/">in this post</a>.</li>



<li>Don’t miss these other WordPress events happening soon:
<ul>
<li><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f1e8-1f1f7.png" alt="🇨🇷" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://events.wordpress.org/sanjose/2024/women-wordpress-day/">Women WordPress Day</a>, Costa Rica, on March 8</li>



<li><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f1e8-1f1ed.png" alt="🇨🇭" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://events.wordpress.org/switzerland/2024/community-day/">Switzerland Community Day</a> on March 23</li>



<li><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/72x72/1f1ea-1f1f8.png" alt="🇪🇸" class="wp-smiley" /> <a href="https://torrelodones.wordcamp.org/2024/">WordCamp Torrelodones</a>, Spain, on March 23-24</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li>Find out more local events or apply to organize one on the <a href="https://events.wordpress.org/">Events page</a>.</li>
</ul>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />



<p><em><strong>Have a story we should include in the next issue of The Month in WordPress? Fill out </strong></em><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/month-in-wordpress-submissions/"><strong><em>this quick form</em></strong></a><em><strong> to let us know.</strong></em></p>



<div class="wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained">
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Subscribe to WordPress News</h3>



<p>Join other subscribers and receive WordPress news directly in your inbox.</p>


<div class="wp-block-jetpack-subscriptions__supports-newline is-style-split wp-block-jetpack-subscriptions">
		<div>
			<div>
				<div>
					<p>
						<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/?post_type=post&p=17030">Subscribe</a>
					</p>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Mar 2024 13:20:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Reyes Martínez";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"Do The Woo Community: What You Can Expect from the CloudFest Hackathon 2024 Projects";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=79204";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"https://dothewoo.io/what-you-can-expect-from-the-cloudfest-hackathon-2024-projects/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:447:"<p>Listen in from some of the project leads that will be at this years CloudFest hackathon and learn about the goal-oriented open source projects.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a href="https://dothewoo.io/what-you-can-expect-from-the-cloudfest-hackathon-2024-projects/">What You Can Expect from the CloudFest Hackathon 2024 Projects</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce and WordPress Builder Podcast</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Mar 2024 09:32:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57:"WPTavern: Certain WP Form Plugins Make Accessibility Easy";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154632";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"https://wptavern.com/certain-wp-form-plugins-make-accessibility-easy";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9666:"<p>According to the WAVE web accessibility tool, Gravity Forms scores a perfect score out-of-the-box for their front-end forms. Same with Ninja Forms, Contact Form 7, and WP Forms.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>I tested 2 other popular WP form plugins that did not fare as well.</p>



<ol><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/certain-wp-form-plugins-make-accessibility-easy#gravity-forms-investments-in-web-accessibility-are-paying-dividends">Gravity Forms’ Investments in Web Accessibility Are Paying Dividends</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/certain-wp-form-plugins-make-accessibility-easy#is-wcag-aa-compliant-enough-what-about-wcag-aaa-compliance">Is WCAG AA-Compliant Enough?  What about WCAG AAA-Compliance?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/certain-wp-form-plugins-make-accessibility-easy#what-about-other-wp-form-plugins">What About Other WP Form Plugins?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/certain-wp-form-plugins-make-accessibility-easy#some-form-plugins-accessibility-efforts-seem-reactive-rather-than-proactive">Some Form Plugins’ Accessibility Efforts Seem Reactive Rather Than Proactive</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/certain-wp-form-plugins-make-accessibility-easy#what-about-accessibility-on-the-admin-end-of-wp-form-plugins">What About Accessibility on the Admin End of WP Form Plugins?</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/certain-wp-form-plugins-make-accessibility-easy#notes">Notes</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/certain-wp-form-plugins-make-accessibility-easy#comments">Comments ↓</a></li></ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="gravity-forms-investments-in-web-accessibility-are-paying-dividends">Gravity Forms’ Investments in Web Accessibility Are Paying Dividends</h2>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/gravity-forms-2-5-launches-with-an-overhauled-ui-and-focus-on-accessibility">The Tavern reported</a> in 2021 that <a href="https://www.gravityforms.com/">Gravity Forms</a> invested heavily in web accessibility with their 2.5 release and also reported that Gravity Forms provides lots of information about <a href="https://docs.gravityforms.com/gravity-forms-commitment-to-accessibility/">their approach to accessibility</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>I was curious to dive deeper on Gravity Forms’ specific web accessibility processes.  </p>



<p>“We do our testing with keyboard and screen readers,” <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gwendydd/">Morgan Kay</a>, a software engineer at Gravity Forms who works closely with accessibility initiatives at the company says.&nbsp; </p>



<p>“We also consider some other implications, such as how usable a feature is on mobile, how it looks in an RTL language, and whether we have sufficient color contrast.”</p>



<p>Gravity Forms also tries to help novice users understand when they are making a change that might break accessibility.</p>



<p>“One thing Gravity Forms does that&#8217;s particularly valuable is that it warns you if you&#8217;re using a feature that has known accessibility issues,&nbsp; and that&#8217;s a huge time saver for professionals,” says web accessibility consultant, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joedolson/">Joe Dolson</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="is-wcag-aa-compliant-enough-what-about-wcag-aaa-compliance">Is WCAG AA-Compliant Enough?&nbsp; What about WCAG <em>AAA</em>-Compliance?</h2>



<p>Gravity Forms promises WCAG AA compliance, which is a great place to start for anyone who is looking to make a website more accessible to users.</p>



<p>“WCAG2.1 AA is the standard required by most accessibility laws,” says Gravity Forms’ Kay.&nbsp;</p>



<p>By comparison, “WCAG2.1 <em>AAA</em> is very strict, and includes some standards that are not necessarily realistic or necessary for all types of websites,” Kay adds.</p>



<p>“Our goal is to make sure that [our forms] comply to WCAG 2.1AA,” says Kay. “This is not only because we want our forms to be accessible, but also because it is required by some countries.”</p>



<p>“We provide tools that let users build forms that are WCAG-compliant, but it is still ultimately up to the user to make sure they are following all of the guidelines to meet those requirements,” adds Kay.</p>



<p>I tested that statement in the wild, and it’s true: Gravity Forms gives you all the tools to make your front-end form WCAG AA-compliant out-of-the-box and without any configuration.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>For example, if you simply add name, email, and phone fields to a Gravity Form, it’ll be WCAG AA compliant.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>However, website owners can optionally or unknowingly break compliance &#8211; and often do.&nbsp; For example, deleting the default form labels will break compliance.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>You don’t have to go far on the web to run into a text input field without a proper label.&nbsp; Oftentimes this is done for aesthetic reasons &#8211; e.g. hiding labels to make the form more compact.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-about-other-wp-form-plugins">What About Other WP Form Plugins?</h2>



<p>While other form plugins might be able to create accessible forms, they aren’t as simple to configure for WCAG and ADA compliance, according to some accessibility consultants.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>“For free plugins, Contact Form 7 allows you to create very accessible forms,&nbsp; but you have to know what you&#8217;re doing. It&#8217;s a fine tool if you put in the work, but I wouldn&#8217;t recommend it to the average user,” <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joedolson/">Dolson</a> says.</p>



<p>Another web accessibility consultant, <a href="http://linkedin.com/in/gslacdao/">Gerson Lacdao</a> noted his appreciation for Gravity Forms’ efforts while adding some constructive criticism of other WP form plugins.</p>



<p>“Some [form plugins] have issues in the most basic [web accessibility] things like properly coded field labels,” says Lacdao.&nbsp;</p>



<p>His favorite form plugin today is <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/ws-form/">WS Form</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>“In terms of accessibility, I would probably put [the WS Form plugin] on top,” Lacdao says. “I like how a lot of accessibility options are available [in WS Form], and I don&#8217;t need to add extra CSS or JS hacks just to make it work better.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="some-form-plugins-accessibility-efforts-seem-reactive-rather-than-proactive">Some Form Plugins’ Accessibility Efforts Seem Reactive Rather Than Proactive</h2>



<p>Lacdao mentioned one example of a popular WP form plugin that is behind on the web accessibility front (I was unable to reach the plugin’s developer for comment and therefore decided to not name the plugin here).&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>“[That plugin’s accessibility] efforts are mostly reactive and for now only based on tickets or feedback from some users,” says Lacdao. “It&#8217;s something I&#8217;m a bit frustrated about because I feel like it&#8217;s part of their obligation to users to proactively make their product accessible.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>In addition to making a clear proactive effort on the web accessibility front, the Gravity Forms team is always on the lookout for new issues.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Gravity Forms’ Kay explains, “We usually investigate [accessibility tickets] as soon as they are reported, and we can usually get [them] fixed within one or two minor releases.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-about-accessibility-on-the-admin-end-of-wp-form-plugins">What About Accessibility on the Admin End of WP Form Plugins?</h2>



<p>It’s tough to talk about web accessibility in the admin side of any plugin without talking about accessibility in the admin of WordPress more generally.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Based on my tests using the WAVE tool, neither WordPress core nor <em>any</em> plugin or theme I tested fared well on web accessibility within the admin.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That said, admin-side accessibility improvements are definitely on Gravity Forms’ agenda.</p>



<p>&nbsp;“[A senior accessibility consultant] has done a complete audit of our plugin in the dashboard, so we know what we need to do to make Gravity Forms accessible in the admin,” Kay said. “We are working on making the admin accessible, and in Gravity Forms 2.9 there will be some improvements.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="notes">Notes</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://wave.webaim.org/extension/">WAVE</a> is the testing tool promoted by WebAIM and also used by many web accessibility consultants as a data point for figuring out how a webpage is doing on the accessibility front.&nbsp; It’s not a perfect tool, but it is a great place to start.</li>



<li>I reached out to WP Forms, Ninja Forms, and Forminator Pro in addition to Gravity Forms for inclusion in this article. Only Gravity Forms responded meaningfully to my requests for comment. I encourage other form plugin developers to leave their thoughts in the comments.</li>
</ul>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Toby Cryns is a freelance CTO, WordPress consultant, and teacher at <a href="https://themightymo.com/">The Mighty Mo! Design Co.</a> in Minneapolis, MN, USA.</div>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="comments">Comments ↓</h2>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 05 Mar 2024 23:55:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Toby Cryns";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"WPTavern: Cwicly’s Unexpected Farewell: Founder Decides to Discontinue Development";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154678";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"https://wptavern.com/cwiclys-unexpected-farewell-founder-decides-to-discontinue-development";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7942:"<p>In a shocking development, the Gutenberg-based page builder <a href="https://cwicly.com/">Cwicly</a>’s founder Louis-Alexander Désiré has announced that the team is discontinuing the Cwicly development “after much deliberation and soul-searching.”</p>



<p>Packed with innovative features and a commitment to embracing the WordPress vision in Gutenberg, Cwicly attracted a lot of attention. The community noted their recent tailwind expansion too. According to its description in <a href="https://appsumo.com/products/cwicly-builder/">AppSumo</a>, “Cwicly is the only builder that interacts directly with the whole Gutenberg ecosystem and adds specialized blocks that are complementary and fully compatible with Gutenberg.”</p>



<p>In a <a href="https://cwicly.com/">blog post</a> and email to users, Louis attributed the abrupt decision to&nbsp; “the relentless onslaught of destructive posts and comments by certain WordPress influencers”. He said, “Personal attacks on both myself and team members have been made and openly tolerated throughout. The negativity and hostility directed towards Cwicly, especially in comparison to other page builders, have taken a significant toll on our morale and motivation.”</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“The passion and dedication that we have had from the start has been gradually diluted, enthusiasm has given way to dread. Working in such a negative climate has taken a significant toll on the team, making it nearly impossible to continue. Each day has become a struggle.”&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Louis assured users that Cwicly services will continue until the end of 2024, with reimbursements for all orders made after January 1, 2024.</p>



<p>The statement was later retracted from the website, stating the discontinuation of the plugin development and ensuring user support during the transition period. However, the original statement is still available in <a href="https://discourse.cwicly.com/t/discontinuation-of-cwicly-development/5522">Discourse</a>.</p>



<h1 class="wp-block-heading">Reaction of the Community&nbsp;</h1>



<p>The WordPress community reacted with surprise and shock, especially considering that new features had been released just days before. “This is the biggest shock I’ve had in the recent past! Had to check if the date was 1st April. I hope Cwicly undo their decision” tweeted WordPress developer <a href="https://twitter.com/srikat/status/1764385731563454614">Sridhar Katakam</a> while <a href="https://twitter.com/pootlepress/status/1764340304721727602">Jamie Marsland</a>, founder of Pootlepress, called the statement released “a very sad statement”.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Several people searched for scathing reviews and tweeted about not finding any devastating reviews or comments against Cwicly while others mentioned seeing negative comments in Facebook groups.&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/arniepalmer/status/1764410609867559144">Andrew Palmer</a>, co-founder of Bertha.AI revealed he has “seen a few comments on YT education videos for Cwicly where commenters say it’s trash.” </p>



<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/dynamicwordpress/permalink/1456468901975256/">Sujay Pawar</a>, CEO of Brainstorm Force, posted on Facebook “If you&#8217;re active in Facebook groups, you know how toxic some communities can be with trolls. I&#8217;ve had to take breaks from Facebook for my own mental health. I think Cwicly&#8217;s decision to stop must have been about more than just mean comments from some influencers. It&#8217;s probably about all the challenges of running a WordPress products business, especially the financial aspects, in demotivating communities where people are quick to criticize without realizing there&#8217;s a human being on the other side.”&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/dynamicwordpress/permalink/1455267252095421/">David McCan</a>, who had published “<a href="https://www.webtng.com/the-cwicly-conundrum/">The Cwicly Conundrum: Two Years On Is It Ready to Use Yet</a>?” posted “I suspect that my article The Cwicly Conundrum may have contributed to their loss of morale.&nbsp; While as far as I know what I wrote was accurate, I realize that I was expressing my frustrations about feeling it wasn’t ready yet.&nbsp; I’m sorry if this contributed to their loss of morale, and it is a reminder that as a user and reviewer it is important to remember the people behind the product.” He continued “Cwicly is cutting edge and made a good contribution to the WordPress ecosystem.&nbsp; I hope the Cwicly team is able to continue with it, but if they don’t feel they can then I encourage them to keep it going long enough to look for someone who would want to purchase it, so they get some return and the product can live on.”&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/wpmodder/status/1764370654332068326">Adam W. Warner</a>, GoDaddyPro Director Field Marketing, shared, “I’ve never used it, but everything mention I’ve seen of it was positive. Raving fans in fact. Obviously there’s been negative feedback somewhere though. However, as a business owner, it pays to have a thick skin for the naysayers. Easy to say, harder to do.” Justin Ferriman also agreed,&nbsp; “Criticism and entrepreneurship go hand-in-hand (especially in the case of products). Probably just wasn&#8217;t for the founder, and that&#8217;s okay. It&#8217;s stressful.”</p>



<p>WordPress Tampa Bay organizer <a href="https://twitter.com/schutzsmith/status/1764363078689264076">Daniel AwesomeSmith</a> hoped “they’re not blaming community when it’s just business acumen and product fit to blame the most.” <a href="https://twitter.com/thekevingeary/status/1764363817901834463">Kevin Geary</a>, WordPress entrepreneur, clarified that he “spent the last 3-5 months telling everyone that Cwicly is the 2nd best page builder for WordPress.”</p>



<p>Co-founder of Newsletter Glue, <a href="https://twitter.com/lesley_pizza/status/1764477373263819040">Lesley Sim</a> tweeted, “I don&#8217;t think shutting down is the right answer, I think levelling up as a business owner is. But, you can&#8217;t really teach that. They just have to decide to do it.” <a href="https://twitter.com/alexjvasquez/status/1764426557412737220">Alex Vasquez</a> of DigiSavvy “wouldn&#8217;t be surprised if the owner/dev reverses course on their decision to shutter @cwicly. I find it beyond wild to just abandon your customers like that.”</p>



<p>“Consider rebranding Cwicly instead of shutting it down &#8211; a fresh start can help overcome negativity and attract a more positive audience.” recommended entrepreneur <a href="https://twitter.com/mahdiali_/status/1764641586330370386">MahdiAli Khanusiya</a>. “Some of the big guys like @automattic, @LiquidWeb, @syedbalkhi should check out @cwicly. Could be an acquisition / buy out. There&#8217;s a lot of great features there that could end up in core, or at least shouldn&#8217;t be thrown out.” proposed WPAI founder <a href="https://twitter.com/jameswlepage/status/1764532987507421294">James LePage</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I have reached out to Louis and am still waiting to hear back from him. </p>



<p><strong>Update:</strong> Louis-Alexander Désiré has issued an update on <a href="https://discourse.cwicly.com/t/the-future-of-cwicly/5536">Cwicly&#8217;s Discourse site</a> about their future plans. They have reimbursed the new subscribers and will provide support to all users till 2024. From 2025 onwards, they will offer maintenance plans at discounted rates for those who wish to continue to benefit from Cwicly updates but no new features will be introduced. More details will be shared later. Lifetime holders can continue to enjoy maintenance benefits and access the Cwicly plugin at no extra cost.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 05 Mar 2024 18:23:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Jyolsna";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 6.5 Release Candidate 1";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=17008";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/03/wordpress-6-5-release-candidate-1/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10939:"<p>The first release candidate (RC1) for WordPress 6.5 is ready for download and testing!</p>



<p><strong>This version of the WordPress software is under development</strong>.<strong> Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites.</strong> Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC1 on a test server and site.</p>



<p>Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.5 is the best it can be.</p>



<p>You can test WordPress 6.5 RC1 in four ways:</p>



<table><tbody><tr><th>Plugin</th><td>Install and activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).</td></tr><tr><th>Direct Download</th><td>Download the <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.5-RC1.zip">RC1 version (zip)</a> and install it on a WordPress website.</td></tr><tr><th>Command Line</th><td>Use the following <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/cli/">WP-CLI</a> command:<br /><code>wp core update --version=6.5-RC1</code></td></tr><tr><th>WordPress Playground</th><td>Use the <a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/#%7B%20%22preferredVersions%22:%20%7B%20%22php%22:%20%228.0%22,%20%22wp%22:%20%22beta%22%20%7D,%20%22features%22:%20%7B%20%22networking%22:%20true%20%7D,%20%22steps%22:%20[%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22login%22,%20%22username%22:%20%22admin%22,%20%22password%22:%20%22password%22%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22importFile%22,%20%22file%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22url%22,%20%22url%22:%20%22https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wpaccessibility/a11y-theme-unit-test/master/a11y-theme-unit-test-data.xml%22%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22importFile%22,%20%22file%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22url%22,%20%22url%22:%20%22https://raw.githubusercontent.com/WordPress/theme-test-data/master/themeunittestdata.wordpress.xml%22%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22query-monitor%22%20%7D,%20%22options%22:%20%7B%20%22activate%22:%20false%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22create-block-theme%22%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22debug-bar%22%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22health-check%22%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22test-reports%22%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D,%20%7B%20%22step%22:%20%22installPlugin%22,%20%22pluginZipFile%22:%20%7B%20%22resource%22:%20%22wordpress.org/plugins%22,%20%22slug%22:%20%22user-switching%22%20%7D,%20%22progress%22:%20%7B%20%22weight%22:%202%20%7D%20%7D%20]%20%7D">6.5 RC1 WordPress Playground instance</a> (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup.</td></tr></tbody></table>



<p>The current target for the WordPress 6.5 release is <strong>March 26, 2024</strong>. Get an overview of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-5/">6.5 release cycle</a>, and check the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">Make WordPress Core blog</a> for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/6-5/">6.5-related posts</a> in the coming weeks for further details.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What&#8217;s in WordPress 6.5 RC1?</h2>



<p>Thanks to the many contributors testing up to this point, this release includes more than 20 bug fixes for the Editor and more than 40 <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&changetime=02%2F27%2F2024..03%2F05%2F2024&milestone=6.5&col=id&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&order=id">tickets for WordPress Core</a>.</p>



<p>Get a recap of WordPress 6.5’s highlighted features in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/02/wordpress-6-5-beta-1/">Beta 1 announcement</a>. For more technical information related to issues addressed since Beta 3, you can browse the following links:</p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/commits/wp/6.5?since=2024-02-27&until=2024-03-05">GitHub commits for 6.5</a> since February 27</li>



<li><a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&changetime=02%2F27%2F2024..03%2F05%2F2024&milestone=6.5&col=id&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&order=id">Closed Trac tickets</a> since February 27</li>
</ul>



<p>Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? These recent posts cover some of the latest updates:</p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/05/introducing-plugin-dependencies-in-wordpress-6-5/">Introducing Plugin Dependencies in WordPress 6.5</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/05/unification-of-the-site-and-post-editors-in-6-5/">Unification of the Site and Post Editors in 6.5</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/04/updates-to-the-html-api-in-6-5/">Updates to the HTML API in 6.5</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/03/04/interactivity-api-dev-note/">Interactivity API in 6.5</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/27/i18n-improvements-6-5-performant-translations/">I18N Improvements in 6.5 (Performant Translations)</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/23/wordpress-6-5-adds-avif-support/">WordPress 6.5 adds AVIF support</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/10/core-editor-improvement-power-in-the-details/">Core Editor Improvement: Power in the Details</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/01/22/core-editor-improvement-robust-revisions-in-the-site-editor/">Core Editor Improvement: Robust Revisions in the Site Editor</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/dev-notes-6-5/">All 6.5-related developer notes</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How you can contribute</h2>



<p>WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Get involved in testing</h3>



<p>Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2024/02/28/help-test-wordpress-beta-3/">This detailed guide</a> will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.5. For those new to testing, follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2024/02/15/help-test-wordpress-6-5-beta-1">this general testing guide</a> for more details on getting set up.</p>



<p>If you encounter an issue, please report it to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta area</a> of the support forums or directly to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">WordPress Trac</a> if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">known bugs</a>.</p>



<p>Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/">testing initiatives in Make Core</a> and join the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/messages/core-test/">#core-test channel</a> on <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/">Making WordPress Slack</a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Search for vulnerabilities</h3>



<p>From now until the final release candidate of WordPress 6.5 (scheduled for March 19), the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/security/2024/02/12/welcoming-2024-with-wordpress-6-5-beta-1/">monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities</a> is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the <a href="https://hackerone.com/wordpress">HackerOne page</a> and in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/security/">security white paper</a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Update your theme or plugin</h3>



<p>For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.5 beta releases. With RC1, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the <em>“Tested up to”</em> version in your <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/how-your-readme-txt-works/">plugin’s readme file</a> to 6.5.</p>



<p>If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">support forum</a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Help translate WordPress</h3>



<p>Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本? हिन्दी? বাংলা? You can <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev/">help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages</a>. This release milestone (RC1) also marks the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#hard-freeze">hard string freeze</a> point of the 6.5 release cycle.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Release the haiku</h2>



<p>What’s this? RC1?<br />Three weeks left until it’s done.<br />Come and test. It’s fun!</p>



<p><em>Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dansoschin/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>dansoschin</a>,</em> <em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/courane01/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>courane01</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellosatya/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>hellosatya</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/huzaifaalmesbah/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>huzaifaalmesbah</a></em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:26:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Lauren Stein";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:116:"WPTavern: Gutenberg’s Project Leadership Sits Down with  Outreach Program to Discuss Problems with the Site Editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154655";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:124:"https://wptavern.com/gutenbergs-project-leadership-sits-down-with-new-outreach-team-to-discuss-problems-with-the-site-editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17507:"<p><em>What do you get when you put a handful of outspoken WordPress developers, agencies, product owners, and community advocates on a video call with the Lead Architect and Product Managers of the entire Gutenberg project? Hopefully progress.</em></p>



<p>Matt Mullenweg may have surprised a few people when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e92_Wo-bIng">he recently stated</a> that the Gutenberg project still has <em>years</em> of development to go, but I doubt that anyone using it would disagree. The tentpole feature of Gutenberg&#8217;s Phase Two, the &#8220;Site Editor,&#8221; has been in core (and enabled by default for new installations) for the last two years, but the adoption of block-based themes has <a href="https://twitter.com/hluehrsen/status/1759881773461168600">felt underwhelming at best</a>, especially compared to the <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-elementor">market share of page-building tools like Elementor</a>.</p>



<p>Everyone has their opinions of the block editor, one need only browse the comments section of this very site to find them. The reality however is that WordPress is a vast and complicated project. While it&#8217;s certainly subject to the decisions of its &#8220;Benevolent Dictator&#8221;, it is also subject to the very real constraints of large-scale, distributed, open-source software development. Not to mention the work is entirely based on contributions, many of which are sponsored by large organizations with their own goals for the project.</p>



<p>At the center of all of this are the individual WordPress end users who can feel like they have no agency in the project, no ability to communicate their experiences or give feedback. And there may be no piece of software in more critical need of user feedback than the WordPress Site Editor.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Outreach Experiment<sup class="fn"><a href="https://wptavern.com/feed#76dd9696-f1d1-4d83-825d-d5e6dbe973b7" id="76dd9696-f1d1-4d83-825d-d5e6dbe973b7-link">1</a></sup> </h2>



<p>The FSE Outreach Experiment <a href="https://wptavern.com/help-steer-the-future-of-wordpress-via-the-fse-outreach-program">was launched three years ago</a> as a way to bridge that gap between users experiencing the Site Editor and the core contributors building it. Last week, the <a href="https://wptavern.com/fse-outreach-experimental-loses-two-words-gains-new-life">program announced a simplified name and scope</a>: Outreach. As part of this new simplified scope, any core contributor can now tag Outreach directly in GitHub as they develop new features when they want early feedback from the broader community. The goal is getting more two-way communication happening, and keeping the feedback where it can be most effective: the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Make WordPress Slack</a> and the <a href="https://github.com/wordPress/gutenberg">Gutenberg</a> code repository on GitHub.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Social media may feel like the easiest place to voice an opinion (something I am certainly guilty of), but it doesn&#8217;t always manifest into meaningful change. &#8220;Most of our issues are around just discoverability,&#8221; Developer Advocate and Outreach member Justin Tadlock <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/23/recap-hallway-hangout-whats-next-for-the-outreach-program/">pointed out recently</a>. &#8220;Just getting people to come and take all their reactions and thoughts from social media and bring it in and have some constructive conversations in an official channel.&#8221;</p>



<p>Automattic Product Wrangler Anne McCarthy has served as the Editor Triage Lead for the last handful of WordPress Core releases and led the original FSE Outreach Experiment. They recently collected some of this feedback on the Site Editor in the form of a widely circulated blog post, &#8220;<a href="https://nomad.blog/2024/02/16/overlapping-problems/">Overlapping problems</a>&#8220;. It&#8217;s a breakdown of some of the most common user experience complaints, but nearly every piece of feedback links to a specific issue or pull request where work is being done to improve it. If you haven&#8217;t already, I recommend pausing now to read it.</p>



<p>Because the problems are &#8220;overlapping&#8221;, some feel that they speak to an underlying problem with the Site Editor itself and the Gutenberg development process more broadly. Many armchair theories were thrown out, including some from yours truly, at last week&#8217;s <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/27/summary-of-hallway-hangout-on-overlapping-problems-in-the-site-editor/">Hallway Hangout</a>, hosted by the Anne McCarthy, and attended by a wide array of other leaders, including Gutenberg&#8217;s Lead Architect, Matias Ventura and Product Manager, Rich Tabor.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Is the Core Team listening?</h2>



<p>Feedback loops in a community this large and diverse are (un)surprisingly hard to get right. One clear piece of feedback, though, seems to be a general feeling that while the Site Editor&#8217;s power and feature-set continue to grow, the actual user experience needs more polish. Yet when concerns about this user experience are raised, the general response is that it’s the users who just need more education and training.</p>



<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a sentiment that I kept seeing,&#8221; Mike McAlister of <a href="https://olliewp.com/">Ollie</a> explained on the call, &#8220;that &#8216;they&#8217;re not listening to us&#8217;. And whether that&#8217;s perception or their experience or whatever, I think that is very important for us to carry that and to kind of acknowledge it.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>Part of the disconnect between the different sides of our large community is related to that imbalance of incentives amongst contributors. Unless you are employed by a hosting company or a product team like WooCommerce or Yoast, it may feel discouraging to push a feature forward or feel like no one is advocating for your use case.</p>



<p>WordPress is meant to democratize the ability to put content on the internet. So there&#8217;s an expectation that its interface should feel, well, easier or at least more intuitive. Nick Diego, Developer Advocate from Automattic, shared an experience of watching his non-technical parents navigate the Site Editor.</p>



<p>&#8220;One of the biggest issues I see in the Site Editor,&#8221; he explained, &#8220;is around how changes that you make are preserved to prevent people from making mistakes. And this seems like such a small little thing, but I watched [my dad] delete a template that had been customized and there was no way to get it back easily. I watched him click on &#8216;Clear Customizations&#8217; and everything was gone. And he was like, wait, what, what&#8217;s happening?&#8221;</p>



<p>Nick was showcasing a great practical example of the types of gaps in the user experience that eventually erode their trust in the platform’s ability to safely manage content. He also pointed out that there are tried and true conventions for many of these interactions. &#8220;In old WordPress, when you trash the page, it goes into the trash and then you can delete it permanently, right? It goes into your trash. Oh, I made a mistake? I can bring that back. It&#8217;s a very logical flow. It&#8217;s very similar to other applications.&#8221; But the Site Editor often veers into uncharted territory when it comes to user interface.</p>



<p>New tools and new paradigms aren&#8217;t just hard for the non-technical users. They can present new challenges for the developers who are trying to launch new WordPress sites. Time that developers previously spent building websites is now often spent exploring new potential workflows, and we can&#8217;t rely on our previous two decades of established best practices when scoping new projects. &#8220;I think part of this too,&#8221; said Anne McCarthy, &#8220;is also how to use these tools and changing process because everything I&#8217;ve heard is it&#8217;s not only a technical change and adjusting to new technology, but it&#8217;s changing process.&#8221;</p>



<p>This idea of slowing down and refining the basic user experience was reiterated by Brian Gardner, Developer Advocate at WP Engine, who advocated &#8220;a call to rally around making what we have already better and consistent and easy to identify and work and document and educate.&#8221; WP Engine in particular has leaned into the developer/freelancer side of the community, with a team of educators and content creators, and products like <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/">Advanced Custom Fields</a> and <a href="https://localwp.com/">LocalWP</a>, all focused on a segment of the market they call &#8220;<a href="https://wpengine.com/builders/">Builders</a>&#8221; and what the Core Team often refers to as &#8220;extenders&#8221;.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Extenders<sup class="fn"><a href="https://wptavern.com/feed#0d40de72-2166-4c3e-a55b-82e973a8f179" id="0d40de72-2166-4c3e-a55b-82e973a8f179-link">2</a></sup></h2>



<p>Extenders, builders, developers, freelancers, agencies. There&#8217;s plenty of names for this side of the community, but the one thing they have in common is that they build a lot of websites, often for other, less-technical people. There&#8217;s widespread sentiment in this group that the Gutenberg&nbsp; project is not prioritizing their needs, driving them to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/">Classic Editor</a> or page builders like Elementor, Divi, and Bricks.</p>



<p>Fabian Kägy is a member of the Outreach program and a sponsored contributor from the agency <a href="https://10up.com/">10up</a>. He&#8217;s focused on fostering more conversation between the extender community and core development, so I spoke to him about this disconnect in priorities.</p>



<p>&#8220;There are so many different users that have all different calls&#8221;, he told me. &#8220;And kind of the reason why I am trying to participate is to share that one side of the story and be an advocate for that particular work. And I am very much hoping that I can actually get more similar folks from other agencies to also chime in and be a part of a conversation.&#8221;</p>



<p>Like Fabian, I come from the agency world, where we are constantly stuck trying to balance the desire to adopt the newest technologies for our clients with the need for assurance that those new features are actually ready to be used in production. That presents a tough problem to solve. The core team needs more people using and testing these features, to help refine them. But from the outside perspective, we&#8217;re hesitant to use anything that may not be production-ready.</p>



<p>&#8220;At the time a feature lands in WordPress Core,&#8221; Fabian explained, &#8220;there could be four or five months since the developer had originally worked on the feature. Since they last even thought about the feature, they&#8217;ve moved on and shipped three other features. And so that feedback cycle from the agency space is incredibly slow because by the time we adopt it, that is not top of mind anymore.&#8221;</p>



<p>This gap between the development of a new feature and its adoption by the wider community is the main problem the Outreach program is hoping to solve.</p>



<p>&#8220;That is why I am hoping that this kind of outreach,&#8221; he continued, &#8220;getting more pings, getting asked the question of &#8216;Hey, is this the right thing?&#8217; Being asked to provide feedback earlier in kind of the development cycle should help us be able to deliver that feedback earlier in the cycle so that we don&#8217;t end up in the situation where a year after the feature has been developed, we all of a sudden say, &#8220;Hey, but this didn&#8217;t account for these issues that we are running into.&#8221;</p>



<p>If airing your Gutenberg grievances on social media is unhelpful, raising them six months after a feature was originally developed and tested might even be less so. But with the huge array of features being worked on (there are over 1,000 open pull requests just in the Gutenberg repository), some on a timescale of years, WordPress needs the Outreach program&#8217;s ability to do some human curation, often in the form of &#8220;Hallway Hangouts&#8221; where new features are showcased and discussed.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">We are the world, we are the contributors</h2>



<p>Watch any meeting of the Outreach program, and you&#8217;ll quickly realize that everyone, including a number of Automattic-sponsored contributors, often appear just as &#8220;in the dark&#8221; as we do. They have many of the same struggles we have. The difference is, they are trying to build a space where we can all connect the dots together. It was a great reminder that we&#8217;re all contributors here. WordPress isn&#8217;t <em>some people over there building a thing</em>, it&#8217;s just <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2023/10/02/we-are-they-fostering-belonging-as-a-wordpress-contributor/">a whole lot of us</a>.</p>



<p>One of those people is Matias Ventura, considered by many the de facto lead of the Gutenberg project. Matias joined this most recent Hallway Hangout, listening to feedback and sharing his initial impressions. After hearing from a number of voices asking about some of the features in Gutenberg that still need polish, he was quick to clarify that there is still work to be done and conversations that need to happen.</p>



<p>&#8220;I think part of that,&#8221; he explained, &#8220;is also how we communicate, how we do the marketing, both internally to know the roadmap where we&#8217;re heading, but also if you have this specific use case, what are the things that you should keep in mind? Because there&#8217;s a lot of things to absorb and configure them properly and so forth.&#8221;</p>



<p>For many, this response hints at one of the core issues we face with the Site Editor: understanding when a problem is a lack of education or an actual lack in functionality.</p>



<p>Matias clarified his thoughts, &#8220;I think that depending on the use cases, I would say yeah, the Site Editor is absolutely ready for some of those. For some others, I think like, yeah, you might not have all the right tools, or you might need to reach out to other plugins in the ecosystem to fill in the gaps.&#8221;</p>



<p>Over a year ago, the WordPress project <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-3-development-kicks-off-to-conclude-gutenberg-phase-2">announced the transition</a> from Phase 2 (Customization) to Phase 3 (Collaboration), sparking concern that the Site Editor was going to be left not fully realized. What this Hallway Hangout made clear was that the Core Team is still very dedicated to working on these overlapping issues with the Site Editor.</p>



<p>They&#8217;re going to need all the help they can get, and the Outreach contributors certainly has their work cut out for them.</p>



<p>&#8220;I think the easiest way to get involved,&#8221; Fabian told me, &#8220;is to raise your hand and say, &#8216;Hey, I want to become a part of this team on GitHub&#8217; so that you then receive those notifications in your inbox about features that are looking for more feedback. And then from there you can, at your own leisure, at whatever amount of time you have to dedicate it to open source, take a look at just the titles of those pull requests or read through the quick description if you have at that time.&#8221;</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re in the weeds of building WordPress websites and implementing new Block and Site Editor features, it can be hard to find the time to give feedback. I certainly have the tendency to go straight to social media when I’m struggling with a lack of functionality or an irritating choice in the user interface. That said, I’m invested in the future of WordPress as a platform, so I’m joining the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C015GUFFC00">#outreach</a> channel in Slack and trying to provide feedback whenever I can.&nbsp;</p>



<p>While we may not immediately resolve these overlapping problems in the overall experience, the fact that there are core contributors willing to talk openly about the Site Editor’s shortcomings is a sign of progress towards a goal I think we can all agree on: the continued success of the WordPress project.</p>



<p><em>Update: This article was modified Tuesday, March 5 to better clarify the roles of various contributors and the Outreach program more broadly.</em></p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-text-color has-neutral-500-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-neutral-500-background-color has-background is-style-wide" />



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>


<ol class="wp-block-footnotes"><li id="76dd9696-f1d1-4d83-825d-d5e6dbe973b7">Sounds like a great band name <a href="https://wptavern.com/feed#76dd9696-f1d1-4d83-825d-d5e6dbe973b7-link"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/21a9.png" alt="↩" class="wp-smiley" />︎</a></li><li id="0d40de72-2166-4c3e-a55b-82e973a8f179">Also sounds like a great band name <a href="https://wptavern.com/feed#0d40de72-2166-4c3e-a55b-82e973a8f179-link"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/21a9.png" alt="↩" class="wp-smiley" />︎</a></li></ol>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 04 Mar 2024 21:51:08 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Brian Coords";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"WordPress.org blog: WordCamp Asia 2024: Q&amp;A with Matt Mullenweg";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=17015";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/03/wordcamp-asia-2024-qa-with-matt-mullenweg/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2412:"<img width="1024" height="299" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2024/03/wcasia-logo.png?resize=1024%2C299&ssl=1" alt="WordCamp Asia 2024" class="wp-image-17016" />



<p>WordCamp Asia 2024 is just a few days away—starting on March 7 in Taipei, Taiwan. This unique three-day summit will feature a distinguished lineup of speakers, numerous networking opportunities, and a closing Q&amp;A experience with WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg. The live Q&amp;A session will be streamed for WordPress enthusiasts worldwide, beginning at 3:30 p.m. Taipei Standard Time (7:30 a.m. UTC) on Saturday, March 9, 2024.</p>



<p>Watch the event live stream on the <a href="https://youtube.com/wordpress">WordPress YouTube channel</a> or visit the <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/">event website</a> for more details.</p>



<p><strong>What:</strong> Q&amp;A Session with Matt Mullenweg<br /><strong>When: </strong>March 9, 2024 at 7:30 a.m. UTC (Start of live stream)<br /><strong>Where: </strong><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/location/">Taipei International Convention Center<br /></a><strong>Streaming: </strong><a href="https://youtube.com/wordpress">Watch the live stream</a> on the WordPress YouTube channel.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Have a question for Matt?</h2>



<p>If you want to participate, please submit your question via Slido from March 7 until about 6:00 a.m. UTC on Friday, March 8. <em>Slido is now closed.</em></p>



<p>Given the expected volume of submitted questions, only some will be answered live, while others will be covered in a follow-up post published after the event on <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project">make.wordpress.org/project</a>.</p>



<p>See you in-person and online on March 7!</p>



<p>谢谢!</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />



<p><em>Thank you to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rmartinezduque/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>rmartinezduque</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/eidolonnight/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>eidolonnight</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>cbringmann</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bjmcsherry/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>bjmcsherry</a> for reviewing this post.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:50:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Dan Soschin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 74: Kickstart (Or Level-Up) Your Contributor Journey";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://wordpress.org/news/?post_type=podcast&p=17007";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"https://wordpress.org/news/2024/03/episode-74-kickstart-or-level-up-your-contributor-journey/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12317:"<p>Explore the impact you can make on WordPress without coding in this WordPress Briefing episode hosted by Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy. She&#8217;ll guide you through diverse non-coding contributions suitable for all skill levels, including content translation, photo submissions, event organization, and software testing. Listen and discover how you can enhance the WordPress community in ways that align with your interests and expertise.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Credits</h2>



<p>Host: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">Josepha Haden Chomphosy</a><br />Editor: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dustinhartzler/">Dustin Hartzler</a><br />Logo: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/javiarce/">Javier Arce</a><br />Production: <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/bjmcsherry/">Brett McSherry</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/">Chloé Bringmann</a><br />Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Show Notes</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/">WordCamp Asia 2024</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2024/contributor-day/">Contributor Day</a></li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/">WordPress Photo Directory</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/">Polyglots</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forums/">WordPress Support Forums</a></li>



<li><a href="https://events.wordpress.org/">Upcoming WordPress Events</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/">Make WordPress Testing</a></li>



<li><a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a></li>



<li><strong>Small List of Big Things</strong>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/02/2023-annual-survey-results-and-next-steps/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2023 Annual Survey Results and Next Steps</a>&nbsp; </li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2024/01/22/proposal-pilot-program-to-test-gatherpress-on-the-wordpress-org-network-as-a-meetup-alternative/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gather Press Pilot Program</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Transcripts</h2>



<p>[00:00:00]&nbsp;<strong>Josepha:</strong>&nbsp;Hello, everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:00:29] (Intro music)&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:00:40]&nbsp;<strong>Josepha:</strong> At the end of this week, WordCamp Asia is happening. It&#8217;s one of our largest events dedicated to WordPress, and it will cover a wide range of topics. From advanced concepts like running thriving businesses to more beginner things like building your first theme, there is bound to be something for you at this event.</p>



<p>For folks who have the opportunity to attend in person, you might also be going to your first-ever Contributor Day. Now, as much as I want there to be something for everyone there, I recognize that it&#8217;s a little more frenetic than your average WordPress event. It&#8217;s not any less welcoming than the event that has like a schedule and, tracks, and rooms.</p>



<p>[00:01:19] <strong>Josepha:</strong> But in my experience of any group of open source contributors, they get really excited when they are tackling problems together. And that&#8217;s most of what happens at a Contributor Day. It can make it a little difficult to see how you can join in. But never fear; the crew at the WordPress Briefing has you covered. We&#8217;ve got a couple of ways you can contribute immediately, no code required, and a handful of good next steps when you&#8217;re feeling comfortable and ready to level up.</p>



<p>For total beginners, so you&#8217;ve got a WordPress site, or you know, you&#8217;re about to launch one. And you&#8217;re here to learn and meet people and hopefully find someone who answers the questions you feel too shy to mention in public.</p>



<p>So these two ways of contribution are for you. First, you can contribute photos. WordPress has a photo directory for openly licensed photos, which are included in Openverse searches. Users can submit photographs to be used by folks all over the world. There are some basic guidelines, such as no faces or identifying characteristics. It can&#8217;t be overly edited or processed, but even photos taken on a smartphone are accepted. Because we understand that the best camera is the one you have on you.</p>



<p>[00:02:30] <strong>Josepha</strong>: You can also contribute translations. If you speak a language other than English, you can visit <code>translate.WordPress.org</code> and help translate not only the WordPress software but also plugins, themes, and other parts of the WordPress project into your native language. Since more than half of all WordPress installations are in non-English languages, adding or improving translations is really impactful. We are actually at WordCamp Asia trialing a new self-serve translation day process. So that&#8217;s a great place to have a double impact.</p>



<p>[00:03:03] <strong>Josepha:</strong> So those are your two completely code-free ways that you can contribute, completely beginner friendly ways to contribute at Contributor Day coming up later this week. And then for your next steps, so say that you&#8217;ve had your site for a while, you are an absolute expert in the admin, you&#8217;ve had to answer a few tough questions for yourself, you&#8217;ve watched a lot of tutorials, and so now you&#8217;re thinking of ways you can share that knowledge.</p>



<p>[00:03:29] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Here are a few ways that you can exercise your new knowledge and really solidify it in your brain. </p>



<p>Firstly, you can contribute help. Supporting other WordPress users is a great way to give back to WordPress. This can involve answering questions, providing guidance, or even providing the right resources to users. You can check out the WordPress support forums for more information, and they actually have a dedicated support team as well that works toward making sure that WordPress users have answers to the questions they are asking. You can head over to WordPress.org/support/forums and just pick an appropriate area for you, something that you are currently an expert in, and start answering questions. Start contributing.</p>



<p>[00:04:10] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Second thing you can do is you can contribute patterns. So WordPress has a dedicated Patterns directory, which stores a list of Block patterns. So custom designs that were created using blocks in Gutenberg that then can be used across any WordPress site, anyone&#8217;s WordPress site. You can submit those patterns, any pattern that you built, to the directory, and then they can be used by people all around the world. Basically, like anything with WordPress, if you put it in there, it can be used by anyone all around the world.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The third thing is that you can contribute events. This is one of my favorite ways to contribute. Organizing in person events to an extent has no code requirement to it, but also it does kind of require that you have a good understanding of your local community and have a willingness to get out there and build your network.&nbsp;</p>



<p>WordPress is where it is today thanks to its excellent community and all the lovely in-person events that happen all over the world. They bring our community together, and anyone can contribute by helping to organize just a small gathering or support an in-person event.</p>



<p>[00:05:13] <strong>Josepha:</strong> The fourth way that you can level up your contributions is to contribute by breaking things. I know that sounds weird, but testing the software to see where it breaks is actually a really valuable contribution. It&#8217;s as easy as downloading the WordPress beta tester plugin and the test reports plugin to a WordPress installation, Preferably a testing one, not one that&#8217;s currently publicly in use. But you can test out the newest version of WordPress before the release and provide useful feedback to the development team.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And the fifth way that you can level up your contribution is to contribute learning. Not that you are learning as a contribution, but what one person can learn through a tutorial or documentation, another person has to learn through discussion and hands-on learning.</p>



<p>This team, the folks over at <code>learn.WordPress.org</code>, they are the official team and official learning platform and resource for WordPress. They host video tutorials. Yes, but also host live online workshops, courses and even provide lesson plans on different topics related to WordPress. So if you are an educator or otherwise really like to help spread knowledge around, pass around the knowledge that has been hard-earned by you, this is an excellent opportunity.</p>



<p>[00:06:28] <strong>Josepha:</strong> And of course, if you are brave and afraid of nothing, then you can just go to Contributor Day and move from table to table until something sounds interesting to you. You don&#8217;t have to have a plan. Your whole plan can absolutely be to wander until you are found.</p>



<p>[00:06:45] (Music interlude)&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:06:52] <strong>Josepha:</strong> That brings us now to our small list of big things. It&#8217;s actually a very small list today. I&#8217;ve got two things on it.</p>



<p>[00:07:00] <strong>Josepha:</strong> The first is that a couple of weeks back, we published the results from the 2023 annual survey. So, each year, we collect some high-level data about trends and themes across this vast ecosystem of users and site builders, people who extend WordPress core, and contributors who build WordPress core to help inform decision-making and provide valuable feedback on the project status. I looked at the results from our last survey. We had a bit of an increase in the respondents, not as much as we would have liked, but still a little bit greater number than we had in the past couple of years. And I have a lot of questions myself about what we are doing compared to what we are being asked to do and so go take a look at the blog post that has some highlights from it. It&#8217;s got a couple of contextual pieces of information in there as well, and come with your questions to WordCamps around the world or ask them in community meetings as you find them.&nbsp;</p>



<p>[00:07:58] <strong>Josepha:</strong> And then the second thing is actually that we have kind of a pilot program going on. There&#8217;s a proposal out right now about GatherPress. It&#8217;s a group of community leaders that have built a tool, a community plugin, to help gather WordPress events a bit better and a bit more &#8220;open source-ely&#8221;. It&#8217;s open currently to anyone who is running a WordPress meetup group that is interested in learning more about how a WordPress-first and open source first community gathering tool might look.</p>



<p>[00:08:32] <strong>Josepha:</strong> I&#8217;ll have a link to the proposal in the show notes that&#8217;ll give you more detailed information and give you an opportunity to figure out how you can join that pilot and help us figure out whether it will work or not ultimately for WordPress.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Don&#8217;t forget to follow us on your favorite podcast app or subscribe directly on <code>WordPress.org/news</code>. You&#8217;ll get a friendly reminder whenever there&#8217;s a new episode. If you liked what you heard today, share it with a fellow WordPresser or fellow brand new WordCamper. But if you had questions about what you heard, you can share those with me at <code>wpbriefing@WordPress.org</code>. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy.</p>



<p>[00:09:13] <strong>Josepha:</strong> Thanks again for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing, and I&#8217;ll see you again in a couple of weeks.&nbsp;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 04 Mar 2024 12:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Brett McSherry";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"Do The Woo Community: Bringing DEIB to the WordPress Way Show with Birgit Olzem and Angela Jin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=79193";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"https://dothewoo.io/bringing-deib-to-the-wordpress-way-show-with-birgit-olzem-and-angela-jin/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:457:"<p>New host Birgit Olzem chats with Angela Jin about WordPress diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in this debut monthly episode.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a href="https://dothewoo.io/bringing-deib-to-the-wordpress-way-show-with-birgit-olzem-and-angela-jin/">Bringing DEIB to the WordPress Way Show with Birgit Olzem and Angela Jin</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce and WordPress Builder Podcast</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 04 Mar 2024 10:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:112:"WPTavern: WordPress Photo Festival 2024, A Five Part Retrospective, Part 5, What We Learned, Where We’re Going";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154596";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:116:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-photo-festival-2024-a-five-part-retrospective-part-5-what-we-learned-where-were-going";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17242:"<p>In this last episode about the Kerala WPPhotos Festival I talk not only about the project, but also where this project is leading us. Next Gen events are a breath of fresh air for those of us who need something more than the classic WordCamp.</p>



<p>This article is available in video, audio, and transcribed text.</p>







<p>Audio version:</p>







<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Transcription:</h2>



<p><span>[00:00:00]</span> Welcome to the fifth and final episode in my series on the WordPress Photos events that happened in early February. In this episode, we&#8217;re going to rewind just a little bit and look at the project itself. Then we&#8217;re going to cover some really cool information about the event. And then lastly, we&#8217;re going to talk about next gen events in general and some cool things that are coming in the future and some really, some things that I&#8217;m really, really excited about.</p>



<p>So let&#8217;s get started. We&#8217;re looking here at the photos page for the project itself. There are currently <span>[00:01:00]</span> 15, 306 photos on this page or on this site. I&#8217;m going to zoom in a little bit so you can see some of these better. Most are taken with cell phones. , some are taken with high-end cameras. There are approximately 30 moderators that, watch over the project and make sure that quality pictures are getting in.</p>



<p>And as a moderator, I can tell you that I&#8217;ve been very, very pleased that, an extraordinarily low number of people have been or attempted to be naughty. Um, photos that are rejected are almost always because the submitter missed a face or a license plate, or. Or maybe didn&#8217;t read the rules precisely, but, I can only think of two or three photos where obviously somebody was trying to game the system and out of 15, 000, that&#8217;s really impressive.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m really <span>[00:02:00]</span> happy with that. Uh, something very important to note about these photos is that they are all under creative common zero, which you can see right here,</p>



<p>creative common zero means no rights reserved. There are no rights reserved. You can do anything with the photo. Anyone can do anything with it. They can remix it. They can sell it. They can, they can use it for something you don&#8217;t agree with. So there&#8217;s good and there&#8217;s bad with it, but it provides an enormous amount of freedom.</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s what we wanted. We wanted to be able to provide images that you can put on your website without question, without having to wonder, Oh, is somebody going to come after me someday? So creative comm zero provides a lot of freedom, on this page. If you click. You can see the submitter. There&#8217;s an option to download in multiple <span>[00:03:00]</span> sizes.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s the photo itself. Alternate text. There are tags and categories and colors. Some information about the camera. Information about the image itself. And then you&#8217;re not required to provide attribution. That&#8217;s part of the CC zero thing, but if you want you can and I recommend it it it&#8217;s it&#8217;s polite Uh, and when people find their own image out on the internet It&#8217;s kind of exciting.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s pretty cool. So you can get it in rich text, HTML, or plain text.</p>



<p>So what about this event that happened? Bigul, who took this picture right here, his community did several photo walks over a couple of months and they were very successful. They got lots of pictures. People had a really good time. And somebody said, Hey, what if we, it is a global event. And so they started <span>[00:04:00]</span> in trying to make it a global event.</p>



<p>And they talked to the community team and made it a next gen event, which means they got support from the foundation and things like that. And they set up a website, which you can see right here. And a cool thing that happened during the event is that these cards were updated as photos were submitted.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m pretty sure Marcus Burnett had something to do with this because it looks like his work, but for observers, you could come here and watch this page change moment by moment, literally, I mean, it was one week and they got, 1, 500 photos or something. So that&#8217;s a lot of photos per day. And then, I wanted to show you the winners.</p>



<p>So one of the unique things about this event is that there was a contest involved. And there&#8217;s <span>[00:05:00]</span> money on the line, which has never happened at a WordPress event before the top five photographs got a hundred dollars each. And I have to say,  I was a judge, so I should agree with what was selected, but, the number one photo was this one.</p>



<p>And that was my number one, amongst, there were several judges, but I picked this one as my number one. Guess those kids look so happy. In a glorious place. Um, it&#8217;s just cool. And one of the rules is no fit, no human faces, but this one makes it because this is an unidentifiable human face. And so to be able to get a human face in and have it still follow the rules.</p>



<p>Is quite a trick. And I&#8217;m impressed. Um, another one that really, really impressed me was this one from Ninesh. We go <span>[00:06:00]</span> look at the detail on that. And then if you click again and again, you&#8217;re looking at individual feathers in this photo, that is incredible to me. So these are the kinds of photos that are making it into.</p>



<p>The photo repository. They&#8217;re good. They&#8217;re really, really good. Um, consolation prizes. Um, the next five basically we&#8217;re here and then they gave a hundred dollars to contributors and it didn&#8217;t say how many this person gave. So, I think we want this one. Yes. We make this bigger. Uh, Benita got 82 photos in one week.</p>



<p>Uh, Nilo got 79. It&#8217;s around 65. One of the reasons that&#8217;s impressive is that you can only <span>[00:07:00]</span> upload five at a time, and then they have to be moderated before you can upload more. And, it was an incredible high amount of traffic that overwhelmed the moderators. Uh, well here you can see there was 1, 544 approved.</p>



<p>Uh, there were about 400 not approved, so 2, 000 or so photos. We&#8217;re processed. That&#8217;s incredible. And so it&#8217;s not only impressive that they took 82 photos, but that they were managed to get them through the system that quickly, if you haven&#8217;t watched the Uh, episode with Nilo in it. He tells his secret about how he got to 79.</p>



<p>So if you want to know how to get photos through quickly, go watch that episode with Nilo.</p>



<p>So I want to talk for just a minute about, about the money because it&#8217;s different, it&#8217;s new. Um, and. <span>[00:08:00]</span> It was exciting and it was fun, but it was difficult. It was awkward. The WordCamp system is not built to, to give prize money to attendees. And so, things had to be fiddled with and tweaked and people had weird titles that they wouldn&#8217;t normally have just because they, other people couldn&#8217;t take money, et cetera.</p>



<p>It was, it was weird and it was awkward. So if we were to ever go down this road again, we were probably, we need something to read, we would probably need to build something. And my guess is that&#8217;s not going to happen. Uh, in this particular instance, there was a surplus of cash because they had some sponsors and they were going to spend some money on advertising to get more people to attend.</p>



<p>So many people attended, they didn&#8217;t need to spend that money. And so there was a surplus and it got distributed. Uh, I don&#8217;t <span>[00:09:00]</span> anticipate that happening in a, a large number of word camps. Uh, since Covid Word camps are much more expensive, they&#8217;re much more difficult to find venues to get good food at a reasonable rate.</p>



<p>And so I don&#8217;t expect to see, money available again as at a, as a prize at a, at a event. What do I know? It could happen. Weirder things have happened. This happened, and I wouldn&#8217;t have said this would happen. Uh, so I&#8217;m very happy for the people who won. That&#8217;s, it was a surprise treat, and that&#8217;s great.</p>



<p>But now I want to talk about next generation WordPress events, because, this was one of them. Since COVID, the community teams had a difficult time getting Word camps and meetups to reform to pick back up <span>[00:10:00]</span> and go again, especially in the U. S. And a lot of it had to do with money and a lot of it had to do with the mental Taxation it takes to have an event like this Um, doing a WordCamp is hard work.</p>



<p>It takes a lot of time and energy, a lot of focus, and often things in your life suffer, family time, work time, and people who&#8217;ve done it before are thinking, well, maybe I don&#8217;t need to do that again. And people who haven&#8217;t done it before are thinking, I don&#8217;t know how to do that. I don&#8217;t, is that, is it okay?</p>



<p>Can I do that? Um, and then there&#8217;s the financial aspect. Venues are outrageously more expensive than they used to be before COVID. Uh, venues now need insurance and so they have to pay for that. <span>[00:11:00]</span> And they need more staff to, to do things that the insurance requires. So they have to pay for staff and in many places, venues cost double what they did before.</p>



<p>And we, we just don&#8217;t have the budget for that. Uh, food is similar since COVID there are a lot of new rules about. Food in public places are being served to large groups and that requires insurance, requires new equipment, all that stuff. So the costs of events have gone way up. So one of the things that the community team wanted to come up with was a cheaper way to get it done.</p>



<p>Uh, what is, what is the goal of a WordCamp? What is its purpose? Uh, for me, personally, for a lot of years, it&#8217;s been to see my friends. And as much fun as that is, honestly, It&#8217;s not a good investment. Um, I can go see my friends, but much cheaper ways. Um, but if our, if our purpose is to, <span>[00:12:00]</span> to educate people, to further their careers, their knowledge, their wisdom to advance WordPress, then there might be better ways to do it.</p>



<p>And I&#8217;m not saying we&#8217;re going to get rid of work camps the way they&#8217;ve always been, we&#8217;ll keep those. But, there are some really, really great new ideas on how to do things in the future. Um, this photo festival costs almost nothing. That&#8217;s one of the reasons they had a few hundred dollars to give away.</p>



<p>Um, there was no venue, there was no food, there was no. Lighting people. There were no audio people. Um, and yet it was a huge success. People had a really good time. So I want to show you a few other events. So coming up in Switzerland is a community day, which is just like a, contributor day at a word camp.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s just there, <span>[00:13:00]</span> there aren&#8217;t talks. And it&#8217;s only one day. And so there doesn&#8217;t necessarily need to be food. Um, it&#8217;s quick, it&#8217;s focused and it gets things done. Uh, this one&#8217;s exciting. These next three are exciting to me because they&#8217;re all in Africa. The Misaka WordPress and education technology showcase gets, excuse me, gets local educators in Uganda to come together and look at what WordPress can do for them.</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s amazing because we all know that WordPress does well in. lower income communities where they need to be looking at tools and software that they can get and use that work really well without spending a ton of money. Uh, the Kampala Online Payments and Delivery Summit. I just laughed when I saw that one because online payments and delivery in Africa is a completely different animal than anywhere else.</p>



<p>Uh, it&#8217;s hard. <span>[00:14:00]</span> Online payments. Just aren&#8217;t there for a lot of Africa. And so having a day focused on, on only that getting it done is brilliant. Um, Rome core days. If you weren&#8217;t here for my talk yesterday with Julia, I was, I told her I have been to contributor days to the core team, half a dozen times, maybe more.</p>



<p>And we&#8217;re always promised where you&#8217;re going to be a core contributor by the end of the day. And we spent all day long getting half the room set up with half of Docker. And at the end of the day, maybe one person has contributed and it&#8217;s frustrating because I feel like I&#8217;m doing it over and over again.</p>



<p>We never make progress, but what if there was a time where it was two days long and it&#8217;s completely focused on just that, and they have enough staff to help everybody rather than one person running around trying <span>[00:15:00]</span> to get everybody set up, that&#8217;s brilliant. Uh, I wanted to do this in my own city a couple of years ago.</p>



<p>And it never happened, but it might because now we have precedence. Uh, so this is great. Um, looking at some of the past ones, these are, these are great. The Kolkata career camp. Uh, I was just thinking about this today. Ever been to a college career day where there&#8217;s just a room full of employers? Um, the Kolkata one also had workshops and panel discussions, which I think are brilliant because, young people need to know how to find jobs.</p>



<p>They need the wisdom when they&#8217;re approaching an employer to get a good, a good pay rate, a good vacation system, good compensation system. Um, having it wrapped around work camp. It&#8217;s absolutely brilliant. Um, then there&#8217;s, let&#8217;s see. I had one more down here.<span>[00:16:00]</span> </p>



<p>Oh, there&#8217;s, there&#8217;s community day in Rome. That&#8217;s a different one. Here we go. Japan community building workshop. It&#8217;s all about building community. Um, it says the group will have a six month learning period. That&#8217;s way beyond a WordCamp. That&#8217;s, that&#8217;s a class, that&#8217;s a college level class. And to be able to learn all of that through WordPress is amazing.</p>



<p>So all these different kinds of events are, well these, these all happened already. Then these are coming up. But one of the keys to this is the community team wants new ideas very much. So if you have an idea, Hey, I could do this thing in my town. Um, they want to hear about it. When I was talking to Julia, I suggested in grand <span>[00:17:00]</span> Rapids, my city, we have, kind of a career day, but more about talking about WordPress as a career.</p>



<p>So we put up flyers and universities and around the city and say things like. Is web development for you? Come find out and we have, a room full of people hiring. We have the, well, just like, just like in Kolkata, we have those room, those talks panels about what does it mean to have a job in web development, in WordPress, maybe just, maybe not only WordPress, maybe we talk about Web dev in general, just working in tech, just all those things.</p>



<p>If so, they very much want ideas for new kinds of events and you are the one who&#8217;s going to come up with that great idea, somebody has to, it&#8217;s like winning the lottery, you can&#8217;t come up <span>[00:18:00]</span> with a great idea if you don&#8217;t throw it out there and say, Hey, What do you think of my idea? So if you would put stuff in the comments here about some ideas for events, it doesn&#8217;t have to be made by you.</p>



<p>You don&#8217;t have to do the event to say, this is an event I would like to go to. That would be great. Um, if you&#8217;re interested in signing up and actually doing an event, you can go to events. wordpress. org.</p>



<p>And you can see all the events that are going on here, WordCamps and the next gen ones. Here are, upcoming events. But then if you want to do one, up in the top right, there&#8217;s Organize an Event. And here&#8217;s all the information about different kinds of events and what it means to organize. Uh, there are meetups, WordCamps, contributor days, virtual events.</p>



<p>Do action hackathons are great. You <span>[00:19:00]</span> get a room full of WordPress nerds building things for people that need it. And it&#8217;s very exciting and fun. Uh, the looks on people&#8217;s faces when you, when you give them a finished product and one weekend it&#8217;s priceless. Um, so the frequently asked questions, things like that.</p>



<p>Um, but this is where you can go to sign up to, to lead any one of these or to become a member of any one of them. So, if you&#8217;re interested, go for it.</p>



<p>And that is the end of this episode. It&#8217;s been a, an exciting week for me doing this. I appreciate those that have watched. I appreciate those that have commented. It&#8217;s been, it&#8217;s been a lot of fun and I&#8217;ve talked to some really interesting people, more than, you know, because some interviews didn&#8217;t survive, but, it&#8217;s been a lot of fun and I <span>[00:20:00]</span> appreciate you.</p>



<p>Thanks for stopping by.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 01 Mar 2024 21:12:01 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Topher DeRosia";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:87:"WPTavern: Reflecting on WordCamp Phoenix 2024: Struggles, Successes, and the Road Ahead";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154592";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"https://wptavern.com/reflecting-on-wordcamp-phoenix-2024-struggles-successes-and-the-road-ahead";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14948:"<p>Seven months ago I registered for &amp; scheduled a trip to Phoenix Arizona for a non-WordPress-related event! Crazy, right? As luck would have it, four months later, WordCamp Phoenix had announced that their event would be for that same weekend I was to be in town. How lucky was I to have both of my passions collide?&nbsp;</p>



<p>I packed up all my necessary items for the non-WP event earlier in the week, hopped on my flight on the Thursday before camp (WordCamp was scheduled for Friday &amp; Saturday), and headed West.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Though I could only attend for a half-day on Friday due to my other commitment, I did notice a few things that were different from past WordCamps. </p>



<p>I reached out to the lead organizer <a href="https://phoenix.wordcamp.org/2024/organizers">Raquel Manriquez</a> and we discussed the overall event compared to years past, struggles, and the future of WordCamps. Below are the questions and answers from the interview. </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-text-color has-neutral-300-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-neutral-300-background-color has-background" />



<p></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>AS: Can you provide a brief overview of this year&#8217;s WordCamp Phoenix 2024, the theme and you coming back as the Lead Organizer? </strong></h2>



<p><strong>RM</strong>: There&#8217;s a loaded answer to that question! The theme question is quite interesting. At the beginning of the summer when we started planning we kind of tossed out ideas but we couldn&#8217;t come to a consensus. Some in the team threw out this idea of the “Joy of WordPress.” Like a Bob Ross sort of idea. Full disclosure, I was like, no, I don&#8217;t see it. What does that mean? And the team replied with, “You know, everything will be happy little websites”. I then said, “Happy little websites? Okay, that&#8217;s one thing. What else?” Someone added, “We&#8217;ll all wear Bob Ross wigs.” And I was like, “What? No, it&#8217;s gross!” I just couldn&#8217;t visualize it, so we kind of shelved the idea for a while.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Then back in December we brought on Amber Pechin as Content Wrangler. She&#8217;s an incredibly talented writer. She asked about our theme and I mentioned we really didn’t have one but we were kind of toying around with this idea of the Joy of WordPress.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The theme crept back in after our WP community starting fighting. And so, we kind of thought, let&#8217;s bring the joy back to what we fell in love with. You know, with the community, with open source, with democratizing publishing. She took that, ran with it, and created this entire like slide deck of what it means to have the Joy of WordPress being WordCamp Phoenix&#8217;s theme. So come full circle, our theme ended up being the Joy of WordPress. Our Wapuu is Bob Rosspuu and it&#8217;s really cute. And we included an art theme around it. I think last summer Matt Mullenweg <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1681676886932332545">tweeted</a>, that he&#8217;d like to see more art at WordCamps. That inspired us.</p>



<p>On me being the lead organizer,… yes I was the lead again. I led in 2018 &amp; 2019 but didn&#8217;t want to lead again necessarily, but we didn&#8217;t have someone else to lead. A struggle of mine is when I&#8217;m misunderstood, misread, or misjudged. Like if someone is judging me for being loud and silly, I don&#8217;t feel offended because I know I&#8217;m that way. But when I’m judged for something I’m not, well, I really struggle. I didn&#8217;t want anyone to think that this is the Raquel show but at the end of the day, I can’t control what others think.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>AS: Do you feel that the camp was successful?&nbsp;</strong></h2>



<p><strong>RM</strong>: Well, that&#8217;s a two-part answer, and it would be yes and no. By my standards, and by WordCamp Phoenix standards in the past, it wasn&#8217;t what we expected. We have typically sold out every WordCamp since 2009. In the early years, 2009 to 2014, we were pretty much the biggest local camp. The only one bigger at the time was WordCamp San Francisco, which became WordCamp US.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>In Feb 2020 we had a 500-person event and then the pandemic hit. When we brought it back in March 2023 we sold 400 tickets and things felt good. The vibe of the event had great energy. But starting with planning this iteration in 2024, almost from the get-go it was hit with so much shit happening against us.</p>



<p>WordCamps are changing with the future of WordCamps reiteration. So there’s that. That was a hard pill for us to swallow because we’ve always been more of a SuperCamp. Even in 2009, we had a huge event. We had huge sponsors like Uber and Cox Internet. We had a <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2009/11/13/matt-mullenweg-wordpress-roundtable-phx09/">panel with Matt Mullenweg and Josh Strebel</a>, etc&#8230; so small events are not our jam.</p>



<p>And our 2023 March event gave us good reason to think that this is our community. This is how we show up. So proceeded to have the same #wcphx style event. We submitted our budget. It was denied. Basically due to it being too costly, they wanted us to get a venue that was sub $10k.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I sort of get it, but then again, we have a proven track record that we raise enough money. Even in 2023, we raised almost 30k and that&#8217;s a lot compared to a typical WordCamp. So, we were just put into a really hard place. Which is really what it comes down to. That happened early on and we were left scrambling to find a new venue.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I found a new venue at Phoenix College but it just wasn&#8217;t the same, as we&#8217;re used to being in actual event spaces. We&#8217;ve never been in a school/college, though I have been to many WordCamps held on campuses, and it was always a blast. So we weren&#8217;t opposed to it and figured it would be fine. But what became clear is that to create that true camp a good chunk of it would be outside. For me, sponsors are the most important aspects of a camp because camps need a lot of money and these sponsors come in knowing that there&#8217;s not going to be an ROI on their monetary investment. It&#8217;s going to be a different ROI, right? And now our Hallway Track/epicenter of WordCamp Phoenix would take place outside which is risky.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And we were delayed in announcing BY OUR VENUE! And we had a third of our speakers drop. The team got emotional. There was drama. Heartache. Broken friendships… I’m not even touching everything that went wrong. Murphy showed up in full force.</p>



<p><strong>AS: How was the engagement of the attendees?</strong></p>



<p><strong>RM:</strong> We sold 200 tickets which was embarrassing for me. I guess it was beyond our control. But my biggest thing is like, why? I feel like a lot of the hiccups and the hurdles, if not walls, that were placed in front of us (that I decided to hurdle-nay, bulldoze over), greatly affected our attendance. So, yeah, we sold 200 tickets when we sold 400 in 2023, so that&#8217;s quite a difference. In our metrics, Fridays always get the most amount of people so Saturday was sad panda.</p>



<p><strong>AS: </strong>Oh, really? Back at WCLAX Saturdays were always more popular and Sundays had a large drop-off. </p>



<p><strong>RM</strong>: I think people tend to look at Fridays like a work day and think “I’m gonna go to this work conference”. Then Saturday comes and they&#8217;re like, I want to hang with my fam.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And then the other thing was the weather. The highs were in the low 50s, and it was raining! Then we had to find awnings for the sponsors, just in case it actually rained when they were there, which thankfully never did happen.</p>



<p>If I&#8217;m being honest, I felt guilty. I felt guilty that we had these two incredible keynote speakers who have been pivotal in the startup and entrepreneurial community in Phoenix from day one. They&#8217;ve always been supporters and sponsored our entire WordPress community and have hosted plenty of our meetups at their co-working spaces. To not have a full audience for them… The same thing with some of our speakers. I know we had a lot of feedback afterward regarding Quinn Tempest, Tanya Moushi, and Perry Collins and how incredible their talks were. All local women to Phoenix… but there weren&#8217;t hundreds of people to watch them.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>AS: Have you gathered feedback from the event?</strong></h2>



<p><strong>RM</strong>: Not yet. For the first time ever, I feel burnout (I didn’t think that could happen to me). The team is burnt out. And I have bragged to the world about how amazing our team is, how we don&#8217;t get burnout, how we have each other&#8217;s backs, and how if somebody drops a plate, someone&#8217;s there to help. It just didn&#8217;t happen like that this time around. And it&#8217;s really hard not to blame myself, even though I know and my head knows it&#8217;s not my fault. But my heart feels shame.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>AS: Word on the street has it that you toss out the idea or you have the idea to do a regional WordCamp.</strong></h2>



<p><strong>RM</strong>: Anybody who knows me knows my <em>why</em>. That is human connection. The reason I fell in love with WordPress is because there was this group of humans that genuinely wanted to connect for no reason other than we&#8217;re in this space together. So let&#8217;s connect. And I&#8217;d never experienced that in my life. So I fell head over heels, absolutely in love with this community, and made a career out of it. I love it. I love putting events on and I could do it in my sleep. I could plan an event off the top of my head, you know, a conference. It&#8217;s a labor of love.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ve had this idea of a regional for a long time. This dates back to pre-pandemic as I knew the rules: you had to have a local camp and you had to have several local camps in an area or region to have a regional and I was like, how cool would that be to have a Southwest region of the United States WordCamp. I remember approaching Matt Cromwell at Pressonomics 6, the very last one in September 2019.</p>



<p>I was like, I got this idea. Because we qualify, and we all love each other, because we&#8217;ve all kind of rotated at each other&#8217;s camps and stuff, and like, it kinda feels like we&#8217;re all in the same neighborhood. What if we had a regional? And I remember he liked it, but mentioned having to get WordCamp San Diego back up. And then he moved to Germany and the pandemic happened.&nbsp;</p>



<p>So, then fast forward to now, and we were just, like, gungho, let&#8217;s get Phoenix back, and we did. Then 2024 happens, and kind of coming back to the question you asked earlier if I regret 2024. I do not regret it at all. I love our community. I love my people so deeply. But it was not what we expected. And now I&#8217;m reflecting and know that we need to start doing something different. If everybody&#8217;s burnt out, then we need to change. The pandemic caused a lot of emotional burnout before we even did anything in person. Our community hasn’t fully recovered.</p>



<p>You know what I mean? A lot of the community is just burnt out. Traveling to multiple cities from SoCal to Nevada to Arizona to attend a 1/2-day camp is less attractive. We got used to just chilling in our homes.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I&#8217;m on board with the future of WordCamps and the mission that&#8217;s now being laid out, but I want really cool, magical WordCamps still. Maybe it’s a dream? And I&#8217;m cool with it being one larger one (regional) versus a bunch of little ones than to have nothing at all. Which, might be where we end up. Personally, I don&#8217;t want to see a world where WordCamps are essentially a hackathon. That&#8217;s great to have a bunch of those, and I&#8217;m not against it at all. What I&#8217;m against is that only being it. And I&#8217;ll just come out and say it. I don&#8217;t want that to be the only existence of a WordCamp.</p>



<p><strong>AS: What&#8217;s the status then and what are the next steps for a regional WC to be approved?&nbsp;</strong></p>



<p><strong>RM</strong>: Well, back in the day, you had to have several meetups to then have an actual WordCamp. And then you had to have several local WordCamps to have a regional. And it really wasn&#8217;t an issue to a US-based camp. It was more of a Europe situation as my friend, Remkus wanted to have WordCamp Netherlands and had a journey getting that going. And now we&#8217;re seeing WordCamp Canada, right? When I saw Canada was announced, that rekindled my flame.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Phoenix is tired. I&#8217;m not tired, but I’m tired of everyone around me being tired and we need more leaders. We need more help. And I love my people. I love my team. We have true friendship with each other.</p>



<p>We deeply love each other. I care about them deeply. And I&#8217;m like, I can&#8217;t keep us going like this without actual help. So my hopelessly endearing self came up with the idea to officially have a WordCamp Southwest Regional.</p>



<p>The Southwest region has that magic like Phoenix has. THe Phoenix community loves each other,&nbsp; and all these communities of the SW US love each other too.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I am a 13-year-old girl, metaphorically speaking, who always has these big wide eyes in the way I view the world. Full disclosure, I definitely have this nostalgic attachment to the days when we went to each other&#8217;s WordCamps in the 20-teens. I’m working on it. That nostalgia that is.</p>



<p>Is it naive of me to think that everyone&#8217;s going to be on board? Probably. But, I&#8217;m still going to go for it and be that <em>all-things-are-possible</em> Raquel.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>AS: What&#8217;s your timeline for a regional?&nbsp;</strong></h2>



<p><strong>RM</strong>: Honestly, I want to start conversations now! But it won’t happen if we don’t have everyone on board.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><br /><strong>AS: Final question, what are your key takeaways from this year&#8217;s WordCamp. </strong></h2>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>RM</strong>: The key takeaways are:</h2>



<ol>
<li>The community at large is going through a split in emotional ways that are affecting us physically and it sucks.</li>



<li>WordCamp Phoenix needs more help to continue.</li>



<li>I want to have a regional. I would like our next iteration to be a regional, whether that&#8217;s spring or fall 2025 I&#8217;m not sure, but a girl can dream.</li>



<li>Turns out, I do have a capacity so I am going to take some time and not volunteer so much. (famous last words)</li>
</ol>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 01 Mar 2024 20:15:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Adam Silver";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"WPTavern: Acquisition Alert: Kestrel Acquires Seven Barn2 Plugins";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154576";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:75:"https://wptavern.com/acquisition-alert-kestrel-acquires-seven-barn2-plugins";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2849:"<p>Katie Keith, CEO of Barn2, <a href="https://barn2.com/blog/new-home-for-7-plugins/">announced</a> that Kestrel has acquired seven plugins from her company for an undisclosed amount. She had <a href="https://twitter.com/KatieKeithBarn2/status/1747682958083789027">tweeted</a> about her plans to sell the plugins back in January to focus on the more profitable plugins. </p>



<p>This is <a href="https://kestrelwp.com/">Kestrel</a>’s first acquisition. Kestrel is a new venture by the former co-founders of <a href="https://wptavern.com/godaddy-acquires-skyverge-creator-of-over-60-woocommerce-add-ons">SkyVerge</a> (creator of over 60 WooCommerce add-ons and acquired by GoDaddy in 2020). Their website describes the team as “a small but mighty team of seasoned WooCommerce professionals — we’re some of the top non-Automattic contributors to the open source WooCommerce project.”</p>



<p>The acquisition encompasses five premium plugins and two free plugins, including <a href="https://kestrelwp.com/product/variation-prices-woocommerce/">WooCommerce Variation Prices</a>, <a href="https://kestrelwp.com/product/express-shop-page-woocommerce/">WooCommerce Express Shop Page</a>, <a href="https://kestrelwp.com/product/shipping-calculator-woocommerce/">WooCommerce Shipping Calculator</a>, <a href="https://kestrelwp.com/product/product-sample-woocommerce/">WooCommerce Product Sample</a>, <a href="https://kestrelwp.com/product/discontinued-products-woocommerce/">WooCommerce Discontinued Products</a>, and the free plugins <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-custom-add-to-cart-button/">WooCommerce Custom Add to Cart Button</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-recent-comments/">Better Recent Comments</a>.</p>



<p>Katie explained, “it makes sense to put the most resources into the plugins which have the biggest user base and which fit best with our other plugins. As a result, in early 2024 we made a team decision that we should sell some of our plugins to a company who will give them the attention they deserve so that we can concentrate our efforts on providing even greater value and support for our remaining suite of plugins.”</p>



<p>Under the acquisition terms, the existing annual and lifetime customers will continue to receive full support, updates and maintenance from the Kestral team. Barn2 has plans in place for customers who purchased the acquired plugins through bundle plans and the All Access Pass plan.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Max Rice, Founding Engineer of Kestrel told us, “We’re very excited to jump back into the Woo space with the launch of Kestrel! We’ve worked with WooCommerce since 2012, and have been familiar with Barn2&#8217;s work for some time — we’re excited to kickstart our new venture with a group of high-quality plugins from a team we respect.”</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 01 Mar 2024 19:13:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Jyolsna";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:30;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:62:"WPTavern: The Block Bindings API Brings Dynamic Data to Blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154569";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"https://wptavern.com/the-block-bindings-api-brings-dynamic-data-to-blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7936:"<p>As the block editor continues to evolve its content management capabilities, the lack of support for custom fields has been one of the key roadblocks for users and developers. While custom fields in WordPress are still widely used, in the block editor they&#8217;ve been relegated to a drawer at the bottom of the screen, and haven&#8217;t been as deeply integrated as many would like. With the coming <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/54536">Block Bindings API</a>, things are about to change in a very good way.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What is the Block Bindings API?</h2>



<p>One of the best ways to explain the Block Bindings API is to start with a plugin like WooCommerce.</p>



<p>Imagine you are building your WooCommerce store and you&#8217;re designing the homepage of your site with blocks. You&#8217;re using a Query Loop to display your most popular products, which means many of the blocks you&#8217;ll be reaching for are probably pulling important custom information about your products- product descriptions, images, galleries, add-to-cart buttons, and more.</p>



<p>Right now, WooCommerce needs to create and manage individual <em>custom</em> blocks for each of those separate pieces of content. That&#8217;s a lot of duplicate code and technological overhead. Plus, as new design tools are added to the block editor, the development team has to go back each release and make sure their custom blocks can support new features properly. Wouldn&#8217;t it make much more sense if they could use core blocks &#8211; like a paragraph, heading, or button block &#8211; and just tell WordPress to &#8220;connect&#8221; that block to the product data?</p>



<p>That&#8217;s just one example of the promise of the Block Bindings API, and custom fields are only one of many use-cases. Once the foundation has been laid, this <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/54536">feature can extend</a> to all types of data that have been relatively hard to manage in the block editor, from populating post and site information (like Author Name or Featured Image) to helping Synced Patterns become more robust.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Can dynamic data save time and resources?</h2>



<p>To learn more about the Block Bindings API, I reached out to Scott Kingsley Clark, Lead Developer of the <a href="https://pods.io/">Pods Framework</a> and the driving force behind the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/fields-api/">Fields API feature project</a> in WordPress Core. The Fields API proposal circles around a similar issue in WordPress: how can we help developers avoid writing the same code over and over?</p>



<p>That&#8217;s the problem that tools like Pods and Advanced Custom Fields rose to solve. They save developers from writing the same custom post type code, custom settings screens, and custom field inputs from scratch on every project. Scott drew the connection between his work and WooCommerce, pointing out that many of the contributors to the Block Binding API are in fact contributors to WooCommerce as well.</p>



<p>&#8220;The new WooCommerce Product edit screen is powered by Blocks,&#8221; Scott explains, &#8220;and you can totally see the progression over the releases they’ve done on that feature as they’ve abstracted more things and started to find ways to consolidate, instead of &#8216;every specific field has to be their own specific block&#8217; which has been holding them back.&#8221;</p>



<p>Scott has been providing feedback on the API and is working on making sure the Pods Framework has an integration ready to go before WordPress 6.5 releases on March 26th.</p>



<p>I also asked Iain Poulson, Product Manager for <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/">Advanced Custom Fields</a>, if we might see ACF&#8217;s custom fields using this API to connect to core blocks in the future.</p>



<p>&#8220;The ACF team have been following the development of the Block Bindings API closely over the last few months,&#8221; says Iain. &#8220;We’re currently exploring building our own binding source to allow users to use ACF field values to be bound to block attributes, and hope to have a working prototype soon.&#8221;</p>



<p>There was originally a chance that custom fields from plugins like Pods and ACF might work out of the box, but some last minute <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/59326">security cleanup</a> meant that any plugin with a more custom approach will need to build their own integration with the API.</p>



<p>&#8220;We’re aware of a PR merged today into WordPress core which is likely to mean ACF fields won’t be bindable without this work,&#8221; Iain told me earlier this week. &#8220;We expect the future to change significantly over coming releases of WordPress with new UIs for connections and the ability to update values from the binding itself, all of these features we’d love to bring to ACF users, and will be working with the WordPress core team to make sure we can.&#8221;</p>



<p>It&#8217;s exciting to know that major plugins are invested in this new API. What&#8217;s also important here is to temper expectations about the API. There&#8217;s a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/41236">long roadmap</a> and plenty of experimentation that needs to happen before we see it deeply embedded in developer workflows.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">This is an API without a UI?</h2>



<p>Though the WordPress 6.5 release includes the Block Bindings API in core, we&#8217;re not going to see an actual user interface for this feature just yet. This is still an &#8220;under the hood&#8221; feature, but its inclusion means it&#8217;s ready for plugin and theme developers to start building on top of.</p>



<p>In 6.5, Block Binding can only be used one of two ways, both of which involve touching a little code:</p>



<ol>
<li>You can take the approach <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/02/20/introducing-block-bindings-part-1-connecting-custom-fields/">advocated in the WordPress Developer Blog</a>: switch the block editor into the &#8220;Code editor&#8221; mode and add the binding metadata directly to the block HTML.</li>



<li>You can utilize the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/block-api/block-variations/">Block Variations API</a> to add a version of a core block with your binding metadata already baked in. This will require placing some JavaScript in a theme or plugin, but the benefit is that it &#8220;just works&#8221; once you&#8217;re inside the content editor, because your variation shows up as its own block in the block inserter.</li>
</ol>



<p>The current implementation only supports four core blocks (Paragraph, Heading, Button, and Image), the truth is that those four blocks are<a href="https://gutenstats.blog/"> some of the most commonly used content</a> blocks and will make up the vast majority of use cases, though other blocks are planned. For end users, this means that any blocks using this API will function exactly like the core blocks they’re already familiar with, a win for usability.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/53300">tracking issue</a> for the project makes it clear that a no-code interface for the Block Bindings API is coming, with some proof-of-concept examples already being explored. By taking this API-first approach, the core team can see how the feature is used in the wild before committing to change in the block editor, and perhaps take some inspiration as plugin teams build out their own integrations.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re an end user, you might not notice anything new just yet. But if you&#8217;re a plugin or theme developer, it might be time to explore the Block Bindings API and see if you can&#8217;t take advantage of this time-saving feature.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 01 Mar 2024 17:57:09 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Brian Coords";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:90:"Do The Woo Community: All Things CloudFest 2024 Hackathon with Christian, Carole and Alain";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=79186";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"https://dothewoo.io/all-things-cloudfest-2024-hackathon-with-christian-carole-and-alain/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:442:"<p>CloudFest CEO Christian Jäger joins Carole Olinger and Alain Schlesser for a conversation for the 2024 Hackathon at CloudFest.</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a href="https://dothewoo.io/all-things-cloudfest-2024-hackathon-with-christian-carole-and-alain/">All Things CloudFest 2024 Hackathon with Christian, Carole and Alain</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce and WordPress Builder Podcast</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 01 Mar 2024 07:05:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"WPTavern: WordPress Photo Festival 2024, A Five Part Retrospective, Part 4, Next Generation Events";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154538";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:106:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-photo-festival-2024-a-five-part-retrospective-part-4-next-generation-events";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28784:"<p>In the penultimate episode of this series I talk with Julia Golomb from the WordPress Community Team about Next Generation WordPress Events.  We&#8217;ll include how the WPPhotos Event was a great template, and other ideas that could come.</p>



<p>This article is available in video, audio, and transcribed text.</p>







<p>Audio version:</p>







<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Transcription</h2>



<p><span>[00:00:00]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Welcome back! In this episode, we&#8217;re going to talk with Julia from the community team about next generation WordPress events, what that means, what they are and how you can be involved. There are a lot of great ideas coming out about different things that we can do for events and I&#8217;m really excited about it.</p>



<p>So come along with me while we have this conversation. I&#8217;m here with Julia from the community team.  please tell us your, your full name and where you&#8217;re from. </p>



<p><span>[00:00:50]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> All right. Hey Topher. My name is Julia Golomb and I am bi-coastal in the US I spend half my time. Well, a little more than half my <span>[00:01:00]</span> time in the Bay area of California, just outside of Oakland, California.</p>



<p>And the, maybe a third of my time in the Northeast United States, mostly around New Hampshire, outside Boston. Very nice. </p>



<p><span>[00:01:12]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> And I know you&#8217;re in the community team, but, what do you do? you know, what&#8217;s your role there?</p>



<p><span>[00:01:19]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Yeah. So I am a full time contributor to the WordPress community team and I&#8217;m sponsored by Automattic.</p>



<p>So AutomatTic donates my time to work full time with the WordPress community. And my role involves helping meetup organizers and helping WordCamp organizers and WordPress event organizers all over the world, create great events that. Bring folks together to celebrate WordPress and learn from each other and build community and gain inspiration and connections.</p>



<p>All right. That&#8217;s very cool. And I&#8217;m also, I&#8217;m, I&#8217;m also on the lead organizing team for Word Camp US this year and was for 23 as <span>[00:02:00]</span> well. So I bring that flagship organizing experience too. Yeah. </p>



<p><span>[00:02:04]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong>  our, our main story is about,  the photos event that happened, Carla, but I keep hearing the organizers say things like,  second generation event.</p>



<p>What does that mean?</p>



<p><span>[00:02:19]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> All right. So glad you asked. In late spring of 2023, the community team kicked off a pilot project that was called NextGen WordPress Events. And the idea of this pilot project was to think outside the box about how WordPress organizers, WordPress enthusiasts around the world can organize events that are different from the traditional WordCamp format and the traditional Meetup format.</p>



<p>Because previously, those were the two main formats that the community team offered. For word camp event organizers. <span>[00:03:00]</span> The next gen pilot project offered an invitation to organizers around the world to experiment. So we said, bring us your ideas. What sorts of events do you want to see that are different from a word camp?</p>



<p>Or it could be a word camp, but a different flavor and style of word camp than we&#8217;re used to seeing. And. We at the end of 2023 concluded that pilot project and learned from that experience that yes, the community is thirsty for experimentation and there&#8217;s a lot of an opportunity for different types of events besides WordCamps.</p>



<p>And so now we&#8217;re, </p>



<p><span>[00:03:40]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> what kinds of things that people do? </p>



<p><span>[00:03:45]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Great question.  so I know you are talking about the photo festival. That&#8217;s an example of a. That&#8217;s an example of a next gen event that was part of the pilot project. But I will just say <span>[00:04:00]</span> that now we are we&#8217;ve closed the pilot project stage. And now the community team has created an ongoing invitation to WordPress organizers to organize innovative, creative WordPress events.</p>



<p>And so we&#8217;re not. Not even calling them next gen. Although I think people still, that language has stuck, but WordPress events now. </p>



<p><span>[00:04:29]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s really cool. </p>



<p><span>[00:04:32]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong>  and next gen at the time, the name came up as. It means next generation of WordCamp. So we were so used to work. What&#8217;s the next generation of these events that people learn and connect and build real world skills and all of that.</p>



<p><span>[00:04:51]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Yeah.  I will admit I love WordCamps. I love the traditional ones, but I haven&#8217;t really been to a session in <span>[00:05:00]</span> years because I&#8217;ve been to so many of them, but I really want to do is hang out with my friends. Yes, and a different kind of event could facilitate that without the guilt of my other friends being in a session that I&#8217;m not listening to.</p>



<p><span>[00:05:16]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Absolutely, I&#8217;ll share another example. You asked for some examples. Yeah The photo festival that just concluded in Japan. There&#8217;s a monthly series of community building workshops and those are online events That I think they helped started as online events, but then became in person events and it&#8217;s an opportunity to,  for community members to come together and learn about how they can be community wordpress community organizers across.</p>



<p>Yeah, meant to build up the community team and that roster of. Organizers. And in Rome in September of 2023, there was a community day and that was a day <span>[00:06:00]</span> dedicated to WordPress community event organizers. There&#8217;s, ah, coming up in Rome, an event called Core Days. Okay. And that&#8217;s focused on, I believe, focused on core WordPress core contributions.</p>



<p>Right.  that&#8217;ll be in November of this year. So that&#8217;s a ways from now.</p>



<p><span>[00:06:23]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Okay. That&#8217;s really great. I&#8217;m really glad to hear that because I have thought in the past myself about trying to do a core focused only event that is days long because I&#8217;ve, I&#8217;ve been to work camps where I joined contributor day.</p>



<p>And I say, I&#8217;m going to contribute to core today. And eight hours later, I have Docker halfway set up and I&#8217;m lost and I&#8217;ve never contributed anything at any of those, but what if it were four days long and you spent two days getting Docker set up and then <span>[00:07:00]</span> contributing? That would be great. So I&#8217;m really happy to hear that they&#8217;re doing that.</p>



<p>Now I have to go to Rome. So thank you very much. </p>



<p><span>[00:07:07]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Yes. And something that we&#8217;ve observed in the U S in particular and North America is that word camps. And meetups have been slow to reenergize and reactivate since. Yes, I&#8217;ve noticed. And I think there&#8217;s gradual momentum building, but the landscape has really changed.</p>



<p>Things are more expensive. Venues are more expensive. Mm-Hmm. Covid was a real disruption in the flow and progression of. WordCamps. And so, I think that WordPress events, more broadly, my hope is that WordPress events offer</p>



<p>the opportunity for more creativity for, for organizers to think about what is it that their community really wants and needs and what will enable <span>[00:08:00]</span> people to come out of their houses. Right. And working from home to actually be together. What are the skills that folks are looking to build? For example, I&#8217;ve heard a New York city meetup organizer talk about the possibility of organizing an event that targets recent graduates who are looking for jobs and, and want to learn about how WordPress can actually help them gain employment.</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s something that is different that people can&#8217;t just go on YouTube for like identifying what is the real value that this particular community. Is looking for and how to Yeah, like a more targeted event. </p>



<p><span>[00:08:43]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> That&#8217;s a great idea because looking back, basically every session I&#8217;ve ever given, talked at could be just a YouTube video.</p>



<p>And if we can make something that you can&#8217;t get on YouTube, that&#8217;s going to be really valuable.</p>



<p><span>[00:08:57]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Yes. And so it really depends on creativity. It really <span>[00:09:00]</span> depends on an organizer in the box and trying something new and experimenting. And probably some events won&#8217;t. Won&#8217;t work so well. And that&#8217;s okay because that&#8217;s a learning and I hope that organizers will share their learnings with the community through posts on make a community.</p>



<p>For example, from the community team recently posted a recap of the Jakarta WordPress website challenge. Website pitching competition. That was just held in January. And Devon&#8217;s share is it&#8217;s great. She really shares a lot of good info and good, good lessons learned. </p>



<p><span>[00:09:38]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> That&#8217;s really great.  I I&#8217;ve, I&#8217;ve talked to a number of organizers since COVID during COVID and things, and have heard, as you mentioned.</p>



<p>How much more expensive things are a venue or food?  I think, I <span>[00:10:00]</span> think I heard a meetup for an evening in London, England was going to be 10, 000 or something. And yeah, I mean, it&#8217;s outrageous and New York City is the same.  the organizers there will have a cap on their meetup of 10 people because they, their, their room doesn&#8217;t hold more than 10 and it&#8217;s 2, 000 for the evening.</p>



<p>For 10 people to get together and chat. So we, you know, we need the creativity. So,  I would love to hear if you can tell me some of the financially creative things people are doing to have a great time, get good things done without spending 10, 000 an evening for a meetup. </p>



<p><span>[00:10:44]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Absolutely. Well, sponsorship, I will start by saying the WordPress events program depends on our sponsors and really important to.</p>



<p>Make sure that that&#8217;s a reciprocal relationship. <span>[00:11:00]</span> So think about how can we, what value do sponsors receive from their sponsorship and how can community events support our sponsors? Our sponsors are part of the WordPress ecosystem, just like the rest of us. Right. That&#8217;s one piece.  sponsorships are really important and that could be an in kind sponsorship of donating a venue.</p>



<p>It doesn&#8217;t need to be. It doesn&#8217;t only need to come in the form of financial or monetary. </p>



<p><span>[00:11:30]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> That would be so cool. Like I&#8217;m on meetups at the WP engine office or the Automattic office in San Francisco.</p>



<p><span>[00:11:39]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Yes. And I&#8217;m here in the Bay area and I&#8217;m really trying to get the San Francisco meetup reactivated. And I, it is amazing to know that the Automattic space in San Francisco could be made available.</p>



<p>And similarly, Automattic is offered to donate the know how right.</p>



<p><span>[00:11:59]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> <span>[00:12:00]</span> Yeah. In New York.</p>



<p><span>[00:12:00]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Yeah. Yep. So it&#8217;s a resource. It&#8217;s a space that&#8217;s available and takes a little bit of coordination, but it&#8217;s, it&#8217;s there for the New York city meetup organizers. So my first encouragement for. Organizers. There&#8217;s a couple, there&#8217;s many things I want to say here, but my first encouragement is think about how you can find a donated space and okay.</p>



<p>Number two around finances, they are, the landscape is different and I do budget reviews often with meetup organizers and I mentor WordCamps and help them shape their budgets. And the community team recently has been telling organizers, sharing with organizers, what we observe because we&#8217;re working with a lot of different WordCamps and WordPress events.</p>



<p>And so I patterns. And one of the patterns is there&#8217;s less sponsorship, money available now than There used to be another pattern is that WordCamp <span>[00:13:00]</span> organizers really want to organize several hundred person events and it is. It&#8217;s just not there. And that is okay. Small events are so meaningful and important and impactful.</p>



<p>So I could not measure the success of an event by the number of attendees. I would set expectations, encourage organizers to set expectations at the outset for number of attendees. And understand that a 100 person event is, from my, absolutely from my perspective, as important and valuable as a 500 person event.</p>



<p>Okay. And I&#8217;m just going to pause and, and think for a moment. There&#8217;s something I want to say around this. All that to say, I think that creative WordPress events are really helpful for shifting out of the mindset of like the idea that, oh, it needs to be a WordCamp and that a WordCamp needs to be a big endeavor that feeds people and maybe is multiple days.</p>



<p>WordPress <span>[00:14:00]</span> events open up the possibility of offering or organizing a half day workshop. That is specifically for digital marketers or a half day session that&#8217;s about building job skills, or is for folks focused on SEO, or want to contribute to the WordPress photo, photos team, photos library. There&#8217;s, there&#8217;s so much that can be done that can be low budget and still really rewarding and impactful.</p>



<p><span>[00:14:37]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> That&#8217;s really, really cool.  I&#8217;ve always wanted to do a, a seminar or whatever in my city on WordPress as a career. Maybe you&#8217;re laid off, maybe you&#8217;re just out of college, maybe you&#8217;re just out of high school. What do I want to do? I don&#8217;t want to do what I was doing before is web development for <span>[00:15:00]</span> me, you know.</p>



<p><span>[00:15:01]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> It sounds like you&#8217;ve got some really good ideas. I want to see you organize a WordPress event. </p>



<p><span>[00:15:08]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Yeah, wow, that&#8217;s another thing all together. I want to see WordCamp San Francisco, so. You do yours. I&#8217;ll do mine. </p>



<p><span>[00:15:16]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> And my idea for WordCamp San Francisco is that it would be small. I&#8217;m thinking like, I know WordCamp San Francisco used to be hundreds of people.</p>



<p>I love to start with a one day. WordCamp San Francisco at the Automattic space, the Automattic office of the mission, which people that can accommodate maybe a 100 and fewer than 100, keep it a one track one day gathering. That&#8217;s about bringing community together and creating the Bay area WordPress community.</p>



<p>And it, it, it doesn&#8217;t need to be, I&#8217;m not benchmarking it against something that happened in the past and thinking about it.</p>



<p><span>[00:15:55]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> It was, it was the flagship. Yeah, you know, you&#8217;re not going to do that again, <span>[00:16:00]</span> </p>



<p><span>[00:16:01]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> but but just having any event that brings people together in the Bay Area would be so meaningful.</p>



<p>And this is what the world, any event that brings people together is meaningful, whether it&#8217;s 50 people or people are 150. </p>



<p><span>[00:16:16]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> So I want to take what you&#8217;ve said here and abstract it back to the photos event.  there was no venue, so that was not a thing. We didn&#8217;t, you know, there&#8217;s no money spent on a venue.</p>



<p> the, I don&#8217;t know, I want to say talks. The, it was like, there was a few talks on the first day and a few at the last day, but there wasn&#8217;t a time when everybody sat in front of their computer for six hours and listened to people talk.  people got out, got outside, wandered around.</p>



<p>So, and I, and I know they they mentioned that they were going to do <span>[00:17:00]</span> some ads by ad space to get people to participate, but they got so many people just by word of mouth that they didn&#8217;t need that money for that. And so they&#8217;re right there and there&#8217;s, you know, pushing back the financials.  and a testament to their, their ability to get the word out.</p>



<p> they did a great job.  given the number of people around the world, it would, it seems like it&#8217;d be hard to To make it really international and they did a good job. I was very impressed. I was sick. I was at death&#8217;s door through that whole week and I was very sad. So I missed it all.  </p>



<p><span>[00:17:40]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> you made it to the other side.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m glad you did not walk through death&#8217;s door. </p>



<p><span>[00:17:42]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Yes.  I should have at the last minute to be a judge and that&#8217;s it. But,  but you know, I got to see that. I got to hear. hear them in a zoom meeting talking about it and, and things like that. And,  now I get to do this event. So <span>[00:18:00]</span> I&#8217;ve been talking for a while now.</p>



<p> tell me some of the things that made the photos thing really stand out as a great model for next gen events. </p>



<p><span>[00:18:13]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Yeah. Oh, so many, so many things.  the first is that it is such a creative format. It&#8217;s new, it&#8217;s different. It&#8217;s something that I&#8217;d never seen before as a WordPress event. It was targeted. It had a very specific, the communication around it was very clear about what it was and how to get involved, including for folks for whom it was the first time contributing to the WordPress photo library.</p>



<p>Yeah.  in fact, I contributed my first photo. I don&#8217;t think I officially registered for the event, but it inspired me to contribute my cat. Yeah. And then I looked through at all the other cat photos that had been uploaded. <span>[00:19:00]</span> </p>



<p><span>[00:19:01]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> So cool. It needs more. </p>



<p><span>[00:19:02]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> I can help you out with that. There&#8217;s a lot. Yeah, a lot of WordPress can help you out with cat photos.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s for sure. So one thing was simply like the outside of the box thinking to come up with the way in which it was regionally targeted and yet online so that I felt like folks around the world were invested in it and could participate in it but also had a sense of Interest. So it&#8217;s sure. Interest to folks all over the world, super low budget online.</p>



<p>And I do, I think there&#8217;s a huge value to in person events too. So I am not by any means saying we should have online events and not a mix of both is useful. And this was a really engaging online event. It&#8217;s different. It&#8217;s not something that. You can go onto YouTube and find it&#8217;s, it&#8217;s an interactive format where everybody contributes and learns.</p>



<p><span>[00:20:00]</span>  those are some of the pieces that I would highlight and it&#8217;s fun. It&#8217;s like, it&#8217;s fun and rewarding and interactive. And I love all of that. I think it was just fantastic. </p>



<p><span>[00:20:15]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Yeah, it was really fun to watch all of all the pictures come in and see everybody do everything.  I have an RSS feed of. Of everything it&#8217;s the fire hose and for until now it&#8217;s been 30 or 40 a day and I just go through them every day.</p>



<p>I, I was at 2000 photos to view after the end of the event and I&#8217;m down to 980 now. But it is fun to see everybody&#8217;s photos to see their home, you know, not their house, but you know, like where they&#8217;re from what they do Yes, and takes so many pictures of Southern California mountains, <span>[00:21:00]</span> and they&#8217;re great and Bigel he lives in Kerala, but it&#8217;s so many photos from Europe.</p>



<p>They&#8217;re all over the place And now I want to, I want to have a conversation with him, you know, tell me about this.  so yeah, go ahead.</p>



<p><span>[00:21:19]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> This is something that is really cool about that particular event format or event type. It connects people socially. So it&#8217;s, it really is a way of getting a glimpse into people&#8217;s lives, a glimpse into what people care about.</p>



<p>And there&#8217;s a personal touch to it. </p>



<p><span>[00:21:39]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> And what&#8217;s interesting to me is that when I think about personal touch in WordCamps, I think in person. We have a conversation, you touch someone&#8217;s shoulder, but you&#8217;re never going to sit at a WordCamp and look at an iPad for an hour of their photos. You know, but you would at home, you know, you&#8217;ll flip through <span>[00:22:00]</span> a couple of hundred photos from the day of an event and see where everybody was and what they did and all that.</p>



<p>And it&#8217;s a different, it&#8217;s a very personal thing. You&#8217;re not gonna get in person. I think that&#8217;s pretty cool. </p>



<p><span>[00:22:13]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> I agree. I&#8217;d like to ask big, who is the organizer of the event to write a recap for the community team page around Sure. What the, was like organizing it and what, what lessons did he learn? What were the successes, what might he do differently at really with the purpose of inspiring other folks to organize events.</p>



<p>Not the same type of event, but Mm-Hmm. to think about what, what are they passionate about? That Yeah. They, and bring people together around. </p>



<p><span>[00:22:43]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Yeah, there&#8217;s a lot of wisdom there from now. Now people have done it.  I have already interviewed him So if you keep your eye on the tavern in the next few days You&#8217;ll see All right.</p>



<p><span>[00:23:00]</span> I don&#8217;t know that I have anything more for you Have I mentioned at the beginning? I don&#8217;t know a whole lot about next gen. Did I miss anything? Anything you need to get out there? </p>



<p><span>[00:23:12]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Let&#8217;s see.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s a last piece, which is the idea of these other WordPress event types. Is that we really want WordPress events that are, that don&#8217;t require too great of an effort by organizers. So they&#8217;re doable, right? Are workable, meaning if an event inspires somebody across the globe or across the country, or.</p>



<p>Down the road from you that another organizer could replicate it. Right. Available. Meaning that if you wait, say that word again. Scalable, so scalable, meaning if 10 people participate, that&#8217;s great. If you want to grow the event or someone else wants to grow an event, a similar event and have 100 people <span>[00:24:00]</span> participate, that could work as well.</p>



<p>And then desirable for attendees, meaning it serves a purpose, it offers some value to attendees, that value could be Tangible skills or knowledge. It could be connection. It could be job offers. There&#8217;s, it could be contribution. There&#8217;s so many different ways to offer value to attendees, desirable and meaningful to the attendees.</p>



<p>So doable, replicable, scalable, and desirable. Those are the key metrics for what would be a successful WordPress event. </p>



<p><span>[00:24:35]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Well done. I&#8217;ll put those in bullet points on the screen. All right.  I did think of one more thing.  I was thinking about more Photos events. Do, do we want to have many per year or one per year?</p>



<p> despite the fact that this was an international event, A lot of <span>[00:25:00]</span> Indians were took took place because it was based in Kerala, which makes sense. And I almost think I&#8217;d like to see it be sort of like flagship events, but there&#8217;s a city that organizes it and it&#8217;s still international, but. It&#8217;s not big and his team, you know what I mean?</p>



<p>And it&#8217;s and, and we would end up seeing a lot of photos of each, like the city that it&#8217;s in as well as international. But I&#8217;d like to see it move around and have it be organized by different people. And I don&#8217;t know if we could handle more than a, more than one a month, it would kill us. . </p>



<p><span>[00:25:46]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Yeah.  you say it would kill us, you, the photos, the photo team?</p>



<p><span>[00:25:50]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Yeah. Do you know,  Michelle Frechette, of course. Yes, she personally moderated 1, <span>[00:26:00]</span> 200 photos last week. That&#8217;s just insane. A lot of photos. And so we would need a much larger moderator team if we were gonna You know, ramp this up, </p>



<p><span>[00:26:15]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong>  next to the idea of the WordPress event being replicable. The idea that right.</p>



<p>We quit big old created and replicate it elsewhere.</p>



<p><span>[00:26:29]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Yeah. Wow. This has been really great. I&#8217;m really excited.  yeah, I&#8217;ve had a ton of ideas over the years. </p>



<p><span>[00:26:37]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Yay. And if your readers, listeners, viewers are inspired by event. Yeah. and this conversation . They can apply to organize a WordPress event and, and where each team receives those applications. We vet them and then we follow up with that orientation and get them <span>[00:27:00]</span> going.</p>



<p>And really like I&#8217;ll, I&#8217;ll share, I&#8217;ll let you know where they can apply. But one thing I want to. I really encourage organizers to think about events that are manageable, that will not cause burnout, that will not be too stressful. And having low cost events is a really good way to help manage that stress level, because the more expensive an event is, the more stressful it gets.</p>



<p>More more on the line, right? Doable piece like we want organizers to find the process of organizing event to be so rewarding and for them to want to come back and do it again next year and and managing managing burnout, making managing overwhelm, making sure that event is. It&#8217;s doable. It&#8217;s a really good way to support that.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s where, where can they, where can somebody apply?  I have to find the link. So <span>[00:28:00]</span> this is going to, would, could I? </p>



<p><span>[00:28:02]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> You can send it to me later. I&#8217;ll put it on the screen.  during editing because editing is magic. </p>



<p><span>[00:28:10]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Yeah. That&#8217;s indeed. I&#8217;ve got it right here. Okay. I will say if folks have questions also, they can always come to the community events channel and slack.</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s a great place to, </p>



<p><span>[00:28:21]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Oh, that is a great place. Yes. You&#8217;re right. Many eyes from all. Yeah. </p>



<p>All right. Well, thank you very much for being here.</p>



<p><span>[00:28:31]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Thank you so much. This was awesome. It&#8217;s so fun to talk to with you.</p>



<p><span>[00:28:35]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Yeah, it is fun. </p>



<p><span>[00:28:37]</span> <strong>Julia:</strong> Cool. Well, good luck. I hope you have a great rest of your day. </p>



<p><span>[00:28:40]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> You too. And that&#8217;s it for today&#8217;s episode.</p>



<p>Thanks for stopping by. I know that I&#8217;m pretty excited about all the different kinds of events that are coming, all the different places that we can go, and people we can meet, and different ways that we can interact and build things. Be sure to stop by tomorrow for the final episode of this <span>[00:29:00]</span> series.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 29 Feb 2024 16:24:58 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Topher DeRosia";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: You Don’t Need to Know Code to Build a Successful WP Plugin Business.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154486";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:19645:"<p>With all the consolidation happening in the WordPress plugin ecosystem, it’s easy to think that it’d be futile to start your own WP plugin business.&nbsp; But the reality is that there are many small plugin developers making a living flying under the radar of the big dogs.</p>



<ol><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business#as-valuable-as-1-big-project-per-year">As Valuable as 1 Big Project Per Year</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business#building-shopwp-into-a-full-time-job">Building ShopWP Into a Full-Time Job</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business#it-s-never-too-late-to-start-marketing-your-plugin">It’s never too late to start marketing your plugin. </a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business#you-don-t-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business">You don&#8217;t need to know code to build a successful WP plugin business.</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business#becoming-a-successful-plugin-developer-is-not-without-its-challenges">Becoming a Successful Plugin Developer Is Not Without Its Challenges</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business#supporting-and-maintaining-wp-plugins-can-be-difficult">Supporting and Maintaining WP Plugins Can Be Difficult </a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business#don-t-forget-the-exit">Don’t Forget the Exit</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business#you-ve-got-this">You’ve Got This</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business#what-experiences-have-you-had-selling-wp-plugins-let-us-know-in-the-comments">What Experiences Have You Had Selling WP Plugins? Let us know in the comments.</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business#related-links">Related Links</a></li><li><a class="wp-block-table-of-contents__entry" href="https://wptavern.com/you-dont-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business#comments">Comments ↓</a></li></ol>



<img width="2560" height="1707" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/kenny-eliason-dDvrIJbSCkg-unsplash-scaled.jpg" alt="Laptop computer on a desk with a brick wall behind it. Dollar bills are laying around the laptop." class="wp-image-154507" />Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/macbook-pro-dDvrIJbSCkg">Kenny Eliason</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="as-valuable-as-1-big-project-per-year">As Valuable as 1 Big Project Per Year</h2>



<p>Barbara Schendel-Kent didn’t start out looking to become a plugin developer, but she now runs a successful plugin business that supplements her WP consulting income.&nbsp;</p>



<p>4 years ago, Schendel hired a freelance developer to code the initial iteration of her popular Beaver Builder Mega Menu plugin for a client site.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>“I needed a specific plugin, and it didn&#8217;t exist,” says Schendel-Kent of how she got into the plugin business. After activating the plugin on her client’s website, she asked the developer to round out the plugin’s functionality to get it ready to sell on her own website. Overall, it’s been a big win for Schendel-Kent.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Beaver Builder Mega Menu has continued to bring in one big project’s worth of revenue every year,” she says. That’s significant for a plugin that requires very little upkeep.</p>



<p>&#8220;It was an accident and very much an experiment,” added Schendel-Kent. “I was surprised by how few problems there were in the beginning.&nbsp; Most of the support requests were feature requests, not bugs.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="building-shopwp-into-a-full-time-job">Building ShopWP Into a Full-Time Job</h2>



<p>It took 6 years of intensive work, but ShopWP developer, Andrew Robbins, is finally at a point where his WordPress-to-Shopify connector plugin is making enough money to support his family, including purchasing a home to live in.&nbsp; Additionally, as his plugin’s success has grown, so have his ambitions.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>“I want ShopWP to be a direct competitor with WooCommerce, even though I&#8217;m nowhere near their market share yet,” says Robbins.&nbsp; “I see ShopWP as empowering small business owners &#8211; giving them a beautiful and powerful online shop that rivals their larger competitors.”</p>



<p>Another successful plugin developer takes a more modest approach and points out some struggles small plugin businesses encounter.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“It has become difficult to reach new clients who are overwhelmed by the tens of thousands of plugins available,” says Milan Petrovic, a developer who makes the bulk of his living selling his WP plugins on his website, Dev4Press.</p>



<p>“Big companies can pour a lot of money into advertising…It is almost impossible to find websites that have honest, not-paid-for reviews of premium plugins,” adds Petrovic. “The chance of ending up with a bad plugin [based on reviews on a website] is quite high.”</p>



<p>However, some plugin business owners see lots of opportunities for small businesses to promote their plugins.</p>



<p>“Having a free plugin in WP.org is a great place to start,” says Jesse Sutherland, an app and plugin developer who successfully sold 2 WP plugins in 2023. “For example, if you link back to your website from your wp.org page, that’s a valuable link.”</p>



<p>Not to say it’s easy, as you might need to stretch your marketing muscles to make it work for your specific business.</p>



<p>“Before embarking on writing the plugins I sold last year, I did do some keyword research to make sure this was a plugin people were looking for,” Sutherland says.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Additionally, there are ways to outmaneuver the big players.</p>



<p>“Getting on some of the ‘Top 10 List’ sites is helpful, even if it’s a ‘You scratch my back, I scratch yours’ thing or maybe a thing where you trade links.”</p>



<p>Sometimes paying is the best way to get your brand out, but you don’t need to spend millions of dollars.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Paying to get listed on a ‘Top 10’ website or developing a partnership deal or affiliate program are great ways to get people interested in buying your plugin,” Sutherland adds.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="1536" height="1152" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/marketing.jpg" alt="Stickers of WordPress from WordCamp Asia & WordCamp Sylhet" class="wp-image-154514" />Photo by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/111647dbab/">Mohammad Adil morshed</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="it-s-never-too-late-to-start-marketing-your-plugin">It’s never too late to start marketing your plugin.&nbsp;</h2>



<p>“I&#8217;ve worked on ShopWP for around 6 years, and I&#8217;m just now implementing some level of product marketing,” Robbins says. “It&#8217;s not even that I was unaware of the importance of doing it; it was pure procrastination.”</p>



<p>Robbins has also been able to increase revenue for his business through strategic price increases.</p>



<p>“I raised my prices in 2021 and, to my surprise, people didn&#8217;t bat an eye,” Robbins says. “Not only did this help me grow ShopWP, but it was a psychological relief to know that people were still willing to purchase my product, even at the elevated price.”</p>



<p>Sometimes you just get lucky when you create something good.&nbsp; The aforementioned Beaver Builder Mega Menu plugin garnered some unexpected praise and a P.R. boost from the official <em>Beaver Builder</em> website.</p>



<p>&#8220;Beaver Builder created a special blog post on their site with a video walkthrough with how to use my plugin,” the plugin’s owner, Schendel-Kent says.&nbsp; “This was such a compliment that they not only spent the time to write the article but also to create the video.&nbsp; I didn&#8217;t even ask them to!&nbsp; That was validating.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="you-don-t-need-to-know-code-to-build-a-successful-wp-plugin-business">You don&#8217;t need to know code to build a successful WP plugin business.</h2>



<p>Surprisingly, Schendel didn’t write any of the initial code for Beaver Builder Mega Menu, and over the years, “99% of the code was written by other developers,” she says.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Maybe you write no code, but you&#8217;ve got a decent bedside manner and business sense,” Schendel says. “You don&#8217;t need to be a coder to write and sell a plugin.”</p>



<p>Alternatively, you could be the primary developer of a plugin and transition out of that role. Vova Feldman, who runs Freemius, a sass service that takes care of the e-commerce and licensing parts of selling WP plugins, started out writing the code for his nascent platform, however, as the years passed, he moved into a non-coding role.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Our team has grown to 20 passionate individuals, and my role has evolved dramatically,” Feldman says. “Coding has taken a backseat to facilitating communication, coaching our team, recruiting new talent, and engaging with partners.”</p>



<p>“It’s been a reminder that making oneself ‘redundant’ is not a step back but a leap towards a future where everyone shines brighter together,” Feldman says of his business’ journey.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Making himself ‘redundant’ allowed Feldman to do something that many business owners dream of: taking personal time.&nbsp; “Taking time off for a vacation or parental leave, which I did last March when I welcomed my baby boy into the world, is no longer a source of stress,” Feldman says.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="becoming-a-successful-plugin-developer-is-not-without-its-challenges">Becoming a Successful Plugin Developer Is Not Without Its Challenges</h2>



<p>“The first major difference I noticed early on was the uncertainty,” says Robbins of his ShopWP plugin business early on. “With consulting work, being paid was never really in question. My customers were largely business owners or larger companies, and the income was very predictable.”</p>



<p>For years Robbins continued earning the bulk of his revenue consulting while working on ShopWP on the side.&nbsp; This was done simply because, at first, ShopWP didn’t earn living wage revenue.</p>



<p>“The early years of ShopWP were basically the opposite [of the consulting business]. ShopWP’s income was rare and unpredictable,” he says. “Even when a sale came through, I had to deal with the looming uncertainty of issuing refunds.”</p>



<p>“However, now that ShopWP has matured a bit, the income is both predictable and provides even more freedom than the consulting work,” adds Robbins. “So it&#8217;s definitely a long-term investment that (hopefully) continues to pay off.”</p>



<img width="2560" height="1709" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ilya-pavlov-OqtafYT5kTw-unsplash-scaled.jpg" alt="A laptop screen with lots of code on it." class="wp-image-154513" />Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/monitor-showing-java-programming-OqtafYT5kTw">Ilya Pavlov</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="supporting-and-maintaining-wp-plugins-can-be-difficult">Supporting and Maintaining WP Plugins Can Be Difficult&nbsp;</h2>



<p>“One of the biggest challenges with developing plugins for the WordPress community is that you have so little control over the server environments where your code will live,” says Natalie MacLees, COO and founder of N², which sells the <em>Simply Schedule Appointments</em> and <em>Draw Attention</em> WP plugins.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>“There are potentially multiple versions of PHP, different MySQL setups, all kinds of different server configurations, and thousands of different plugins and themes with which you need to make sure your code is compatible,” MacLees says. “It’s really challenging as a small company to have the bandwidth and budget to do extensive testing for all of these different variables.”</p>



<p>The potential problems grow as your plugin’s reach expands.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Early on, when our plugins had less than 100 active installs, the potential impact of releasing a bug or a poorly implemented feature was pretty small,” MacLees says. “But once our plugins became more popular and had tens of thousands of active installs, the potential impact of a bug became a lot greater and could easily overwhelm our support team and leave us with a lot of unhappy customers who are in need of urgent fixes.”</p>



<p>What happens when you are the only developer of a plugin and you need to take a sick day?</p>



<p>“If I get sick and can&#8217;t work for three days, I&#8217;ll usually lose about a week&#8217;s worth of time to getting caught up with customer support,” says Robbins.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Also, adding to plugin developer workload, expectations around web accessibility seem to be increasing as the Americans with Disabilities Act and similar legislation is applied to websites &#8211; and as more and more lawyers get involved in suing businesses large and small. For example, both <em>Target</em> and <em>Domino&#8217;s Pizza</em> lost website-related ADA lawsuits recently.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>WordPress consultant, Matt Christenson, recently helped a business resolve some web accessibility issues related to an ADA compliance lawsuit.&nbsp; He shares a recent story where, even with the best of intentions and efforts to bring a website into ADA compliance, a company was the target of an ADA compliance lawsuit.</p>



<p>“An ADA compliance lawsuit is a major headache,” Christenson says.&nbsp; “One client of mine had to hire an attorney and another developer &#8211; hundreds of hours were invested &#8211; it was a bad situation all around.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>But that doesn’t mean you should shy away from plugin development due to web accessibility concerns.&nbsp; Christensen says web accessibility skills are learnable and will work their way into your workflow with some education and diligence.</p>



<p>“It takes a bit more research on the front end to educate yourself about the WCAG compliance criteria,” Christenson says while expressing that the bulk of web accessibility problems are common and correctable. “For example, font icons need a ‘role=’ tag on them,” he says.</p>



<p>Bringing your plugin into reasonable compliance with ADA guidelines doesn’t need to be overwhelming or break the bank.</p>



<p>Web accessibility consultant and member of the Make WordPress Accessible team, Joe Dolson, recently <a href="https://themightymo.com/why-is-web-accessibility-important/">simplified web accessibility basics into 3 simple points</a> that can fit on a 3&#215;5 card:&nbsp;</p>



<ol>
<li>“<strong>Everything needs a name that describes what it does.</strong> If you have a link, the text should make it clear where that link goes. If you have a button, it should have text that clearly indicates what happens. Labels, alternative text, aria-label attributes – all methods of providing an accessible name.</li>



<li><strong>Use native elements for interaction. </strong>Buttons should be ‘button’ or ‘input’. Links should be ‘a href=”‘. Building an accordion? Put a button inside a heading; don’t just add a click event to the heading.&nbsp;</li>



<li><strong>Use HTML to structure your documents. </strong>Headings are there for a reason: they provide an outline of your document and give context for the following content. Don’t just use a heading because you want large text.”</li>
</ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="don-t-forget-the-exit">Don’t Forget the Exit</h2>



<p>In addition to making money while you run a WP plugin business, there are potential earnings for you on the back end as well &#8211; the potential to sell your business.</p>



<p>Entrepreneur and app developer, Jesse Sutherland, successfully developed and sold 2 WP themes and 2 WP plugins over the last few years.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“The process of selling the WP themes and plugins was pretty smooth,” Sutherland said.&nbsp; “I think both parties were happy, and I would do it again.”</p>



<img width="2048" height="1365" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/heart-key.jpg" alt="Computer key cap with a pixel-art heart on a wooden table." class="wp-image-154509" />Photo by <a href="https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/29565c512f/">Nilo Velez</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="you-ve-got-this">You’ve Got This</h2>



<p>WP plugin business owners mostly seem to find the experience of developing a WP plugin to be worthwhile and valuable.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>“My favorite part of running a WordPress business is being able to cultivate and grow something of my own,” says Robbins. “I get to work on a codebase that I enjoy every day, and the only people I have to answer to are my customers. That&#8217;s a very rewarding feeling.”</p>



<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m most proud that it took off, that it&#8217;s self-sustaining, that it didn&#8217;t start on fire and implode,” Schendel concluded, only a little bit tongue-in-cheek.</p>



<p>&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-experiences-have-you-had-selling-wp-plugins-let-us-know-in-the-comments">What Experiences Have You Had Selling WP Plugins? Let us know in the comments.</h2>



<p></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="related-links">Related Links</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/geekwap/">Matt Christenson</a></li>



<li><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joedolson/">Joe Dolson</a></li>



<li><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/svovaf/">Vova Feldman</a></li>



<li><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nataliemac/">Natalie MacLees</a></li>



<li><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gdragon/">Milan Petrovic</a></li>



<li><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/andrewmrobbins/">Andrew Robbins</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/speakers/barbara-schendel/">Barbara Schendel-Kent</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/">Make WordPress Accessible team</a></li>



<li><a href="https://bbmegamenu.com/">Beaver Builder Mega Menu</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wpshop.io/">ShopWP</a></li>



<li><a href="https://freemius.com/">Freemius</a></li>
</ul>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Toby Cryns is a freelance CTO, WordPress consultant, and teacher at <a href="https://themightymo.com/">The Mighty Mo! Design Co.</a> in Minneapolis, MN, USA.</div>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="comments">Comments ↓</h2>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 29 Feb 2024 13:38:42 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Toby Cryns";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:75:"WPTavern: Avada WordPress Theme Patches Arbitrary File Upload Vulnerability";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154496";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"https://wptavern.com/avada-wordpress-theme-patches-arbitrary-file-upload-vulnerability";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1836:"<p>ThemeFusion’s multipurpose WordPress theme <a href="https://themeforest.net/item/avada-responsive-multipurpose-theme/2833226">Avada</a> has patched an Arbitrary File Upload Vulnerability. Avada is one of ThemeForest&#8217;s most popular premium themes with nearly 950k sales.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This vulnerability was reported responsibly by Muhammad Zeeshan (Xib3rR4dAr) during <a href="https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2024/02/2751-bounty-awarded-for-arbitrary-file-upload-vulnerability-patched-in-avada-wordpress-theme/">Wordfence</a>’s Bug Bounty Extravaganza earning him $2,751. The researchers have categorized it as a &#8220;high severity&#8221; concern, with a CVSS score of 8.8, and strongly recommend updating the theme.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>The Avada | Website Builder For WordPress &amp; WooCommerce theme for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary file uploads due to missing file type validation in the ajax_import_options() function in all versions up to, and including, 7.11.4. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to upload arbitrary files on the affected site’s server which may make remote code execution possible<strong>.</strong></p>
<cite>-Wordfence</cite></blockquote>



<p>The nature of the vulnerability allows attackers to upload arbitrary malicious PHP code and remotely execute code on the server. Even if the uploaded file is removed, attackers can still upload multiple large files as there is no restriction on the file extensions.</p>



<p>Muhammad Zeeshan contacted the ThemeFusion team on February 6, and a patched version of the theme was released on February 12. We urge all Avada users to immediately update their websites to the latest version of the theme 7.11.5.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 29 Feb 2024 13:14:12 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Jyolsna";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:124:"Do The Woo Community: WordPress Translation, Internationalization, and Documentation with Estela Rueda &amp; Pascal Birchler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=79155";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"https://dothewoo.io/wordpress-translation-internationalization-documentation/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:475:"<p>A chat about global accessibility through WordPress translation efforts, upcoming 6.5 improvements and the community's cultural emphasis</p>
<p>&gt;&gt; The post <a href="https://dothewoo.io/wordpress-translation-internationalization-documentation/">WordPress Translation, Internationalization, and Documentation with Estela Rueda &#038; Pascal Birchler</a> appeared first on <a href="https://dothewoo.io">Do the Woo - a WooCommerce and WordPress Builder Podcast</a>	.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 29 Feb 2024 10:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"WPTavern: Data Liberation: Meet WordPress.org’s Ambitious Plan for 2024";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154463";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:80:"https://wptavern.com/data-liberation-meet-wordpress-orgs-ambitious-plan-for-2024";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13746:"<p>“Imagine a more open web where people can switch between any platform of their choosing. A web where being locked into a system is a thing of the past. This is the web I’ve always wanted to see.”</p>



<p>At the end of his <a href="https://wordpress.org/state-of-the-word/">State of the Word 2023</a> keynote, Matt Mullenweg pulled a Steve Jobs move, revealing Data Liberation, an initiative he described as the thing he’s most excited about.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p><em>“In 2024, we want to unlock the web through a dedicated focus on migration tools. We want to make first-party community plugins, tools, and workflows available o</em>n <em>WordPress.org [&#8230;] I want it to be seamless, straightforward, and as zero friction as possible.”</em></p>
</blockquote>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>



<p>Mullenweg promised that WordPress.org would take these projects under its wings, provide each with a dedicated Slack channel and GitHub repository on its official platforms, and ensure a swift review process of about one business day.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2024/01/data-liberation-in-2024/">In a post published</a> shortly after the event, Mullenweg laid an even more ambitious plan:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p><em>“Migrating your site to WordPress, or exporting all your content from WordPress, should be possible in one click. I want WordPress’ export format to become the lingua franca of CMSes, whether coming to WordPress or moving within WordPress.</em></p>



<p><em>[&#8230;] it should be more than plugins; workflows, tutorials, and helper scripts should be shared, too. I want this resource to have space to include moving from social networks, moving from a page builder to core blocks, switching from classic to blocks, and improving WordPress current canonical plugins for importing.”</em></p>
</blockquote>



<p></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">We’ve Only Just Begun</h2>



<p>There’s a lot of work: the guides on the <a href="https://wordpress.org/data-liberation/">Data Liberation website</a> are mostly outlines, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/data-liberation">waiting for contributors</a> to materialize the team’s good intentions. The recently updated <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/advanced-administration/wordpress/import/">Importing Content</a> guide on the WordPress Developer Resources website includes obsolete services and links.</p>



<p>Navigate to <strong>Tools</strong> &gt; <strong>Import</strong>, and you’ll get a similar blast from the past looking at the importing tools on offer: Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type and TypePad. If you have a website hosted on WordPress.com, you’ll get support for a handful of contemporary platforms, including Medium, Squarespace, Substack, and Wix.</p>



<p>Contributors made a little spring clean in 2021, moving the code of these and other somewhat relevant importers from SVN <a href="https://github.com/WordPress?q=importer&type=all&language=&sort=">to GitHub</a>, where it’s easier to maintain. But that’s barely scratching the surface.</p>



<p>What’s needed now is traction.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Calling All Hosting Companies</h2>



<p>In a post titled <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/02/19/data-liberation-next-steps/">Data Liberation Next Steps</a>, project leader Jordan Gillman introduced a few high-level paths forward:</p>



<ul>
<li>A proposal to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/data-liberation/discussions/53">use Playground as a migration tool</a>.</li>



<li>A <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/data-liberation/discussions/55">hybrid approach</a> that involves auto-detecting the source platform and guiding users through the process.</li>



<li>A discussion about <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/data-liberation/discussions/56">improvements to WXR (WordPress eXtended RSS)</a>.</li>
</ul>



<p>There are still no concrete timelines and not everybody in the community is thrilled, but we decided to reach out to Gillman to get some more answers.</p>



<p><strong>What’s the current status of the project?</strong><br />“There’s been a conversation about how to approach data liberation across teams. I’m hoping to bring those conversations together to brainstorm and more concretely plan what the project actually looks like.</p>



<p>Broadly speaking, the response has been really positive. However, getting buy-in from plugin developers and other stakeholders will continue to be a priority for this project. The first initial challenge is one of coordination; this is going to be a collaborative project (by design), which means drawing folks and companies together to define the path forward.</p>



<p>I’ll be at WordCamp Asia next week, and look forward to chatting with folks in person!”</p>



<p><strong>Are there plans to collaborate with other online platforms (open source or commercial) to promote this initiative and make it a reality? I imagine a utopian scenario where WordPress leadership sits down with major players in the industry to create a standard—something<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/08/concerns-over-the-european-unions-cyber-resilience-act-cra/"> along the lines of the efforts made in the case of the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act</a>.</strong><br />“Data Liberation could be an opportunity to lead by example. And since WordPress is doing this publicly, anyone can share updates about this work. That really means that how we go about this project today needs to be with that broader picture in mind.”</p>



<p><strong>Have you considered starting with a universal content migration solution instead of the more ambitious data objective?</strong><br />“At this stage, the focus is on addressing the goal of migrating sites to WordPress or exporting all content from WordPress in one click, thus simplifying the process of transferring content between platforms.</p>



<p>In terms of ‘universal’ content migration, I think conversations about the WXR Import/Export format are really valuable. I’m also excited about the potential of<a href="https://wordpress.org/playground/"> WordPress Playground</a>, which uses a ZIP file for migrations.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s important to note that this is an ongoing project and that these efforts don&#8217;t exclude bigger goals related to &#8216;data.&#8217; They provide a tangible starting point, with small, achievable phases to actively involve contributors in progressing toward our broader goals.”</p>



<p><strong>You ended the post with questions. How would you answer the last two?</strong></p>



<ul>
<li><strong>With such a broad scope, what should be focused on with the highest priority?</strong><br />“One thing that I’m particularly excited about is pulling the disparate plugins, guides, and tools and unifying them in an interface to simplify the experience for users in the migration process. A user shouldn’t have to go searching for the right tool (or combination of tools); we should be able to direct them to the appropriate solution, and walk them through the process!”<br /></li>



<li><strong>What other voices should be heard on this topic?</strong><br />“I hope that this question prompts voices from individuals and groups that I haven&#8217;t already thought of. I&#8217;m also keen to hear from web hosts. Given their daily management of migrations for customers, I believe they have insights into pain points, popular platforms (and how they could help), and valuable tools and workarounds that could benefit the wider community.”</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Radical Ethos</h2>



<p>Manton Reece, the creator of Micro.blog, recently wrote about why and how he uses <em>Blog Archive format (.bar)</em>, a format<a href="https://www.manton.org/2017/11/24/blog-archive-format.html"> he developed in 2017</a>, hoping it would become universal. Apparently, Dave Winer, co-author of the RSS format, <a href="https://cagrimmett.com/micro/aa2835f451/#comment-34471">had similar ideas</a>.</p>



<p>During the keynote, Mullenweg made clear that more than a technical vision, Data Liberation is an ethical commitment. “Data Liberation is not just about building the tools, it’s about cultivating a community ethos.”</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2023/01/letter-from-wordpress-executive-director-2022/">Josepha Haden Chomphosy</a>, the Executive Director of the WordPress project, expressed a similar sentiment in her post-event letter:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p><em>“There’s an extent to which the idea of owning your content and data online is a radical idea. Securing an open web for the future is, I believe, a net win for the world especially when contrasted to the walled gardens and proprietary systems that pit us all against one another with the purpose of gaining more data to sell.”</em></p>
</blockquote>



<p>Their words echo core contributor Gary Pendergast’s moral obligation to web users from 2021.<a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/18/wordpress-importers-stating-the-problem/"> In a 4-part series</a>, Pendergast draws a neat circle around the open web advocates’ shared visions: he explores the history of a category of tools he calls WordPress Importers, outlines the problems, and eventually shares a solution:<a href="https://github.com/pento/free-as-in-speech"> An experimental browser extension</a> that exports data from Wix using its API.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p><em>“Some services [&#8230;] don’t allow you to export your own content. Other services provide incomplete or fragmented exports, needlessly forcing stress upon site owners [&#8230;]</em></p>



<p><em>When a CMS actively works against providing such freedom to their community, I would argue that we have an obligation to help that community out.</em></p>



<p><em>WordPress doesn’t exist in a vacuum, we’re part of a broad ecosystem which can only exist through the web remaining open and free. By encouraging all CMSes to provide proper exports, and implementing them for those that don’t, we help keep our ecosystem healthy.”</em></p>
</blockquote>



<p>Between rescuing users from vendor lock-in and fostering a healthy ecosystem, <a href="http://wordpress.org/">WordPress.org</a> is in a perfect position to take the lead on such an undertaking and support, fund, and promote it.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Software Can Do that</h2>



<p>With the philosophical problems out of the way and the potential to solve the commercial ones on the horizon, we’re left with the technical issues.</p>



<p>The primary pain point of WXR is the lack of media support, but once you start considering newer tech stacks, this suddenly seems like the least of everyone’s problems.</p>



<p>Let’s present these players:</p>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management">W3Tech places</a> WordPress (43.2%), Shopify (4.3%), and Wix (2.6%) as the top three most used CMSs.</li>



<li>BuiltWith’s dataset shows that Webflow is number 15 on the list of CMS used across the <a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/cms">top 1 million sites crawled</a>, and Contentful is number 26.</li>



<li><a href="https://webtechsurvey.com/technology-type/headless-cms">WebTechSurvey’s analysis</a> reports that 42,900 of the 31,758,591 websites that use a CMS opt for headless CMS, with Ghost leading the market (41.05%).</li>
</ul>



<p>Buzzing with hype, these tools that many—not just younger—developers are touting are almost missing from the project’s repository. So far, it hasn’t attracted interest from people working with headless CMSs like Ghost, Sanity, or Prismic.</p>



<p>Trendy site builders, like Webflow or Storyblok, steadily gaining traction among product-oriented teams, are also absent. Less restrictive than their predecessors, they share their mean inclination to make it harder to move away.</p>



<p>Migrating to and from these new platforms presents new challenges, including mapping custom schemas and supporting discrete file types (RSS/XML, JSON, CSV, markdown, HTML).</p>



<p>None of that is impossible to resolve; that’s what software is for. But there is one more obstacle: the knowledge gap between those who possess a deep understanding of Gutenberg, its architecture, and design principles, and all the others, including some core contributors and plugin developers.</p>



<p>In an interesting <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C069AKUBPHB/p1702439016569189">discussion on the project’s Slack channel</a>, Automattic’s Software Design Engineer, Dennis Snell, demonstrated how invaluable it is to keep this initiative as collaborative and wide-reaching as possible.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Thank You For Choosing WordPress</h2>



<p>These are still early days, but the Data Liberation initiative is a rare political act, and how the platform’s leadership frames it is inspiring.</p>



<p>When billion-dollar corporations gobble up as much data as they can store on their servers, it’s almost defiant to invest time and money in making it easier for people to do with their data—their business, their thoughts—as they wish.</p>



<p>Information, generated by these bits of data and serving as the foundation of knowledge, doesn’t want to be free. It’s us, humans, who want that. Let’s do something about it.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 28 Feb 2024 22:27:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Ronny Shani";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"WPTavern: WordPress Photo Festival 2024, A Five Part Retrospective, Part 3, Attendees";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=154469";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-photo-festival-2024-a-five-part-retrospective-part-3-attendees";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42681:"<p>In this episode we interview three attendees, one in India, one in Spain, and one in the USA. We have a great conversation about what it means to &#8220;attend&#8221; a virtual event, and ways we could make it more engaging for those that wish it.</p>



<p><strong>In this particular we’ll meet attendees Hari, Nilo, and Jeff.</strong></p>



<p>This article is available in Video, Audio, and transcribed text.</p>







<p>Audio version:</p>







<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Transcription:</h2>



<p><span>[00:00:00]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Hi,</p>



<p>welcome back to our series on the international photos festival that took place earlier this month in February, 2024. In this episode, we&#8217;re going to talk to some attendees about what their experience was taking part in the event, getting photos uploaded and understanding how it all works. So if you could tell me your full name and where you live.</p>



<p><span>[00:00:44]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> My name is Aishankar and I live in Kochi, India, which is in the southern part of India in a city called Kerala. </p>



<p><span>[00:00:51]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> All right. So you were near the center of all the action, right? </p>



<p><span>[00:00:56]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> Yes. Yes. I saw, yes, I was, I was, I&#8217;ve <span>[00:01:00]</span> been in the center of the action, literally and figuratively. So definitely. So, because I live in the center of Kerala as well.</p>



<p>So yes. Okay. </p>



<p><span>[00:01:09]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> So, um, I want to talk to you because you were an attendee and there must surely have been a wide variety of kinds of attendees because there are some people who are far away by themselves. Others were in a group. Um, what? Okay, first of all, how many photos did you submit? One? A hundred?</p>



<p><span>[00:01:33]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> Somewhere closer to one than hundred, but if I can give you the exact number, exactly nine photos, if memory serves me right. I submitted ten, one got rejected, so nine </p>



<p><span>[00:01:42]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> were approved. So in Kochi, in Kerala, were there groups of people who went out and did photo walks? Or was it all singles everywhere? </p>



<p><span>[00:01:56]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> I believe we had folks contributing single photos.</p>



<p><span>[00:02:00]</span> Uh, But as, as a local community, we did have photo walks before the photo festival event, which were held by local meetups, especially the Cori code meetup. So those folks went on photo walks and they&#8217;ve had a couple of events where they did it. But for this event specifically, I don&#8217;t think there were photo walks.</p>



<p>Mostly we had folks contributing photos individually. </p>



<p><span>[00:02:22]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Sure. That&#8217;s very interesting. I would have expected, um, people to get together because, uh, sort of, sort of put together by your community. Yes, </p>



<p><span>[00:02:31]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> it was an idea that was floated though, but this was mostly an online event. We, uh, there was, there was some talks of having local events, local in person, um, gatherings to contribute photos, but due to the logistic side of things.</p>



<p>Online mates made more sense, especially for this event. So we had folks trying to do it online, but it does sound like a great idea to have an in person aspect to this community building, especially for an online global event. So for the next photo <span>[00:03:00]</span> festival, I&#8217;m pretty sure there&#8217;s going to be an in person part of it and photo walks and all that.</p>



<p><span>[00:03:04]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> So if you do that, do me a favor. Get everyone into a group and take their, a group photo with their back to the camera. </p>



<p><span>[00:03:13]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> Ooh. There&#8217;s a, then you can put it up on the project. That would be nice. Uh, there&#8217;s actually a very famous, one of the, one of the most famous Bollywood movies, which has a scene like this where like the three protagonists, so they&#8217;re like three musketeers.</p>



<p>Like they show their backs to the camera. There&#8217;s an iconic photo. Uh, the movie is called three idiots. So, yeah, we&#8217;re going to do that like a bunch of open source lovers, you know, showing their backs to the camera so they can be on, they can be on the directory. That&#8217;s a fantastic idea. I would love to do that.</p>



<p><span>[00:03:48]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> So, uh, for your, for your photos for this, did you take new custom photos for this event or did you select some out of your library? </p>



<p><span>[00:03:57]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> I, to be honest with you, I did select some out of my <span>[00:04:00]</span> library. So I&#8217;m in a very unique situation. I, I take a lot of photos for myself, which I do not share elsewhere. Like I used to, but then like, I just take photos as a, how do I say it?</p>



<p>Like for my own reference or just to read a memory. You know, I just keep going back to it. Yes. So I had a, I was, I&#8217;ve been sitting on a, um, I&#8217;m, I&#8217;m sitting on a stash of at least 200, 000 photos. So I have, I have plenty of them. And it so happens that a lot of them meet our guidelines as well. So I just had to go back and 2023 was a year, 2022, 23.</p>



<p>I traveled a lot. And as you know, we&#8217;ve been together on at least a couple of those trips. So I, and I had a chance to take photos all over the world. So my photos reflect my travels. So you will, you will find photos from Kerala, Singapore, the U. S., Europe, right? Literally Japan, like you, you&#8217;ll see a side of the slice of the world in the nine photos that I contributed as part of the photo festival and my <span>[00:05:00]</span> other contributions in the past as well.</p>



<p><span>[00:05:02]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> I experienced that with Bigel as well after, uh, I think after WordCamp Asia. Yes. He went on a world tour. It would seem. Yes. He posted pictures from Serbia and Romania. And I&#8217;m like, yeah, don&#8217;t you live in India? </p>



<p><span>[00:05:20]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> Yeah. He, he, he is also sitting on a very similar, but actually much bigger stats than I. So I wouldn&#8217;t be surprised.</p>



<p><span>[00:05:29]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Yeah. He recently passed me. The person with the most photos up there. </p>



<p><span>[00:05:33]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> I did see that. I did see that. So interesting. , </p>



<p><span>[00:05:37]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> he&#8217;s, he&#8217;s the man. . Yes. </p>



<p><span>[00:05:39]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> So are you, </p>



<p><span>[00:05:40]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> okay, so no, there can only be one. It&#8217;s like, no, I, I, I </p>



<p><span>[00:05:45]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> think that&#8217;s space for multiple. We have, we have no project so we, we can have as many people as, yes. So, okay.</p>



<p><span>[00:05:51]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Um, so you were an attendee of this event, but what, practically <span>[00:06:00]</span> speaking, that sounds like you sat at your desk and uploaded nine photos. Uh, which is not a, not a lot of time commitment, which is kind of nice. Um, what does it, what does it mean to be an attendee of an event where you can spend, I mean, you can upload five pictures at once.</p>



<p>So if you did just five pictures, you could literally be an attendee and a contributor and take part in the whole event in five minutes. That&#8217;s, that&#8217;s very different.</p>



<p><span>[00:06:31]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> I, I still found it fulfilling and my, my regret is that I could not upload a lot more. I could have actually, I just got busy with other things, but I, but I did enjoy it.</p>



<p>It was a very unique experience and I think it reflects a future of events where we don&#8217;t need to be in person synchronously at a certain for a certain amount of time to do it. So there&#8217;s other ways where you can collaborate collectively, which like, like this event where you sort of like upload photos and <span>[00:07:00]</span> then it shows up in the photo directory and like you&#8217;ve made it available for anybody to really use that.</p>



<p>And, uh, I&#8217;m, I&#8217;m, I&#8217;m sure I can think of a, A hundred different scenarios that folks might find the photos that I&#8217;ve uploaded useful. So while it did, like you said, while it did take only five minutes for me, I didn&#8217;t feel the impact of it. You know, so, uh, I&#8217;ve not done this before and I feel, I felt part of the global WordPress community, which is why I keep contributing to WordPress.</p>



<p>When I uploaded those photos in those five minutes, You know, and when those were approved, when I got the email notifications that they were approved, it didn&#8217;t feel good. Um, it does feel good. I, I, yes, I, I felt connected to the global community. I felt this very unique sense of belonging. I felt so loved and like, it was like, I was a part of this.</p>



<p>This, you know, uh, a global community. I already am. Yeah. But it felt even more so. So that was this warm, fuzzy feeling, which I got in five minutes, which I may not <span>[00:08:00]</span> have got at a, at another event. If I attended an online event or maybe even at an in person WordCamp, this feeling of, you know, having those photos out there in five minutes, it felt good.</p>



<p>Definitely felt good. Yeah. Yes. Yes. To the warm, fuzzy feeling. </p>



<p><span>[00:08:14]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Similar, similar to being a code contributor, one line can change someone&#8217;s life. One photo can change someone&#8217;s project. Absolutely. If you get the perfect photo and it just fits. Yes. Um, that&#8217;s, that&#8217;s, that&#8217;s a really big deal. </p>



<p><span>[00:08:29]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> And, and it so happens that our photos are CC zero, which is the closest equivalent to GPL.</p>



<p>So he&#8217;s giving it out to the world. You&#8217;re, you&#8217;re just, you know, uh, maybe it&#8217;s a, it&#8217;s a blogger. They was looking for an image and this image fits for them or a company who was trying to, you know, create a corporate website. N number of uses and if it helps them that that that may that means the world for me So even if even if what one person uses a photo that i&#8217;ve used or maybe I mean it&#8217;s out there Even if others watch it that that that means the world to <span>[00:09:00]</span> me So I I didn&#8217;t have a few four people come into me and say hey those photos look good Which is a really good moment for me because I never consider myself to be a photographer.</p>



<p>Like I told you, I just take photos for my own reference. I&#8217;m not, I&#8217;ll be honest with you. I&#8217;m not a photographer, but when, when random people, to be honest, it&#8217;s not a lot. It&#8217;s not like they said, Oh, this is a breathtaking photo, but they just. When, when somebody shares a positive comment on a work that you&#8217;ve done it, that&#8217;s what we live for.</p>



<p>Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. We&#8217;re all human beings and we need that validation. So that validation definitely felt good. So yes, yes, to the, yes, to everything is to belonging is to warm, fuzzy feelings is to being part of a global community. Yes. Helping others. So </p>



<p><span>[00:09:40]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> you heard it here, kids comment on blog posts.</p>



<p><span>[00:09:43]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> People like it. Yes, absolutely. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. </p>



<p><span>[00:09:49]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> All right. Um, so you did, you did nine photos. That was fulfilling. Was it fulfilling enough? If we do this again, are you, are you going to do more? Are you going to do less? <span>[00:10:00]</span> Are you happy with what you did? </p>



<p><span>[00:10:02]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> So, um, I was helping out with the, with the event and, um, I was obviously not looking for prices or anything.</p>



<p>I was just doing this for me, of course. That&#8217;s, that&#8217;s what, that&#8217;s why I can&#8217;t do it, but when I&#8217;m doing it, when I&#8217;m doing it for a different photo festival. I might get into the competitive spirit. I&#8217;m going to, I might, I want to win prizes, but just kidding. I&#8217;m just doing it for open source. I would definitely do more.</p>



<p>And I was definitely busier this time. So when the next event happens anywhere all over the world, I mean, that&#8217;s the beauty of this format, right? Anyone can organize it anywhere. It instantly, yes, it instantly becomes global. Which is, which is again the beauty of this format. So short answer to your question, yes, yes, and yes, I am, and I am going to be submitting way more photos than the nine ones that I did.</p>



<p>Because I have, I have, I have 200, 000 photos in my stash. So I need to, yeah, it would be a crime to not upload at least a hundred of them. So that&#8217;s right. I&#8217;m going to try doing </p>



<p>that.</p>



<p><span>[00:10:58]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Are you going to wait for the event, or are you going to start <span>[00:11:00]</span> soon? </p>



<p><span>[00:11:00]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> I, so in fact, like, uh, I did see someone in, uh, I think it was Jonathan, Jonathan Doroshes.</p>



<p>Somebody did pledge in Twitter that saying, who was saying that, Hey, I&#8217;m going to, I&#8217;m going to contribute like a photo periodically on a periodic basis. Yeah. So I&#8217;ve been, I&#8217;ve been doing that idea myself. I want to do that actually like, I mean, of course I, I will be a part of an event, but other than that, I want to, I want to do this regularly, you know, because like, um, I, and again, that, that feeling of getting that email that your photo is approved and, you know, putting your work out there, I wouldn&#8217;t do this consistently on a regular basis.</p>



<p>So yes, I am. I&#8217;m going to keep doing this. You will see more photos from me. </p>



<p><span>[00:11:40]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> That&#8217;s very exciting. I look forward to them. </p>



<p><span>[00:11:41]</span> <strong>Hari:</strong> Yes, yes. I know you&#8217;re a moderator, so I&#8217;m going to make your life a little difficult by giving you more photos to moderate. </p>



<p><span>[00:11:49]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Yep. Alright, well thank you very much for your time. This has been very enlightening.</p>



<p>Topher. And I will talk to you later. Being an international event is one of the things that <span>[00:12:00]</span> makes this event unique. Next we&#8217;re going to talk to Nilo from Spain. Thanks for coming today. Uh, tell me your name and where you&#8217;re from. </p>



<p><span>[00:12:09]</span> <strong>Nilo:</strong> Hello. Thank you for having me here. I&#8217;m Nilo Velez and I&#8217;m from, from Sevilla, Spain.</p>



<p><span>[00:12:15]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> Oh, nice. Uh, I don&#8217;t know if you are closer to India in time than me or not. I don&#8217;t know what the offsets are. I </p>



<p><span>[00:12:25]</span> <strong>Nilo:</strong> don&#8217;t know, because you&#8217;re maybe closer by one side. I&#8217;m closer on the other side. For me, it&#8217;s like seven hours. They are seven hours ahead from me. Something </p>



<p>like </p>



<p><span>[00:12:36]</span> <strong>Topher:</strong> that. Oh, I think I&#8217;m 12. Yeah, so you&#8217;re closer.</p>



<p>So, uh, we&#8217;re here today to talk about the recent, uh, photos event that took place out of Kerala. Um, you&#8217;re in Spain. What made you think, Hey, look, an event in India. Let&#8217;s, let&#8217;s go do that. </p>
