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(Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Direct Download</strong></td><td>Download the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/wordpress-7.0-beta2.zip\">Beta 2 version (zip)</a> and install it on a WordPress website.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Command Line</strong></td><td>Use this <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/cli/\">WP-CLI</a> command: <br><code>wp core update --version=7.0-beta2</code></td></tr><tr><td><strong>WordPress Playground</strong></td><td>Use the <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?php=8.0&amp;wp=beta&amp;networking=no&amp;language=&amp;multisite=no&amp;random=y4q1rn88xn\">WordPress Playground instance</a> to test the software directly in your browser.&nbsp; No setup required – just click and go!&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is <strong>April 9, 2026</strong>. The full <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/02/12/wordpress-7-0-release-party-schedule/\">release schedule can be found here</a>. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Make sure to check the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/\">Make WordPress Core blog</a> for <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/7-0\">7.0-related posts</a> in the coming weeks for more information. Thank you to everyone who contributes by testing!</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Catch up on what’s new in WordPress 7.0</strong>: Read the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/02/wordpress-7-0-beta-1/\">Beta 1 announcement</a> for details and highlights.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to test this release</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your help testing WordPress 7.0 Beta 2 is key to ensuring everything in the release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important.&nbsp;This <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2026/02/20/help-test-wordpress-7-0/\">guide on what to test in WordPress 7.0</a> will walk you through testing features in WordPress 7.0.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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>. 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>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Beta 2 updates and highlights</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress 7.0 Beta 2 contains more than 70 updates and fixes across the Editor and Core since the Beta 1 release.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each beta cycle focuses on bug fixes; and more are on the way with your help through testing. You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 1 using these links:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/commits/wp/7.0?since=2026-02-20&amp;until=2026-02-26\">GitHub commits for 7.0</a>&nbsp;since February 20, 2026</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&amp;changetime=02%2F20%2F2026..02%2F26%2F2026&amp;milestone=7.0&amp;col=id&amp;col=milestone&amp;col=owner&amp;col=type&amp;col=priority&amp;order=id\">Closed Trac tickets for 7.0</a> since February 20, 2026</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Beta 2 also contains a new feature</strong>!</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AI provider management is more intuitive in 7.0 Beta 2 with a new Connectors UI dashboard page. WordPress users can now manage external AI connections in a central place in wp-admin, under Settings &gt; Connectors. The new UI enables users to add, delete, and update external connections. It is powered by an extensible, route-based architecture that allows plugins and themes to hook into the page and expand its functionality. The new Connectors page builds on PHP-based script and menu infrastructure, and adds route components powered by <code>@wordpress/components</code> and <code>@wordpress/admin-ui</code>. A new <code>connections-wp-admin-init</code> hook and registration APIs allow plugins to integrate cleanly. This makes managing external connections easier while giving developers a clearer path to extend the experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Beta 2 haiku</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>New, and fresh as dew</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Crafted and refined for you:</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Beta 2 breaks through.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Props to <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/4thhubbard/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>4thhubbard</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>annezazu</a></em>, <em><a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>audrasjb</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/mukesh27/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>mukesh27</a>, and <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaion07/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>chaion07</a></em> <em>for collaboration, proofreading and review.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"></p>\n\";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:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"20025\";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:75:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n			\";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:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:20:\"WordPress 7.0 Beta 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:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:56:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/02/wordpress-7-0-beta-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:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Fri, 20 Feb 2026 15:39:10 +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:8:\"category\";a:7:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:7:\"General\";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:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8:\"Releases\";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:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3:\"7-0\";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:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:3:\"7.0\";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:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4:\"beta\";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:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"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:\"\";}i:6;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:7:\"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:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=19908\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}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:341:\"WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 is ready for download and testing! This beta release is intended for testing and development only. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, use a test environment or local site to explore the new features. How to Test WordPress 7.0 Beta [&#8230;]\";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:\"Amy Kamala\";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:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:15437:\"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 is ready for download and testing! <strong>This beta release is intended for testing and development</strong> only. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, use a test environment or local site to explore the new features.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Test WordPress 7.0 Beta 1</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can test WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 in any of the following ways:</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Plugin</strong></td><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><td><strong>Direct Download</strong></td><td>Download the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/wordpress-7.0-beta1.zip\">Beta 1 version (zip)</a> and install it on a WordPress website.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Command Line</strong></td><td>Use this <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/cli/\">WP-CLI</a> command: <code>wp core update --version=7.0-beta1</code></td></tr><tr><td><strong>WordPress Playground</strong></td><td>Use a <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?php=8.3&amp;wp=beta&amp;networking=no&amp;language=&amp;multisite=no&amp;random=r8nny4q18x\">7.0 Beta 1 WordPress Playground instance</a> to test the software directly in your browser. No setup required &#8211; just click and go!</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is <strong>April 9, 2026</strong>. The full <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/02/12/wordpress-7-0-release-party-schedule/\">release schedule can be found here</a>. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who contributes by testing!</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How important is your testing?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Testing for issues is a critical part of developing any software, and it’s a meaningful way for anyone to contribute &#8211; whether or not you have experience. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2026/02/20/help-test-wordpress-7-0/\">Details on what to test in WordPress 7.0 are available here</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you encounter an issue, please share it in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/\">Alpha/Beta area</a> of the support forums. If you are comfortable submitting a reproducible bug report, you can do so <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket\">via WordPress Trac</a>. You can also check your issue against this list of <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major\">known bugs</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Curious about testing releases in general and how to get started? 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>. WordPress 7.0 will include new features that were previously only available in the Gutenberg plugin. Learn more about Gutenberg updates since WordPress 6.9 in the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/gutenberg-new/\">What’s New in Gutenberg</a> posts for versions <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/05/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-0-05-november/\">22.0</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/20/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-1-18-november-2025/\">22.1</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/12/03/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-2-dec3/\">22.2</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/12/17/gutenberg-22-3-december-17/\">22.3</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/01/22/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-4-20-january/\">22.4</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/02/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-5-04-february/\">22.5</a> &amp; 22.6.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What’s new in WordPress 7.0?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress 7.0 boasts numerous upgrades in the editing and admin experience, delivering enhanced real time collaboration, refined customizability, new dashboard styles, and an expanded developer toolbox for people who create, design, and build with WordPress every day.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Working as a team just got easier with the ability for multiple users to edit together in real time, while visual revisions allow a visual comparison between page versions, adding agility to the creation and review process. Working with patterns has been simplified, making layout updates and content changes more intuitive, while view transitions smoothly move you from screen to screen as you click.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New and improved blocks and design features in 7.0 make sites more customizable, with video embed backgrounds in the Cover block, a responsive-enabled Grid block, and new Icons, Breadcrumbs and Heading blocks. An updated Navigation block makes menu changes easier and more reliable in fewer steps. Responsive, mobile-friendly controls in 7.0 allow you to hide or reveal blocks based on screen size, while client-side media handling speeds up media processing. The Font Library screen for managing installed fonts is now enabled for all themes, so site editors are always able to browse, install, and organize fonts.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For developers, it’s now easier to build modern experiences while staying aligned with Core principles. The new WP AI Client in WordPress 7.0 brings a layer into Core that allows leveraging of AI models from any provider within the WordPress framework. This means plugins and themes can tap into any AI model to expound on its endless options. 7.0 offers even more versatility with the Client Side Abilities API that introduces a standardized way to register and run “abilities” in the browser, supporting richer, more consistent workflows. Additionally, 7.0 introduces PHP-only block registration with auto-generated inspector controls, adding a new dimension to block creation, while Block Bindings updates for pattern overrides expands support to custom dynamic blocks, giving block creators more options.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Needless to say, this release offers a wide range of flexibility to creators, teams and developers, while bringing a visual refresh to the admin experience you know and love with a fresh default style.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Work together in real time</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Building on the momentum started in WordPress 6.9, the ability for teams to create and edit together is more refined and robust in 7.0. With this version of WordPress multiple users can edit and collaborate on the same post or page in real time, with data syncing and stabilized notes for smoother teamwork and a more streamlined editing and review process.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Real Time Collaboration: Teams can now edit posts and pages together live from multiple locations, with offline editing and data syncing enabled, and a new default HTTP polling sync provider with options for plugins or hosts to include websocket support. With this collaborative content creation workflow, teams can brainstorm more effectively and boost productivity. For the beta period, real-time collaboration is opt-in in order to get broader feedback and testing.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Notes: 7.0 introduces real time syncing of notes that helps facilitate collaboration, a keyboard shortcut for new notes, and a series of quality-focused fixes that bring more stability to the Notes feature.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Refined Admin Experience</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress 7.0 gives the wp-admin experience a boost with a fresh default color scheme, and a cleaner, more modern looking dashboard, while keeping the interface familiar. The upgraded dashboard enhances the editing experience with new visual revision comparisons, and smooth transitioning between screens.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Visual Revisions: Working with revisions is even better in 7.0 with the added ability to make visual comparisons to revision versions within the editor.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>View transitions: Cross-document view transitions in the dashboard offer visual continuity with seamless movement from screen to screen.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Customizing content with ease</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Creators have more flexibility in 7.0 with new tools for content and design, enhanced editing controls, and attention to mobile friendliness.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Responsive Editing Mode: Block visibility is now more responsive and mobile-friendly, with the ability for blocks to be displayed or hidden based on screen size.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pattern Editing and contentOnly interactivity: WordPress 7.0 introduces pattern-level editing modes, a tree view for buttons and list blocks, and the ability to opt out of the default content only mode. The new Spotlight mode helps you isolate content in patterns and notes, while the Isolated Editor mode can be used for editing symbols and reusable pieces like synced patterns, template parts, or navigation.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Block supports and design tools: 7.0 includes text line indent support, text column support, aspect ratios for wide and full images, dimension width and height support, and dimension presets, tools and controls.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">New blocks and design options at your fingertips</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">7.0 delivers a series of new and improved blocks and block features, a streamlined navigation workflow, and more versatile design options like video embeds as section backgrounds.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Navigation Block: Navigation workflow is now more intuitive and clear, with improved editing and presentation. 7.0 introduces customizable navigation overlays as template parts, including mobile version overlays that can be hidden or revealed based on custom breakpoint settings.&nbsp;</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Heading Block: Heading levels are now available as block variations, giving more control over page hierarchy and design.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>New blocks: 7.0 makes building pages more diverse with new Breadcrumbs and Icons blocks.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cover block embedded videos: Video embeds can now be used as a background in the cover block, opening up opportunities for sleeker and more creative designs.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Grid block is now responsive-enabled allowing grid-based layouts to adapt more smoothly across screen sizes.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Gallery block now has lightbox support that lets the user click through and view each gallery image.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Developer&#8217;s toolbox</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Working with WordPress on the backend is now more robust for developers, with new and enhanced API features that support flexibility and lay a foundation for future advancements. The Client Side Abilities API provides a client-side registry for WordPress capabilities that allows you to tap into new and innovative website options. WordPress 7.0 offers even more by introducing the Web Client AI API to Core, enabling access to generative AI models in one central interface.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Web Client AI API: The new AI client and API acts as a command center for accessing and communicating with generative AI models, with providers remaining external to WordPress Core, and Abilities API integration.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Abilities and Workflows API: With the new client side abilities package users have access to new and hybrid abilities, filter and search functionality for abilities, and an improved command palette and UI.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Blocks and patterns created on the server: WordPress 7.0 boasts the ability for PHP-only blocks and patterns to be generated server-side and auto-registered with the Block API.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>DataForm: Introducing a new details layout, new controls (combobox, adaptiveSelect), and updated trigger for panel layout (dedicated edit button). Additionally, the initial iteration for validation is complete: all controls have support, and all layouts display error messages.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>DataViews: DataViews has a new activity layout, and a foundation has been laid to be able to register 3rd party types in future releases.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>CodeMirror update: CodeMirror has been updated to version 5.65.40, aiding more flexible extensibility and library options.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Media processing in the browser</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress 7.0 introduces Client-side media processing, leveraging the browser&#8217;s capabilities to handle tasks, like image resizing and compression, for smoother image processing. This enables the use of more advanced image formats and compression techniques, and reduces demand on the web server; providing a more efficient media handling process for both new and existing content, and supporting smoother media workflows.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With so many options and enhancements in WordPress 7.0 Beta 1, this is still only the beginning. You can expect future releases to be even better.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Just for you: a Beta 1 haiku:</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>As sun kisses moon</em>,</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Beta 1 ignites in bloom</em>&#8230;</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Seven-oh lands soon</em>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Props to <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/ellatrix/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>ellatrix</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>jeffpaul</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>annezazu</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaion07/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>chaion07</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/zunaid321/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>zunaid321</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>audrasjb</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/mukesh27/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>mukesh27</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/ankit-k-gupta/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>ankit-k-gupta</a></em>, <em><a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/oandregal/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>oandregal</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>westonruter</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/karmatosed/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>karmatosed</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/bph/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>bph</a> for reviewing and collaborating on this post!</em></p>\n\";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:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"19908\";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:63:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n			\";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:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:40:\"Piloting the AI Leaders Micro-Credential\";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:57:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/02/ai-leaders-credential/\";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, 04 Feb 2026 19:03:18 +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:8:\"category\";a:3:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"Education\";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:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:7:\"Updates\";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:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:2:\"AI\";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=19874\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}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:396:\"Today, we are happy to announce our first WordPress-focused micro-credential, designed to help students build practical AI skills, earn a recognized credential, and connect more directly to job opportunities. The program, AI Leaders, is a workforce-oriented credential rooted in WordPress and open source contributions. Students are paid for their time, work on real WordPress projects, [&#8230;]\";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:\"Mary Hubbard\";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:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:4145:\"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, we are happy to announce our first WordPress-focused micro-credential, designed to help students build practical AI skills, earn a recognized credential, and connect more directly to job opportunities.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The program, <a href=\"https://ai-leaders.org/\">AI Leaders</a>, is a workforce-oriented credential rooted in WordPress and open source contributions. Students are paid for their time, work on real WordPress projects, and gain hands-on experience applying AI in ways that are directly relevant to the WordPress ecosystem. This pilot represents a meaningful step forward in how the project supports learning, contribution, and career pathways.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beginning in March 2026, AI Leaders launches its first cohort of 80 students from Illinois and Louisiana, with <a href=\"https://today.uic.edu/uic-and-wordpress-foundation-launch-workforce-focused-ai-literacy-course/\">University of Illinois Chicago</a> (UIC) students given priority to apply before enrollment expands to the public. Enrollees begin with an orientation covering generative AI tools and AI literacy. From there, 40 participants are selected for the full course experience. Ultimately, the program leads to the AI Leader WordPress Micro-Credential and an opportunity to pursue living-wage job pathways. Learners who complete the course also earn $1,000 (USD).</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This pilot is the result of collaboration across several organizations, each playing a distinct role. The program is funded through the UIC Tech Solutions Open Source Fund, with support from the University of Illinois Chicago and <a href=\"https://automattic.com/2026/02/03/uic-tech-solutions-open-source-fund/\">Automattic</a>. That funding supports program delivery, participant compensation, and the institutional infrastructure needed to run the pilot. Alongside that funding, the WordPress project and the WordPress Foundation will contribute to the development of the credential itself. This includes shaping the curriculum, grounding the work in real WordPress AI use cases, and ensuring alignment with open source values and public benefit.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-off-white-2-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-2431c55b wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space)\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Visit the AI Leaders site to learn more and apply.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-3e41869c wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https://ai-leaders.org/\">Start Your Application</a></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the first WordPress Foundation-backed micro-credential, and it is intentionally being run as a pilot. We are exploring how the Foundation could support additional credentials over time, across different skill areas and partners, while maintaining clear governance, openness, and alignment with the WordPress project. It represents a step toward a future where WordPress contributors can more easily translate their skills into credentials, careers, and long-term opportunities.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-dark-strokes-grey-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-dark-strokes-grey-background-color has-background\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>WordPress offers a wide range of educational opportunities for people at every stage, from first steps to advanced contribution. Explore workshops, lesson plans, and community-created resources designed to help you build practical skills while connecting with others who are learning and contributing at <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/education/\">WordPress.org/education/</a>.</em></p>\n\";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:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"19874\";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:57:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n			\";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:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:35:\"WordPress 6.9.1 Maintenance 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:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:71:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/02/wordpress-6-9-1-maintenance-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:7:\"pubDate\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:31:\"Tue, 03 Feb 2026 18:07:31 +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:8:\"category\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:8:\"Releases\";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=19862\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}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:373:\"WordPress 6.9.1 is now available! This minor release includes fixes for 49 bugs throughout Core and the Block Editor, addressing issues affecting multiple areas of WordPress including the block editor, mail, and classic themes. For a full list of bug fixes, please refer to the release candidate announcement. WordPress 6.9.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release. [&#8230;]\";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:\"Aaron Jorbin\";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:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9409:\"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WordPress 6.9.1 is now available!</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This minor release includes fixes for 49 bugs <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?resolution=fixed&amp;milestone=6.9.1&amp;group=component&amp;col=id&amp;col=summary&amp;col=milestone&amp;col=owner&amp;col=type&amp;col=status&amp;col=priority&amp;order=priority\">throughout Core</a> and <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/74806\">the Block Editor</a>, addressing issues affecting multiple areas of WordPress including the block editor, mail, and classic themes. For a full list of bug fixes, please refer to the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/01/30/wordpress-6-9-1-rc1-is-now-available/\">release candidate announcement.</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress 6.9.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release. The next major version of WordPress will be 7.0; it is scheduled for release on 9 April 2026 at <a href=\"https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/\">WordCamp Asia</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.9.1.zip\">download WordPress 6.9.1 from WordPress.org</a>, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”. For more information on this release, please <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-6-9-1\">visit the HelpHub site</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Thank you to these WordPress contributors</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This release was led by <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorbin/\">Aaron Jorbin</a> and <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/wildworks\">Aki Hamano.</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress 6.9.1 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver maintenance fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-wporg-props-medium wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorbin\">Aaron Jorbin</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/aaronrobertshaw\">Aaron Robertshaw</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/acmoifr\">acmoifr</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/adamsilverstein\">Adam Silverstein</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/oztaser\">Adil Öztaşer</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/wildworks\">Aki Hamano</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/albigdd\">Alexander Bigga</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/amanandhishoe\">amanandhishoe</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/andrewserong\">Andrew Serong</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/bernhard-reiter\">Bernie Reiter</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/brumack\">brumack</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/darerodz\">David Arenas</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald\">David Baumwald</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/raftaar1191\">Deepak Gupta</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/deepakprajapati\">Deepak Prajapati</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/dmsnell\">Dennis Snell</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/digitalblanket\">digitalblanket</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/ellatrix\">Ella Van Durpe</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/fabiankaegy\">Fabian Kaegy</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mamaduka\">George Mamadashvili</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/hbhalodia\">Hit Bhalodia</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/iflairwebtechnologies\">iflairwebtechnologies</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/isabel_brison\">Isabel Brison</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jdeep\">Jaydeep Das</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb\">Jb Audras</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/maverick3x6\">Jeff Golenski</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul\">Jeffrey Paul</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jhtjards\">jhtjards</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/joedolson\">Joe Dolson</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion\">John Blackbourn</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jonsurrell\">Jon Surrell</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj\">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorgefilipecosta\">Jorge Costa</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/greenshady\">Justin Tadlock</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/karthickmurugan\">Karthick</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/solankisoftware\">Kirtikumar Solanki</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/0mirka00\">Lena Morita</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/luisherranz\">luisherranz</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/madhavishah01\">Madhavi Shah</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/sirlouen\">Manuel Camargo</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jillro\">Maud Royer</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mehrazmorshed\">Mehraz Morshed</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/monarobase\">Monarobase</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mrwweb\">mrwweb</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mukesh27\">Mukesh Panchal</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/muryam\">Muryam Sultana</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mydesign78\">mydesign78</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/narenin\">Narendra Sishodiya</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/ntsekouras\">Nik Tsekouras</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/ninos-ego\">Ninos</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/noruzzaman\">Noruzzaman</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/oglekler\">Olga Gleckler</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/gabertronic\">Ophelia Rose</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/ov3rfly\">Ov3rfly</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/ozgursar\">Ozgur Sar</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/paragoninitiativeenterprises\">Paragon Initiative Enterprises</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/swissspidy\">Pascal Birchler</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/vybiral\">Pavel Vybíral</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/peterwilsoncc\">Peter Wilson</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/pmbs\">pmbs</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/presskopp\">Presskopp</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/r1k0\">r1k0</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/ramonopoly\">ramonopoly</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/youknowriad\">Riad Benguella</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/ricjcs\">Ricardo S.</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/rollybueno\">Rolly Bueno</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mikachan\">Sarah Norris</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/\">Scott Reilly</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov\">Sergey Biryukov</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/sajib1223\">Shazzad Hossain Khan</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/siliconforks\">siliconforks</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/soyebsalar01\">Soyeb Salar</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/spielers\">spielers</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/sabernhardt\">Stephen Bernhardt</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/studiomondiale\">studio_m</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/iamtakashi\">Takashi Irie</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/inc2734\">Takashi Kitajima</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/threadi\">threadi</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/tobiasbg\">Tobias Bäthge</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/shimotomoki\">Tomoki Shimomura</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/umeshsinghin\">Umesh Singh</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/twvania\">Vania</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter\">Weston Ruter</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/wfmattr\">WFMattR</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/wolf45\">wolf45</a>, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/zoe20\">zoe20</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to contribute</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/report/6\">pick a ticket</a>, and join the conversation in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW\">#core</a> channel. Need help? Check out the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/\">Core Contributor Handbook</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Props to </em><a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>audrasjb</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>davidbaumwald</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>westonruter</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>jeffpaul</a>, <a href=\'https://profiles.wordpress.org/presskopp/\' class=\'mention\'><span class=\'mentions-prefix\'>@</span>presskopp</a><em> for proofreading.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"></p>\n\";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:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"19862\";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:60:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n			\";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:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:32:\"New AI Agent Skill for WordPress\";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:54:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/01/new-ai-agent-skill/\";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, 30 Jan 2026 17:13:55 +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:8:\"category\";a:2:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"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:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11:\"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:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=19798\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}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:338:\"Faster Way For AI Agents To Test AI code agents are getting better at writing WordPress plugins and themes, but testing can still be the slow part. WordPress contributor Brandon Payton has published wp-playground, a new AI agent skill designed to run WordPress via the Playground CLI, giving agents a fast, repeatable way to run [&#8230;]\";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:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5989:\"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Faster Way For AI Agents To Test</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AI code agents are getting better at writing WordPress plugins and themes, but testing can still be the slow part. WordPress contributor <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/bpayton/\">Brandon Payton</a> has published <mark style=\"background-color:#eff2ff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-dark-strokes-grey-color\">wp-playground</mark>, a new AI agent skill designed to run WordPress via the Playground CLI<strong>, </strong>giving agents a fast, repeatable way to run WordPress and verify their work as they iterate.<br></p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;AI agents work better when they have a clear feedback loop. That’s why I made the wp-playground skill. It gives agents an easy way to test WordPress code and makes building and experimenting with WordPress a lot more accessible.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212; Brandon Payton, WordPress Contributor</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What the Playground skill does</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When launched, the skill starts WordPress and detects where the current code should live inside a WordPress install. For example, it can mount a plugin into <mark style=\"background-color:#eff2ff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-dark-strokes-grey-color\">wp-content/plugins</mark> or a theme into <mark style=\"background-color:#eff2ff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-dark-strokes-grey-color\">wp-content/themes</mark> by recognizing common file signatures (such as plugin headers or a theme’s <mark style=\"background-color:#eff2ff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-dark-strokes-grey-color\">style.css</mark>). This helps agents move from “generated code” to “running site” with fewer manual steps.<br></p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover wp-elements-1323ebcb3edbff2bde6000899ed39b56\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space)\"><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim-80 has-background-dim\"></span><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-cover-is-layout-a6a02316 wp-block-cover-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-off-white-2-color has-text-color has-link-color has-eb-garamond-font-family has-huge-font-size wp-elements-11d5ec75ba50354c745eeb5f70fa912c wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\"><strong>Install and try it today.</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Find more information on this GitHub link:</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-3e41869c wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-blue-1-background-color has-background has-eb-garamond-font-family has-large-font-size has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/agent-skills/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>WordPress AI Agent Skills</strong></a></div>\n</div>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Early results and testing workflow</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In testing, agents were able to start WordPress, build playful plugins, and validate behavior in a tight feedback loop. Once Playground was running, the agent alternated between tools such as <mark style=\"background-color:#eff2ff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-dark-strokes-grey-color\">curl</mark> and Playwright to interact with WordPress, verify results, apply fixes when needed, and then re-verify with Playground.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Faster startup and smoother iteration</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Helper scripts handle startup and shutdown, so an agent doesn’t waste time guessing when WordPress is ready. Using helper scripts reduced the “ready to test” moment from roughly a minute to a few seconds on the author’s machine. The Playground CLI can also log in automatically for easier <mark style=\"background-color:#eff2ff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-dark-strokes-grey-color\">WP-Admin</mark> access during testing.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Install and try it now</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For those who want to try it in Claude Code, Codex, or another AI agent, installation requires <a href=\"https://nodejs.org/\">Node.js</a> and npm and looks like this:</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-dark-strokes-grey-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-2a77bf7f3e8595318d429b5c7a3f6dd5 wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"padding-top:10px;padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--10);padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--10)\"># Run this in a project directory to install the skills for that project&nbsp;<br>npx openskills install WordPress/agent-skills<br><br># Make skills available to non-Claude agents<br>npx openskills sync</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A new repo for WordPress agent skills</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This release also comes with a new home for this kind of work: <br><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/agent-skills\">https://github.com/WordPress/agent-skills</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It’s an early step in exploring how AI agents can collaborate with WordPress tooling, and contributions from the community are welcome. Future additions being explored include persistent Playground sites based on the current directory, running commands against an existing Playground instance (including <mark style=\"background-color:#eff2ff\" class=\"has-inline-color has-dark-strokes-grey-color\">wp-cli</mark>), and Blueprint generation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"></p>\n\";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:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"19798\";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:60:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n			\";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:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:29:\"Be Part of WordCamp Asia 2026\";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:54:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/01/wordcamp-asia-2026/\";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, 21 Jan 2026 12:07:00 +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:8:\"category\";a:2:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"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:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:6:\"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:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=19738\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}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:333:\"WordCamp Asia is back in 2026, this time in Mumbai, India, and it’s building on a year that showed just how ambitious and connected the WordPress community has become. Now is the time to get involved. Get your ticket, explore sponsorship opportunities, and help spread the word. In 2025, more than 1,400 attendees from 71 [&#8230;]\";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:17:\"Nicholas Garofalo\";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:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:36987:\"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordCamp Asia is back in 2026, this time in Mumbai, India, and it’s building on a year that showed just how ambitious and connected the WordPress community has become. Now is the time to get involved. Get your ticket, explore sponsorship opportunities, and help spread the word.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-82d461e8 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/event-pass/\" style=\"background:linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(42,5,123) 0%,rgb(42,5,123) 100%)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Get Your Event Pass</a></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/call-for-sponsors/\" style=\"background:linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(42,5,123) 0%,rgb(42,5,123) 100%)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Become a Sponsor</a></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/\" style=\"background:linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(42,5,123) 0%,rgb(42,5,123) 100%)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">About WordCamp Asia</a></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2025, more than 1,400 attendees from 71 countries gathered in person, with nearly 15,000 more joining online for <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/02/shaping-tomorrow-at-wordcamp-asia-2025/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WordCamp Asia 2025</a>. With notable guests like WordPress <span style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">Co-founder&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Matt Mullenweg</a>&nbsp;and Gutenberg Lead Architect&nbsp;<a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/matveb/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Matías Ventura</a>, and</span> a diverse lineup of speakers and panelists from across the ecosystem, WordCamp Asia 2025 brought together a community actively shaping the future of the open web.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s the people. It&#8217;s the friendships and the stories.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Matt Mullenweg, WordPress Cofounder</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordCamp isn’t just about sessions and schedules. It’s about connection. It’s about learning directly from people who are building, scaling, and sustaining WordPress in the real world. It’s about sharing ideas, debating the future of the open web, and leaving with renewed energy for the work ahead. 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has-custom-border wp-lightbox-container\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--pointerdown=\"actions.preloadImage\" data-wp-on--pointerenter=\"actions.preloadImageWithDelay\" data-wp-on--pointerleave=\"actions.cancelPreload\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-id=\"18527\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1989.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18527\" style=\"border-radius:2px\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1989-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1989-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1989-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1989-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1989-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /><button\n			class=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n			type=\"button\"\n			aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n			data-wp-bind--aria-label=\"state.thisImage.triggerButtonAriaLabel\"\n			data-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n			data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n			data-wp-style--right=\"state.thisImage.buttonRight\"\n			data-wp-style--top=\"state.thisImage.buttonTop\"\n		>\n			<svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n				<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" />\n			</svg>\n		</button></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69a13eb942be6&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core/image\" data-wp-key=\"69a13eb942be6\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large has-custom-border wp-lightbox-container\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--pointerdown=\"actions.preloadImage\" data-wp-on--pointerenter=\"actions.preloadImageWithDelay\" data-wp-on--pointerleave=\"actions.cancelPreload\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-id=\"18530\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1920.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18530\" style=\"border-radius:2px\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1920-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1920-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1920-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1920-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC_1920-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /><button\n			class=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n			type=\"button\"\n			aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n			data-wp-bind--aria-label=\"state.thisImage.triggerButtonAriaLabel\"\n			data-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n			data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n			data-wp-style--right=\"state.thisImage.buttonRight\"\n			data-wp-style--top=\"state.thisImage.buttonTop\"\n		>\n			<svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n				<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" />\n			</svg>\n		</button></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69a13eb943246&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core/image\" data-wp-key=\"69a13eb943246\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large wp-lightbox-container\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--pointerdown=\"actions.preloadImage\" data-wp-on--pointerenter=\"actions.preloadImageWithDelay\" data-wp-on--pointerleave=\"actions.cancelPreload\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-id=\"18616\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/WORDCAMPASIA2025_PH_PICC_DAY01_CONTRIBUTORSDAY_JOHN_CARLO_PATTAGUAN-474.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18616\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/WORDCAMPASIA2025_PH_PICC_DAY01_CONTRIBUTORSDAY_JOHN_CARLO_PATTAGUAN-474-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/WORDCAMPASIA2025_PH_PICC_DAY01_CONTRIBUTORSDAY_JOHN_CARLO_PATTAGUAN-474-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/WORDCAMPASIA2025_PH_PICC_DAY01_CONTRIBUTORSDAY_JOHN_CARLO_PATTAGUAN-474-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/WORDCAMPASIA2025_PH_PICC_DAY01_CONTRIBUTORSDAY_JOHN_CARLO_PATTAGUAN-474-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/WORDCAMPASIA2025_PH_PICC_DAY01_CONTRIBUTORSDAY_JOHN_CARLO_PATTAGUAN-474-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /><button\n			class=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n			type=\"button\"\n			aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n			data-wp-bind--aria-label=\"state.thisImage.triggerButtonAriaLabel\"\n			data-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n			data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n			data-wp-style--right=\"state.thisImage.buttonRight\"\n			data-wp-style--top=\"state.thisImage.buttonTop\"\n		>\n			<svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n				<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" />\n			</svg>\n		</button></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69a13eb943792&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core/image\" data-wp-key=\"69a13eb943792\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large wp-lightbox-container\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"684\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--pointerdown=\"actions.preloadImage\" data-wp-on--pointerenter=\"actions.preloadImageWithDelay\" data-wp-on--pointerleave=\"actions.cancelPreload\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-id=\"18615\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/T2S_6305.jpg?resize=1024%2C684&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18615\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/T2S_6305-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C684&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/T2S_6305-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/T2S_6305-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C513&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/T2S_6305-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1025&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/T2S_6305-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1367&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /><button\n			class=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n			type=\"button\"\n			aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n			data-wp-bind--aria-label=\"state.thisImage.triggerButtonAriaLabel\"\n			data-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n			data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n			data-wp-style--right=\"state.thisImage.buttonRight\"\n			data-wp-style--top=\"state.thisImage.buttonTop\"\n		>\n			<svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n				<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" />\n			</svg>\n		</button></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69a13eb943ec9&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core/image\" data-wp-key=\"69a13eb943ec9\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large has-custom-border wp-lightbox-container\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--pointerdown=\"actions.preloadImage\" data-wp-on--pointerenter=\"actions.preloadImageWithDelay\" data-wp-on--pointerleave=\"actions.cancelPreload\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-id=\"18536\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC07465.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18536\" style=\"border-radius:2px\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC07465-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC07465-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC07465-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC07465-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/02/20250220-DSC07465-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /><button\n			class=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n			type=\"button\"\n			aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n			data-wp-bind--aria-label=\"state.thisImage.triggerButtonAriaLabel\"\n			data-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n			data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n			data-wp-style--right=\"state.thisImage.buttonRight\"\n			data-wp-style--top=\"state.thisImage.buttonTop\"\n		>\n			<svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n				<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" />\n			</svg>\n		</button></figure>\n</figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tickets for WordCamp Asia 2026 are on sale now, and this is the moment to secure your spot. WordCamps are intentionally priced to remain accessible, and early ticket sales help organizers plan an inclusive, high-quality experience for everyone.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover wp-elements-0b95616698be07100358c612d6a7c795\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space)\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"455\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-19746 size-large\" alt=\"\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/wca-hero-purple.webp?resize=1024%2C455&#038;ssl=1\" data-object-fit=\"cover\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/wca-hero-purple.webp?resize=1024%2C455&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/wca-hero-purple.webp?resize=300%2C133&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/wca-hero-purple.webp?resize=768%2C341&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/wca-hero-purple.webp?w=1440&amp;ssl=1 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim-0 has-background-dim\"></span><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-cover-is-layout-a6a02316 wp-block-cover-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-luminous-vivid-amber-color has-text-color has-link-color has-eb-garamond-font-family has-huge-font-size wp-elements-fc6f7f5274402af690db6c3dfeb817bc wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\"><strong>Join 3,000+ Web Professionals</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">April 9 – 11, 2026 | Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai, India</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-3e41869c wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-background-color has-background has-eb-garamond-font-family has-large-font-size has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/event-pass/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Get Your Event Pass</strong></a></div>\n</div>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordCamp Asia is also made possible by the organizations that step up to support it. Sponsorship plays a critical role in keeping the event accessible, supporting contributors and volunteers, and ensuring the experience reflects the values of the WordPress project. For sponsors, WordCamp Asia 2026 offers a rare opportunity to connect with a highly engaged, global audience in a setting built on trust, collaboration, and shared purpose.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sponsorship packages are designed to support a wide range of organizations, from local companies to global businesses building products and services on WordPress. Beyond visibility, sponsors become part of the story—helping sustain the ecosystem and invest directly in the community that makes WordPress possible.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-background is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-7c6780e0 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"background:linear-gradient(135deg,rgb(42,5,123) 0%,rgb(124,78,224) 100%);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space)\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-f56f9fcf wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-canva wp-block-embed-canva\" style=\"margin-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);margin-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space)\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"OFFICIAL: WCAsia 2026 Sponsorship Prospectus\" src=\"https://www.canva.com/design/DAG5LHsUR7o/b-nFPoZDgxpV2tlN-tbAew/view?embed&amp;meta\" height=\"281\" width=\"500\" style=\"border: none; border-radius: 8px; width: 500px; height: 281px;\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" allow=\"fullscreen\"></iframe>\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-white-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ba159f72435edac28651a9149c455a8c wp-block-paragraph\">If your company is interested in becoming a sponsor or you would like to know more, please reach out.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-3e41869c wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-vivid-red-background-color has-background has-eb-garamond-font-family has-large-font-size has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/call-for-sponsors/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Become a Sponsor</strong></a></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At every level, WordCamp Asia is powered by people. Organizers, volunteers, speakers, sponsors, and attendees all contribute to an experience that reflects WordPress’s shared values of openness and collaboration. It’s a place where new voices are welcomed, long-time contributors reconnect, and ideas move from conversation to action.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;galleryId&quot;:&quot;69a13eb944f73&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core/gallery\" class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped has-border-color has-darker-grey-background-color has-background wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\" style=\"border-color:#1c2024;border-width:20px;border-radius:2px\">\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69a13eb945441&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core/image\" data-wp-key=\"69a13eb945441\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large has-custom-border wp-lightbox-container\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" 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/><button\n			class=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n			type=\"button\"\n			aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n			data-wp-bind--aria-label=\"state.thisImage.triggerButtonAriaLabel\"\n			data-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n			data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n			data-wp-style--right=\"state.thisImage.buttonRight\"\n			data-wp-style--top=\"state.thisImage.buttonTop\"\n		>\n			<svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n				<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" />\n			</svg>\n		</button></figure>\n</figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordCamp Asia 2026 is more than an event—it’s a moment to come together, reflect on where we are, and help shape what comes next. Whether you’re attending for the first time, returning for another year, or supporting the event as a sponsor, your involvement helps strengthen the WordPress ecosystem and the global community behind it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We’ll see you in Mumbai.</p>\n\";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:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"19738\";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:63:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n			\";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:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:43:\"A New Home for WordPress Education Programs\";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://wordpress.org/news/2026/01/wordpress-education-programs-new-home/\";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, 20 Jan 2026 17:14:55 +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:8:\"category\";a:3:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"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:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:7:\"Updates\";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:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"Education\";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=19636\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}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:392:\"Over the past few weeks, a new space has taken shape on WordPress.org for students who want to learn, build, and contribute. WordPress Education programs bring together initiatives that help students enter the WordPress ecosystem through clear, accessible entry points that lead to real-world practice. With hands-on initiatives and supportive communities, participants can grow new [&#8230;]\";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:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:17688:\"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the past few weeks, a new space has taken shape on WordPress.org for students who want to learn, build, and contribute. <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/education/\">WordPress Education programs</a> bring together initiatives that help students enter the WordPress ecosystem through clear, accessible entry points that lead to real-world practice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With hands-on initiatives and supportive communities, participants can grow new skills and take their first steps as contributors. Across campuses and communities worldwide, learners publish real projects, build practical experience, and gain confidence as part of open source creation.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/8467ac53c5cd33b1.95580622-scaled-2.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19638\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/8467ac53c5cd33b1.95580622-scaled-2-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/8467ac53c5cd33b1.95580622-scaled-2-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/8467ac53c5cd33b1.95580622-scaled-2-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/8467ac53c5cd33b1.95580622-scaled-2-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/8467ac53c5cd33b1.95580622-scaled-2-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em><a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/\">CC0</a> licensed <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/8467ac53c5/\">photo</a> by <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/photos/author/whyviru/\">Virendra Kumar Yadav</a> from the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/photos/\">WordPress Photo Directory</a>.</em></figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A clearer path into the WordPress ecosystem</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress Education is designed to help students turn knowledge into practice, discover their strengths, and understand how their contributions can make a real impact through three core programs: WordPress Campus Connect, WordPress Credits, and WordPress Student Clubs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through hands-on campus events, such as WordPress Campus Connect, on-campus groups like WordPress Student Clubs, and a practice-based program called WordPress Credits, participants can gain practical experience, publish real-world projects, and build confidence as contributors to a global culture of open-source creation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At its heart, these WordPress education programs are about three simple ideas:</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Learn. Build. Connect.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This update brings WordPress education programs together in one place, with an easy way to explore initiatives, understand how they work, and take the next step.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You will find:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A home for WordPress Education programs and updates</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clear “how to get involved” paths for students, educators, mentors, organizers, and sponsors</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Stories, highlights, and examples of real projects created through the programs</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Links to the Education Handbook for program guidelines and resources</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-off-white-2-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-2431c55b wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space)\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Want to learn more about WordPress education opportunities?</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-3e41869c wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https://wordpress.org/education/\">Visit The Portal</a></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><em>You can also view more information from the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/education/\">WordPress Community Education Programs Handbook</a>. Learn how this serves as a central guide and resource for all community-driven educational initiatives.</em></em></p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">WordPress <br>Campus Connect</h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress Campus Connect is a growing global learning initiative that brings hands-on WordPress learning directly to the students on their campus.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The organizers can come from within educational institutions or from the local communities to help deliver WordPress programming and create the future stewards of WordPress.<br><br>Learn more: <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/education/campus-connect/\">https://wordpress.org/education/campus-connect/</a><br></p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">WordPress <br>Credits</h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress Credits is a contribution-based program by the WordPress Foundation that connects higher education students with the global WordPress community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Educational institutions partner with the WordPress Foundation to offer students credits toward their degrees for contributing 150 hours to the WordPress project.<br><br>Learn more: <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/education/credits/\">https://wordpress.org/education/credits/</a></p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">WordPress <br>Student Clubs</h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress Student Clubs empower students to build on-campus WordPress communities that keep learning going throughout the year.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the spirit of our local community meetups, these groups operate as on-campus equivalents, keeping students engaged and connected with their local WordPress communities.<br><br>Learn more: <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/education/student-clubs/\">https://wordpress.org/education/student-clubs/</a></p>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Support This Growing Movement</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Help spread the word, and let friends, students, and others know how they can contribute to this growing effort, including a widely expanding translation effort. WordPress Education has already been translated into 10 new languages. WordPress Education is powered by people who believe in open learning and the power of collaboration.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"></p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-jetpack-tiled-gallery aligncenter has-darker-grey-background-color has-background is-style-rectangular\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-right:0;margin-bottom:0;margin-left:0;padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\"><div class=\"\"><div class=\"tiled-gallery__gallery\"><div class=\"tiled-gallery__row\"><div class=\"tiled-gallery__col\" style=\"flex-basis:49.76204%\"><figure class=\"tiled-gallery__item\"><img decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/alumnos-tabajando-Campus-Connect-Catarroja-scaled-1.webp?strip=info&#038;w=600&#038;ssl=1 600w,https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/alumnos-tabajando-Campus-Connect-Catarroja-scaled-1.webp?strip=info&#038;w=900&#038;ssl=1 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data-url=\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCC-University-of-Brahmanbaria-1-scaled-1-1024x547.jpg\" data-width=\"2560\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCC-University-of-Brahmanbaria-1-scaled-1-1024x547.jpg?ssl=1\" data-amp-layout=\"responsive\" /></figure><figure class=\"tiled-gallery__item\"><img decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCC-Zamboanga-1-scaled-1-1024x768.jpg?strip=info&#038;w=600&#038;ssl=1 600w,https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCC-Zamboanga-1-scaled-1-1024x768.jpg?strip=info&#038;w=900&#038;ssl=1 900w,https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCC-Zamboanga-1-scaled-1-1024x768.jpg?strip=info&#038;w=1200&#038;ssl=1 1200w,https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCC-Zamboanga-1-scaled-1-1024x768.jpg?strip=info&#038;w=1500&#038;ssl=1 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600w,https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCreditsMentorsAtWCPISA2025-1-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg?strip=info&#038;w=900&#038;ssl=1 900w,https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCreditsMentorsAtWCPISA2025-1-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg?strip=info&#038;w=1200&#038;ssl=1 1200w,https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCreditsMentorsAtWCPISA2025-1-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg?strip=info&#038;w=1500&#038;ssl=1 1500w,https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCreditsMentorsAtWCPISA2025-1-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg?strip=info&#038;w=1800&#038;ssl=1 1800w,https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCreditsMentorsAtWCPISA2025-1-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg?strip=info&#038;w=2000&#038;ssl=1 2000w\" alt=\"\" data-height=\"1707\" data-id=\"19648\" data-link=\"https://wordpress.org/news/?attachment_id=19648\" data-url=\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCreditsMentorsAtWCPISA2025-1-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg\" data-width=\"2560\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/WPCreditsMentorsAtWCPISA2025-1-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg?ssl=1\" data-amp-layout=\"responsive\" /></figure></div></div></div></div></div>\n\";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:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"19636\";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:57:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n			\";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:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:58:\"WordPress Playground Brings Speed, Stability, and Momentum\";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:81:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/01/wordpress-playground-speed-stability-momentum/\";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, 15 Jan 2026 16:53:33 +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:8:\"category\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:7:\"General\";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=19673\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}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:399:\"WordPress Playground had a busy year in 2025, with updates that make it more capable for day-to-day development, plugin previews, and learning environments. The project’s latest year-in-review highlights progress across performance, compatibility, database support, and tooling, expanding what can be done in a WordPress environment that runs in the browser and through the command line. [&#8230;]\";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:\"\";}}}s:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:12643:\"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress Playground had a busy year in 2025, with updates that make it more capable for day-to-day development, plugin previews, and learning environments. The project’s latest year-in-review highlights progress across performance, compatibility, database support, and tooling, expanding what can be done in a WordPress environment that runs in the browser and through the command line.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From faster load times to broader plugin support, the throughline is clear: Playground is moving beyond quick demos and into workflows that help developers and educators test, iterate, and share WordPress experiences more easily.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-b1f71d27 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\" style=\"border-style:none;border-width:0px;border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-blue-5-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https://wordpress.org/playground/\" style=\"border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px\">Try Playground Now</a></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"551\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.13.49-pm.png?resize=1024%2C551&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19689\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.13.49-pm-scaled.png?resize=1024%2C551&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.13.49-pm-scaled.png?resize=300%2C161&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.13.49-pm-scaled.png?resize=768%2C413&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.13.49-pm-scaled.png?resize=1536%2C826&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.13.49-pm-scaled.png?resize=2048%2C1102&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-off-white-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-2033d2f1 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space)\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key Takeaways</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Plugin previews are more reliable: </strong>99% of the top 1,000 plugins can be installed and activated successfully, making demos and evaluations more trustworthy.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Everything is faster:</strong> A performance upgrade reduced average response time by 42%, and further optimizations improved overall “time to first useful click.”</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Database tools work in browser:</strong> Improved database compatibility enabled tools like phpMyAdmin to be used directly on <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net\">playground.wordpress.net</a>.<br><strong>More practical tooling for real work:</strong> Testing configurations and previewing changes can happen in one place, without a complete local environment first.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>New visual gallery of blueprints:</strong> A new <a href=\"https://wordpress.github.io/blueprints/\">visual gallery of blueprints</a> provides excellent starting points for various types of sites.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Global adoption:</strong> Playground was used 1.4 million times globally, with growing documentation translations and community contributions.</li>\n</ul>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reliable Plugin Previews and Experimentation</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A headline update from 2025 is the focus on compatibility. In testing with the top 1,000 plugins from the WordPress plugin directory, 99% installed and activated successfully. That matters because it raises confidence in what Playground is best known for: letting people try things quickly, without a complex setup, and with fewer surprises.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This highlighted that Playground is increasingly useful as a general-purpose PHP sandbox. Alongside WordPress, it can support standard PHP tools and projects, which makes it easier to explore how WordPress fits into broader development workflows and to share reproducible environments with others.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you try something new and unexpected in Playground, the update encourages you to share what you learn in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/playground\">#playground</a> Slack channel, so the community can build a clearer picture of what works well today and what is improving next.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Faster Load Times</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speed was a central theme in 2025. A recent <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/playground/2025/12/03/wordpress-playground-2025-year-in-review/\">year-in-review report</a> revealed a 42% reduction in average response time, and this is not just a single change. A series of improvements make Playground feel quicker in the moments people notice most, such as loading WordPress, opening wp-admin, and switching between tasks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several behind-the-scenes updates were described in plain terms as “less waiting”: checks happen earlier, parts of the experience load in a smarter order, and more content is reused from cache, so repeat actions are snappier.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For people using Playground to review a plugin, validate a bug fix, or teach a class, these improvements mean the same thing: faster feedback loops, with fewer pauses that break concentration.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Better Tooling and Compatibility</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2025, Playground also became more “toolbox-like” in the browser. The update highlighted features that reduce context switching, such as editing files on the page, building and testing starter configurations (Blueprints) in a dedicated editor, and launching database tools such as phpMyAdmin and Adminer with a single click.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the database side, a significant compatibility upgrade was introduced to improve support for more complex database behavior. The practical outcome is that more WordPress sites and plugins behave as expected in Playground, and more developer tools can run inside the environment.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blueprints also advanced in ways that benefit both builders and sharers. The updates focus on making starter setups easier to create, browse, and reuse, especially when a demo requires content, media, or a specific configuration that should launch consistently.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the clearest ways to see that progress is the <a href=\"https://wordpress.github.io/blueprints/\"><strong>WordPress Blueprints Gallery</strong></a>, a community library of ready-to-launch WordPress environments. From practical “building block” examples (such as starting with a specific login role) to demos that automatically install themes and plugins, to richer setups that generate posts and featured images via WP-CLI, the gallery demonstrates how quickly an idea can become a fully functional site that you can browse and share.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Examples:</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns are-vertically-aligned-center has-dark-strokes-grey-background-color has-background is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\" style=\"border-width:12px\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"714\" height=\"828\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.51.02-pm.png?resize=714%2C828&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19694\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.51.02-pm.png?w=714&amp;ssl=1 714w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.51.02-pm.png?resize=259%2C300&amp;ssl=1 259w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\" /></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Fwordpress%2Fblueprints%2Ftrunk%2Fblueprints%2Fstylish-press%2Fblueprint.json\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"714\" height=\"828\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.53.15-pm.png?resize=714%2C828&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19698\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.53.15-pm.png?w=714&amp;ssl=1 714w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-2.53.15-pm.png?resize=259%2C300&amp;ssl=1 259w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\" /></a></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Fwordpress%2Fblueprints%2Ftrunk%2Fblueprints%2Forganization-kentwood%2Fblueprint.json\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"714\" height=\"826\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-3.05.37-pm.png?resize=714%2C826&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19704\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-3.05.37-pm.png?w=714&amp;ssl=1 714w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-09-at-3.05.37-pm.png?resize=259%2C300&amp;ssl=1 259w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\" /></a></figure>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>For anyone who wants to experience the power of WordPress without the setup, the gallery serves as a strong reminder of what Playground makes possible: shareable, repeatable site experiences that work the same way every time — ideal for demos, workshops, testing, and “try it now” links.&nbsp;</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Clear adoption signals back all of this. The review reports 1.4 million uses globally, documentation translations in multiple languages, and growing integration across the plugin directory through Playground-powered previews. It also points to a steady increase in community contribution, from documentation and support to talks and real-world workflows built on top of Playground.<br><br>A huge thank you to everyone who tried Playground over the past year,&nbsp; whether you launched a quick demo, tested a change, taught a workshop, or helped make the documentation more accessible in your language. And if there’s anything that would make Playground even more helpful for your day-to-day work, the project actively welcomes ideas and feature requests via the WordPress Playground GitHub issues tracker.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Looking Ahead</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As we closed out 2025 and now look forward to 2026, we can see several forward-looking initiatives, including work on MySQL binary protocol support (to enhance broader compatibility with MySQL tools) and continued exploration of debugging enhancements, such as expanded XDebug access.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For anyone who last tried Playground as a quick demo environment, 2025’s updates suggested a shift in direction: Playground is increasingly positioned as a practical layer for testing, teaching, previewing, and reviewing WordPress, both in the browser and in local workflows.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"></p>\n\";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:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"19673\";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:60:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n			\";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:4:{s:0:\"\";a:6:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:40:\"2026 Global Partner Program Announcement\";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:63:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/12/2026-global-partner-program/\";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, 10 Dec 2025 17:16:48 +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:8:\"category\";a:2:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"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:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:6:\"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:35:\"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=19534\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}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:412:\"Become a driving force behind WordPress innovation by joining the Global Community Sponsorship Program: a comprehensive initiative that supports the events and people powering our open source mission. As a Global Sponsor, your organization gains meaningful visibility across the international WordPress ecosystem while helping to fund events that foster growth, collaboration, and community. Why Choose [&#8230;]\";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:\"Harmony Romo\";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:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:11677:\"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Become a driving force behind WordPress innovation by joining the Global Community Sponsorship Program: a comprehensive initiative that supports the events and people powering our open source mission. As a Global Sponsor, your organization gains meaningful visibility across the international WordPress ecosystem while helping to fund events that foster growth, collaboration, and community.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/WordPress-Global-Partners-Program-2026-.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19617\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/WordPress-Global-Partners-Program-2026-.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/WordPress-Global-Partners-Program-2026-.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/WordPress-Global-Partners-Program-2026-.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/WordPress-Global-Partners-Program-2026-.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/WordPress-Global-Partners-Program-2026-.jpg?w=1600&amp;ssl=1 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Choose Global Sponsorship?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead of managing multiple individual sponsorships, this streamlined program consolidates your efforts into one efficient and impactful partnership.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Efficiency and Simplified Administration</h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Skip the complexity of coordinating invoice payments with numerous volunteer teams. Our centralized approach saves time and resources. In 2026, sponsors will benefit from:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A dedicated Slack channel for direct communication with the WordPress Community Support team and Community Program Managers</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Monthly updates listing upcoming WordPress events, their current planning stages, and scheduled dates</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Expanded Reach and Impact</h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your sponsorship amplifies your presence worldwide, ensuring consistent visibility across global WordPress community events.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stability and Reliability</h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your commitment strengthens locally organized events by providing predictable funding that supports venues, logistics, and growth.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Flexible Branding Options</h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adapt across your portfolio—Global Sponsors can represent different brands at different events (subject to approval and advance notice).</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Program Benefits</h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\"></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>Global&nbsp;Leader</strong></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>Regional Powerhouse</strong></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>Community Builder</strong></td></tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\"><br><br><br><br><strong>Best for:<br></strong></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Established brands seeking global reach and year-round visibility.</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Companies aiming for regional dominance and strong brand recognition.</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Organizations supporting the next generation of WordPress education.</td></tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Sponsorship payable in full or through quarterly installments</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">$180,000</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">$110,000</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">$60,000</td></tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Top tier sponsorship benefits at all local <a href=\"https://central.wordcamp.org/\">WordCamp</a> events (excludes flagships) with priority access to claim a sponsor table at in-person <a href=\"https://events.wordpress.org/\">WordPress events</a></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/2714.png\" alt=\"✔\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"></td></tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Option to feature multiple brands across events</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/2714.png\" alt=\"✔\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"></td></tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Dedicated sponsor landing page</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/2714.png\" alt=\"✔\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/2714.png\" alt=\"✔\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"></td></tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Complimentary WordPress event tickets for your team</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/2714.png\" alt=\"✔\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/2714.png\" alt=\"✔\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"></td></tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Recognition across all <a href=\"https://events.wordpress.org/\">WordPress events</a></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/2714.png\" alt=\"✔\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/2714.png\" alt=\"✔\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"></td></tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Sponsor Spotlight post on WordPress.org/news featuring highlights from recent <a href=\"https://central.wordcamp.org/\">WordCamps</a></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Quarterly</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Annually</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"></td></tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Inclusion of your company logo in signage and materials for <a href=\"https://events.wordpress.org/campusconnect/\">WordPress Campus Connect</a> events</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">All signage &amp; materials for the year (digital and printed)</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Signage &amp; materials for 5 events per year (printed only)</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">All signage &amp; materials for the year (digital and printed)</td></tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Opportunity to be featured in an exclusive digital binder for <a href=\"https://events.wordpress.org/campusconnect/\">WordPress Campus Connect</a> event organizers</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Priority placement (logos &amp; text)</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Feature listing (text only)</td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Feature listing (text only)</td></tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-left\" data-align=\"left\">Regular recognition in <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2025/11/03/monthly-education-buzz-report-october-2025/\">monthly education buzz report</a></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"></td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/2714.png\" alt=\"✔\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /></td></tr></tbody></table></figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Sponsorship Funds Are Used</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Global Sponsorship funds directly support:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Local WordPress events worldwide (venue rental, catering, A/V, and more)</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Meetup.com license fees for over 671 WordPress Meetup groups globally</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Administrative costs like insurance, banking, and annual financial audits that ensure transparent operations</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your partnership helps sustain the community that powers more than 43% of the web. Together, we can keep the WordPress project thriving and expanding for years to come.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-off-white-2-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-2431c55b wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--edge-space)\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><strong>If your company is interested in joining the Global Sponsorship program or you would like to know more, please reach out</strong></strong>.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-3e41869c wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"mailto:support@wordcamp.org\">Contact WordPress Community Support</a></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"></div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Please see&nbsp;<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/wordcamp-organizer/planning-details/fundraising/global-community-sponsorship-for-event-organizers/#rules-for-sponsor-materials\">Rules for Sponsor Materials</a>&nbsp;for more details about terms of sponsorship. Please also see our&nbsp;<a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/files/2024/12/Draft-of-2025-WordPress-Global-Community-Sponsorship-Agreement-Template-Google-Docs.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sample sponsorship agreement</a>.</em></p>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you’d like to go one step further, please consider <a href=\"https://wordpressfoundation.org/donate/\">donating directly to the WordPress Foundation</a>. We operate lean—every dollar goes toward keeping WordPress free, supporting education, and funding the community that makes the web a better place. In short, your donation helps us keep the lights on and the mission alive.</p>\n\";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:30:\"com-wordpress:feed-additions:1\";a:1:{s:7:\"post-id\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:5:\"19534\";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:65:\"\n		\n		\n		\n		\n		\n				\n		\n		\n		\n\n					\n										\n					\n		\n		\n\n\n			\";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:4:{s:0:\"\";a:7:{s:5:\"title\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:54:\"State of the Word 2025: Innovation Shaped by 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:\"link\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:45:\"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/12/sotw-2025/\";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, 03 Dec 2025 18:26:05 +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:8:\"category\";a:3:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:9:\"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:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:6:\"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:\"\";}i:2;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:17:\"state of the word\";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=19447\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:1:{s:11:\"isPermaLink\";s:5:\"false\";}}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:354:\"State of the Word 2025 brought the WordPress community together for an afternoon that felt both reflective and forward-moving, blending stories of global growth with technical milestones and glimpses of the future. This year also marked the twentieth State of the Word since the first address in 2006, a milestone noted in the WordPress history [&#8230;]\";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:9:\"enclosure\";a:2:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:0:\"\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:3:{s:3:\"url\";s:59:\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/Telex-demo-776.mp4\";s:6:\"length\";s:8:\"29136831\";s:4:\"type\";s:9:\"video/mp4\";}}s:8:\"xml_base\";s:0:\"\";s:17:\"xml_base_explicit\";b:0;s:8:\"xml_lang\";s:0:\"\";}i:1;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:0:\"\";s:7:\"attribs\";a:1:{s:0:\"\";a:3:{s:3:\"url\";s:53:\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/wapu-513.mp4\";s:6:\"length\";s:9:\"102323371\";s:4:\"type\";s:9:\"video/mp4\";}}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:17:\"Nicholas Garofalo\";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:40:\"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/\";a:1:{s:7:\"encoded\";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:\"data\";s:38068:\"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/U_DF4-23C8Q?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"></iframe>\n</div></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">State of the Word 2025 brought the WordPress community together for an afternoon that felt both reflective and forward-moving, blending stories of global growth with technical milestones and glimpses of the future. This year also marked the twentieth State of the Word since the first address in 2006, a milestone noted in the WordPress history book <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/book/2015/11/wordcamp-2006/\"><em>Milestones: The Story of WordPress</em></a> as the beginning of a tradition that has helped the project tell its own story.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From the outset, the keynote carried a sense of momentum shaped by thousands of contributors, educators, students, and creators whose steady participation continues to define the open web. It was a reminder that WordPress is more than software. It is a community writing its future together.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What we have is more than code. It’s momentum, it’s culture, and it’s a system that lets people learn by doing and lead by showing up.  — <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/4thhubbard/\">Mary Hubbard</a>, WordPress Executive Director</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mary opened the evening by reflecting on her first full year as Executive Director, a year spent listening deeply and seeing firsthand how people across regions learn, contribute, and lead. Her remarks grounded the keynote in the lived reality of a community that grows because people invest in one another, teach openly, and build trust through contribution.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I’ve met people using WordPress to unlock new careers. I’ve met contributors who started a single translation or forum post and are now leading major pieces of the project. In LatAm, Europe, and the States, I’ve seen students get access to WordPress tools and start building faster than we could have ever imagined. I’ve watched communities build in public, resolve disagreements in the open, and collaborate across languages and time zones.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That reflection offered a clear reminder of what makes WordPress resilient through change: a culture of showing up, learning by doing, and supporting others along the way. The project moves forward because people choose to participate in ways both large and small, strengthening the foundation that has carried WordPress for more than two decades.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With that foundation in place, the keynote moved through a series of stories and demonstrations that highlighted where WordPress stands today and where it is headed next — from a historic live release of WordPress 6.9 to expanding global education pathways, emerging AI capabilities, and deeper collaboration across the entire ecosystem.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WordPress by the Numbers</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Project Cofounder <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/\">Matt Mullenweg</a> began with a wide-angle view of the project’s growth. WordPress powers over 43% of the web, with 60.5% of the CMS market. Shopify, its nearest competitor, holds 6.8%. Among the top 1,000 websites, WordPress’s share climbed to 49.4%, up 2.3% from the previous year.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-43.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Globe graphic noting 43% of websites and 60.5% CMS market share\" class=\"wp-image-19500\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-43-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-43-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-43-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-43-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-43-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Multilingual usage continued its strong rise. Over 56% of WordPress sites now run in languages other than English. Japan stood out, with WordPress powering 58.5% of all Japanese websites and 83% of the CMS market. Japanese became the second most-used language on WordPress at 5.82%. Spanish followed, then German, French, and Brazilian Portuguese.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The plugin ecosystem saw explosive growth. The directory surpassed 60,000 plugins, and plugin downloads were on pace to reach 2.1 billion by year-end. Over 1,500 themes have been released this year as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Contributors also hit new highs. The 6.8 release included 921 contributors, the largest group yet. WordPress 6.8 saw 79.5 million downloads, up 13%, and WordPress 6.9 included contributions from 230 first-time contributors and more than 340 enhancements and fixes.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Release Moment to Remember</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year’s keynote delivered something WordPress had never attempted before: a live on-stage release of <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/download/releases/6-9/\">WordPress 6.9</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-gene.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"WordPress 6.9 Gene album cover art\" class=\"wp-image-19511\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-gene-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-gene-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-gene-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-gene-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-gene-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mary set the moment up earlier in the program, calling WordPress 6.9 “fast, polished, and built for collaboration.” She explained that it reflected a year of intentional iteration, improved workflows, and deeper cross-team participation.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt took the stage with some of the release leads, the release button in hand. The room counted down, and then WordPress 6.9 shipped live, instantly updating millions of sites around the world. It was both a celebration and a testament to the reliability and trust the WordPress community has built into its release processes. Shipping a major version of WordPress in real time, on stage, without drama, is something the early contributors could hardly have imagined.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/release-leads.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Photo of WordPress release leads pressing the button to release 6.9\" class=\"wp-image-19457\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/release-leads-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/release-leads-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/release-leads-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/release-leads-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/release-leads-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That reflection connected back to WordPress’s origin story. Matt talked about discovering the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress#History\">B2</a> forums, asking questions, and eventually reaching the point where he could answer someone else’s. That transition from learner to contributor remains at the heart of the project today. Two decades later, WordPress has grown from those early interactions into a platform that can ship a major release in front of the world, powered by thousands of contributors building together.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WordPress and the Future of AI</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the keynote shifted toward the future, Matt acknowledged what has become an essential truth of the moment: it would be impossible to talk about the next chapter of WordPress without talking about AI. He reminded the audience that in 2022, long before ChatGPT entered global conversation, he encouraged the community to “learn AI deeply.” The speed of change since then, he said, has exceeded every expectation, and WordPress has been preparing for it in ways both visible and behind the scenes.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-AI.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Timeline of AI: 2022 ChatGPT launches, 2023 GPT-4 and Claude launches, 2024 Multimodel and video generation, 2025 AI everywhere\" class=\"wp-image-19510\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-AI-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-AI-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-AI-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-AI-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-AI-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt introduced one of the most important architectural developments of the year: the Abilities API and the MCP adapter. The Abilities API defines what WordPress can do in a structured way that AI systems can interpret, while the MCP adapter exposes those abilities through a shared protocol. This means AI agents — whether built by individuals, companies, or larger platforms — can understand and interact with WordPress safely and predictably. Instead of relying on one-off integrations or brittle interfaces, WordPress now participates in a broader ecosystem of tools that can query its capabilities and perform tasks using a standard, governed approach.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt then highlighted how developers are already using AI in their everyday work through tools like Cursor, Claude Code, and next-generation CLIs. These tools can explore entire codebases, generate documentation, produce tests, refactor large components, and even coordinate sequences of WP-CLI commands. For many developers, they expand what a single person can accomplish in an afternoon. They don’t eliminate the need for human judgment — they amplify it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With that foundation laid, Matt turned the audience’s attention to <a href=\"https://telex.automattic.ai/\">Telex</a>, the experimental environment designed to turn natural-language prompts into Gutenberg Blocks. Telex has already moved beyond experimentation and into real use. Matt showed examples from community creator Nick Hamze, who uses Telex to power micro-business tools that represent practical, revenue-generating workflows that previously required custom engineering.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"2160\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 3840 / 2160;\" width=\"3840\" controls src=\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/Telex-demo-776.mp4\"></video></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt then widened the lens to show what companies across the ecosystem are building with AI. Hostinger’s Kodee can generate a complete WordPress site from a single description. Elementor AI demonstrated similarly rapid creation inside its own editor, producing full sections and layouts in seconds. WordPress.com showcased how its AI tools help users draft, rewrite, and refine content while keeping language aligned with the site’s voice. Yoast demonstrated how AI can support SEO workflows by generating structured suggestions and improving readability. Together, these examples illustrated that AI is not arriving in one place — it is arriving everywhere.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Experimental browsers can navigate WP Admin autonomously, performing tasks such as clicking buttons, opening menus, changing settings, and performing multi-step tasks without requiring any custom plugins or APIs. This raised a key question that Matt encouraged the community to consider: Which AI capabilities should live inside WordPress itself, and which should remain external, operating through the browser or operating system?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt closed the section by discussing WordPress-specific AI benchmarks and evaluation suites. These shared tests will measure how well AI systems understand and execute WordPress tasks, from enabling plugins to navigating WP Admin to modifying content and settings. The goal is to create a foundation where future AI tools behave predictably and responsibly across the entire ecosystem, giving creators confidence that intelligent tools understand the platform deeply.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Global Community Growing Together</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mary then returned to the stage to celebrate the ecosystem that supports WordPress&#8217;s growth. Across continents, diverse groups of people have hosted WordPress events, training new contributors and welcoming newcomers into the project. WordCamp growth in 2025 reflected that: more than 81 WordCamps across 39 countries, powered by over 5,000 volunteers and attended by nearly 100,000 people, with sixteen more events still underway.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wordcamps.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19503\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wordcamps-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wordcamps-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wordcamps-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wordcamps-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wordcamps-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Education played a major role in this community expansion. Learn.WordPress.org served over 1.5 million learners this year, with clearer pathways into more structured programs like <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/education/campus-connect/\">Campus Connect</a> and <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/education/credits/\">WordPress Credits</a>. This bridging was deliberate. Many learners arrive through tutorials or workshops but need clearer guidance on how to deepen their skills. By reshaping navigation and improving wayfinding across WordPress.org, the project began closing that gap.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She spotlighted <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/community/2025/09/29/wordpress-and-higher-education-an-alliance-that-transforms/\">Costa Rica’s Universidad Fidélitas</a>, where WordPress moved beyond extracurricular interest into formal academic integration. Long before signing an agreement with the WordPress Foundation, their students were hosting WordCamp San José, forming student clubs, and treating WordPress as a crucial part of digital literacy and professional development.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-photo.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19505\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-photo-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-photo-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-photo-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-photo-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-photo-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Students of the WordPress Fidélitas Club</figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wapuu appeared across events as a familiar companion and a cultural thread running through contributor tools and community projects. Its presence was a reminder that creativity and playfulness are as essential to open source as documentation or code.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wapuu.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Various Wapuu artwork examples\" class=\"wp-image-19506\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wapuu-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wapuu-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wapuu-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wapuu-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-wapuu-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt highlighted the story of <a href=\"https://events.wordpress.org/managua/2025/wordpress-youth-day/\">Youth Day in Managua, Nicaragua</a>. Seventy-five young people spent a full day building their first WordPress sites. Sessions were taught by teenagers, for teenagers. They learned to pick themes, customize layouts, create contact forms, and publish content. Contribution often starts with a simple moment of confidence, and those early sparks can shape entire careers.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"2160\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 3840 / 2160;\" width=\"3840\" controls src=\"https://wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/wapu-513.mp4\"></video></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Together, these moments illustrated a project expanding not just in numbers, but in depth, diversity, and global reach. WordPress is growing because communities are finding their own ways to embrace it.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What’s New in WordPress 6.9</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Joining virtually, WordPress Lead Architect, <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/matveb/\">Matías Ventura</a>, shifted the keynote from vision to practice. Matías offered a detailed walkthrough of what makes WordPress 6.9 one of the most refined, collaborative, and forward-looking releases the project has shipped in years. He returned to the four familiar lenses of creation — writing, designing, building, and developing — and showed how each evolved in this release cycle.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He began with notes in the Block Editor, one of the most anticipated features. Notes allow collaborators to comment directly on individual blocks in a post or page. When a note is selected, the surrounding content subtly fades, helping contributors stay focused on context. Because notes are built on WordPress’s native comment system, they integrate seamlessly with existing communication workflows, including email notifications. Matías highlighted that notes development exemplified collaboration at its best, with contributors from various companies working together to bring the feature to life.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/vkYulcN0lbc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"></iframe>\n</div></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From there, he turned to refinements across the writing and design experience. Editor interactions feel smoother and more consistent. Patterns behave more predictably. Spacing and typography controls are clearer, more organized, and more intuitive. Together these capabilioties make the experience of writing and designing inside WordPress calmer, more reliable, and more empowering.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Block bindings now provide a more intuitive, visual way to connect blocks to dynamic data sources. Users can switch or remove bindings with a single click, and developers can register additional sources to support custom workflows. This work lays the foundation for a future where dynamic data flows more naturally through blocks, enabling site creators to build richer interfaces without writing code.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the developer front, Matías focused on three foundational upgrades that represent major steps forward in how WordPress will evolve over the coming years.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The first was the <strong>Abilities API</strong>, a unified registry that describes what WordPress can do — across PHP, REST endpoints, the command palette, and future AI-driven interactions.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>HTML API</strong> introduces new ways of working with and modifying HTML server-side. The API ensures safer, more reliable handling, lowering the barrier for theme and block developers who work with dynamic or structured markup.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>Interactivity API</strong> delivers smoother, faster interactions without requiring heavy JavaScript frameworks. Improved routing, better state management, and clearer conventions help developers create rich, modern interfaces without leaving the WordPress philosophy of simplicity and flexibility.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After Matías wrapped his presentation, Matt stepped back in to highlight several developments that build on the foundations of 6.9 and strengthen the overall WordPress ecosystem. He pointed first to the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/plugin-check/\">Plugin Check Plugin</a>, a tool designed to help developers align with current WordPress standards and catch common issues early, making plugins more reliable for users and easier to maintain over time. Matt then spoke about ongoing progress in <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/data-liberation/\">Data Liberation</a>, noting improvements to the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-importer/\">WordPress importer</a> that make it easier for people to bring their content into WordPress without disruption or loss, an important step toward ensuring the open web remains portable and resilient. He also highlighted advances across the <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/\">Playground</a> ecosystem, including <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.com/studio/\">WordPress Studio</a>, the Playground CLI, and an expanding set of Blueprints. These allow developers and learners to spin up complete WordPress environments in seconds, test ideas, and experiment without servers or configuration. Matt closed this portion by emphasizing work on safer updates, which help WordPress avoid partial installs and ensure that updates complete smoothly even in less predictable hosting conditions, reinforcing WordPress’s commitment to stability as the platform continues to grow.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt emphasized that WordPress 6.9 is not defined by any single headline feature, but by a broad spectrum of refinements across the entire experience. It is a release that deepens reliability, expands capability, and sets the stage for future innovation.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Insights from the AI Panel</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The keynote transitioned into a live AI panel moderated by Mary Hubbard. The panel brought together four perspectives from across the ecosystem: <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/isotropic/\">James LePage</a> (Automattic), <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/flixos90/\">Felix Arntz</a> (Google), and <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul/\">Jeff Paul</a> (Fueled, FKA 10up), and Matt Mullenweg. Their conversation touched on the philosophy, practice, and future of AI inside WordPress — not as a distant trend, but as an active part of the project’s evolution.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A central theme was AI’s ability to amplify human creativity. James LePage put it plainly:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It’s not that we’re going to just add sparkle buttons everywhere. We’re going to do some crazy stuff here — things we’re going to build into the way you interact with creating content, with expressing yourself digitally. We want to give you more power, more control, and make you more effective at creating.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeff Paul echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that AI should make developers more productive by handling repetitive work and freeing them to focus on higher-level decisions. Felix Arntz expanded the idea further, describing how Google sees AI as a way to make the web more accessible and intuitive, especially for new creators who may not have formal technical training.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"572\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/panel.jpg?resize=1024%2C572&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19462\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/panel-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C572&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/panel-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/panel-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C429&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/panel-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C858&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/panel-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1144&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">From left to right: Mary Hubbard, Matt Mullenweg, Jeff Paul, Felix Arntz, James LePage</figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Looking ahead, the panelists predicted deeper contextual integrations, AI-assisted debugging and scaffolding for developers, and workflows where agents can take on sequences of tasks while remaining directed by human decisions. They also highlighted the importance of standards, shared protocols, and privacy-focused design as essential components of WordPress’s long-term approach.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next 20 years looks like WordPress remaining what it is today, which is the center of the open web.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The panel closed on a forward-looking but steady note. AI is accelerating, but WordPress is designing its foundations with flexibility and values that endure. The tools may change, but the commitment to openness, agency, and creative freedom remains the compass.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Questions That Push Us Forward</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt introduced the Q&amp;A as one of his favorite parts of State of the Word because it reveals what people are imagining, struggling with, or eager to build.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-QandA.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Q&amp;A\" class=\"wp-image-19512\" srcset=\"https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-QandA-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-QandA-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-QandA-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-QandA-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/12/State-of-the-Word-2025-QandA-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first question addressed the growing interconnectedness of today’s web. What happens, a participant asked, when a major provider like Cloudflare goes down? As tools and agents rely more heavily on external services, failures can cascade. Matt acknowledged that outages are increasingly visible, but also argued that each one strengthens the system.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Every failure, every edge case, everything that you never imagined is just another opportunity to find that new edge case,” he said. Resilience is not avoidance of failure, but the ability to grow stronger after it.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another question focused on the longevity of web content. With platforms shutting down or links breaking over time, how can creators ensure their work endures? Matt pointed to the Internet Archive as one of the great stabilizers of the open web. He highlighted a <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/internet-archive-wayback-machine-link-fixer/\">new plugin</a> that automatically scans posts and replaces dead links with archived versions, helping preserve the historical fabric of the web even as individual services come and go.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next question turned to real-time collaboration inside WordPress. A participant asked how co-editing fits into the future of WordPress and how these tools might help creators work more confidently. Matt talked about how collaboration tools can support people who are just starting their creative journeys — whether they are entrepreneurs, students, or first-time site builders. He described real-time editing as part of a broader vision of WordPress “just doing the work for you” in high-pressure or early-stage creative moments.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The final question considered long-term decision-making. Matt noted that predicting what will change is difficult, but identifying what will remain the same is much easier. For WordPress, he said, the invariant is clear: people will always want agency, openness, and the ability to publish on their own terms. These values guide decisions not only in the present, but across decades of future evolution.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">TBPN Podcast Appearance</h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&#x1f534; CODE RED &#x1f534;, Dell Donates Size, Bun Acquired, AWS CEO Joins, Tae Kim Tells All\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/eBQh57HuJzk?start=10036&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen></iframe>\n</div></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the Q&amp;A, the keynote shifted gears with a live crossover segment featuring TBPN (the Technology Business Programming Network), a tech-focused podcast. The segment introduced a lively, unscripted energy into the room.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hosts kicked things off by asking Matt what the “word of the year” should be. He chose “freedom”, connecting it directly to the core philosophy of open source. He described open source licenses as a kind of “bill of rights for software,” giving users inalienable rights that no company can revoke. In a world increasingly shaped by software platforms and digital ecosystems, these freedoms form the heart of what keeps the web open and accessible.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conversation then moved to <a href=\"https://www.beeper.com/\">Beeper</a>, the multi-network messaging client. Asked whether Beeper aims to “tear down walled gardens,” Matt rejected that framing. Instead, he offered a more collaborative metaphor: bringing gardens together. Most people have friends and colleagues scattered across WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn, Messenger, and SMS. 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You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 1 using these links:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/commits/wp/7.0?since=2026-02-20&amp;until=2026-02-26\">GitHub commits for 7.0</a> since February 20, 2026</li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&amp;changetime=02%2F20%2F2026..02%2F26%2F2026&amp;milestone=7.0&amp;col=id&amp;col=milestone&amp;col=owner&amp;col=type&amp;col=priority&amp;order=id\">Closed Trac tickets for 7.0</a> since February 20, 2026</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Beta 2 also contains a new feature</strong>!</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AI provider management is more intuitive in 7.0 Beta 2 with a new Connectors UI dashboard page. WordPress users can now manage external AI connections in a central place in wp-admin, under Settings &gt; Connectors. The new UI enables users to add, delete, and update external connections. It is powered by an extensible, route-based architecture that allows plugins and themes to hook into the page and expand its functionality. The new Connectors page builds on PHP-based script and menu infrastructure, and adds route components powered by <code>@wordpress/components</code> and <code>@wordpress/admin-ui</code>. A new <code>connections-wp-admin-init</code> hook and registration APIs allow plugins to integrate cleanly. This makes managing external connections easier while giving developers a clearer path to extend the experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Beta 2 haiku</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>New, and fresh as dew</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Crafted and refined for you:</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Beta 2 breaks through.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Props to <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/4thhubbard/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>4thhubbard</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>annezazu</a></em>, <em><a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>audrasjb</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mukesh27/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>mukesh27</a>, and <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaion07/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>chaion07</a></em> <em>for collaboration, proofreading and review.</em></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"></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, 26 Feb 2026 16:32:56 +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:10:\"Amy Kamala\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:\"Open Channels FM: Open Source vs SaaS: The Freedom Debate\";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:34:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=1650282\";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:63:\"https://openchannels.fm/open-source-vs-saas-the-freedom-debate/\";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:126:\"In this clip, hosts Dave and Robert discuss the balance between personal convenience and the ideals of open source technology.\";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, 26 Feb 2026 14:50:00 +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:8:\"Bob Dunn\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:19:\"Matt: Great Writing\";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:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=151313\";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:36:\"https://ma.tt/2026/02/great-writing/\";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:1961:\"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Especially in an age where generating words is cheap, when you come across truly great writing, it really stands out. I want to pull two quotes from The Economist&#8217;columnist Charlemagne&#8217;s article <a href=\"https://www.economist.com/europe/2026/02/25/luxury-goods-are-europes-global-tax-on-vanity\">Luxury goods are Europe’s global tax on vanity</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flogging luxury goods is one of the few fields of business in which Europe excels (if one excludes the crafting of regulation). In an ironic twist, an egalitarian continent with an ever-declining share of global GDP hosts an industry that thrives on inequality and bombastic money-making. For how many seasons more can this alchemy of aspiration endure?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I mean, gosh, look at every word there. How they flow. The density of concepts and metaphors. Here&#8217;s another delicious excerpt.</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Luxury houses sell the idea of scarcity, with hordes of publicists explaining that the years-long wait for a Birkin handbag is due to the lack of sufficient artisans to craft these pinnacles of refinement. This is a fairy tale stitched in fine silk. The luxury-goods industry has roughly tripled in size since 2000; its €358bn in annual sales—half a Walmart or Amazon, give or take—betrays how thoroughly mainstream supposed exclusivity has become. Fifty years ago, Louis Vuitton had but two outlets, both in France. These days it has two stores in Ningbo, China’s 34th-biggest city. Exclusive, <em>moi</em>?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I guess this post also serves as an endorsement of why it&#8217;s worth subscribing to publications like The Economist. </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, 26 Feb 2026 07:04:40 +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:4;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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: #206 – Jonathan Desrosiers on WordPress Sustainability, Community Engagement, and Release Strategies\";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=202772\";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/podcast/206-jonathan-desrosiers-on-wordpress-sustainability-community-engagement-and-release-strategies\";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:57656:\"<details>Transcript<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:00:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 WordPress sustainability, community engagement and release strategies.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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/feed/podcast, and you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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/contact/jukebox, and use the form there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So on the podcast today, we have Jonathan Desrosiers. Jonathan has been involved with WordPress for almost two decades, both as a user and a contributor. He&#8217;s a principal software engineer at Bluehost, where his role sees him sponsored to work on WordPress through the Five for the Future program. Over the years, he&#8217;s become a Core committer, and has spent many hours thinking about how to enhance the contributor experience, and make it easier for people to get involved in the project.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this episode we discuss how WordPress releases might become more impactful by synchronizing them with flagship community events like WordCamps and State of the Word. A recent experiment of combining a major release with a live event spark some excitement, and Jonathan shares insights on the logistics behind such synchronized moments, the challenges posed by international holidays, and regional scheduling, and the broader vision for connecting releases with community gatherings.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We also get into the challenging landscape of the WordPress community, how it&#8217;s recovering from the effects of COVID, the struggle to rebuild local Meetups, and efforts like mentorship and educational initiatives to bring in new contributors, particularly from younger generations.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jonathan reflects on the importance of making release moments engaging and fun, akin to the anticipation of a new TV series or software launch, and the role of AI and open source in empowering a new wave of builders.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;re interested in how release cycles, community events, and contributor onboarding are involved in WordPress, or what the future might hold for the platform and its community, this episode is for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so without further delay, I bring you Jonathan Desrosiers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am joined on the podcast by Jonathan Desrosiers. Hello.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:03:06] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Hi, how are you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:03:07] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, good. Jonathan&#8217;s joining me again. Most recently, I think we were at WordCamp somewhere. I can&#8217;t exactly remember where, but I was chatting with him and Joe Dolson if memory serves. And a very different conversation to be had today because Jonathan has been mulling over how we can make releases impactful, and also how we can bind those to community events, particularly flagship WordPress events like WordCamps, things like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before we begin that conversation, Jonathan, I wonder, it&#8217;s a bit of a banal question, but people like to have the context of who you are. So would you mind just, very quick potted bio. Just tell us who you are and what you do in the WordPress space.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:03:44] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Sure. So my name is Jonathan Desrosiers. I am a principal software engineer at Bluehost and I am sponsored there, the majority of my time is sponsored to contribute back to the WordPress project through the Five for the Future program. And so I&#8217;ve been there, probably since 2018, I think. And I&#8217;ve been a Core committer for almost eight years now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;ve been involved as an accredited contributor for 13 years now. And so I&#8217;ve been involved with WordPress for over a decade in many ways, contributing, but also as a user for almost, geez, almost two decades now I think. And so, I just had that realisation, it&#8217;s been a really long time. It&#8217;s been almost 20 years that I&#8217;ve been at least using WordPress in some way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But week to week I do a lot of thinking about contributor experience, how we can automate things, or how we can make our processes more clear so that more people can participate. And just generally making sure that everybody has what they need to be successful. And whether that&#8217;s mentorship, or they have blockers they need, certain people to come together and discuss, and get a consensus or understanding, you know, how the sausage is made in some way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:04:56] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think it&#8217;s fair to say that you are very much connected to the WordPress project. I think it&#8217;s the fulcrum of your working life, and you are working at a very high level as well. So Core committer, things like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, in the recent past, it was probably, I want to say December in the year 2025, we had a kind of strange event happened. Not strange in the sense of weird, but strange in the sense of different, unusual. A release of WordPress came out and it coincided with an actual event. Now, in this case, it was State of the Word. So there was a bunch of people, and I believe they were gathered in New York. I could be wrong about that, but I think it was in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:05:33] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> It was in San Francisco.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:05:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> San Francisco. Okay, there we go. Thank you for the correction. It was in San Francisco and the idea was that the release of WordPress would go out and it would be bound to this event. And there was this almost, how can we describe it? It was almost like television, basically. It was being filmed and streamed live all over the place. And there was this feeling of a big red button. There was a lot of people gathered around and they all sort of leaned in and pushed a big red button, and the release of WordPress came out.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, I don&#8217;t know if the button actually did anything or if it was really sort of smoke and mirrors. I like the idea that the button actually did signal the release, but I don&#8217;t know if that&#8217;s the case. But the point was, there was a little bit of theater put into it. There was this idea that, okay, we&#8217;ve got this live event which lots of people will be watching. We&#8217;ve got a release which we need to do, which lots of people will be looking forward to. Why don&#8217;t we sort of combine the two things?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so it was a bit of PR really. And it also felt a bit like sort of marketing, and I&#8217;m going to use gimmick in the real sense of the word. So not like gimmick as in something pointless, but gimmick as in something different, unique. Something to draw your attention and grab you in. And I think the idea has been proposed that in the year 2026, the flagship events, the flagship WordCamps, so I&#8217;ll list them in order in which they&#8217;re happening.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So we&#8217;ve got WordCamp Asia, and then we&#8217;ve WordCamp Europe, and then we&#8217;ve got WordCamp US. The three releases of WordPress during 2026 will happen in tandem with those events. Now, why? Why would we want to do this?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:07:12] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah, so I don&#8217;t think it was intentional, but the schedule just happened to coincide. You know, we were working on 6.9 and we realised, oh, the release date is the same as State of the Word. And so, I can&#8217;t remember who originally had the idea, but it was mentioned that it would be really neat to just be able to publish it live at the event and celebrate that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I guess the main reason behind it is just that, the more I&#8217;m involved in open source, the more I realise that the code and the license and all those things are important, but the most important thing underneath any open source project is the community that&#8217;s involved with it. And what better way to celebrate our achievements and our accomplishments when we get together in different ways.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so, typically that&#8217;s in Slack or social media, right? We celebrate a release and we share the posts and say what we&#8217;re excited about. But we also get together at different events and we do the same thing, right? We talk about what we&#8217;re excited about, what we&#8217;re working on, what&#8217;s coming, or what we think should change in certain ways. Why not just do that at the same time and create even a more ultimate celebration, right? Another community moment where people have another opportunity to feel involved in something greater than them.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:08:25] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you have any notion that this is going to be carried forward? I mean, I know that there was obviously a bit of serendipity in how it happened. The coincidence of timing and things like that. But do you have every confidence that this will happen, that Asia will get a release, Europe will get a release, and the US will get a release. In the year 2026, do you think that&#8217;s going to actually occur?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:08:46] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> We will see. So as the proposed schedule is for this calendar year, right? There&#8217;s three releases. Unfortunately, it&#8217;s tough because the people planning WordCamps don&#8217;t plan around our software&#8217;s release cadence, right? They plan around budget, regional holidays, travel factors, weather, cost of venues and availability.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so, you know, it&#8217;s not reasonable for the Core team and the people working on releases to say you have to have an event in a certain month, right? And so this year, some people may not have noticed, but WordCamp Asia is in April this year, which it&#8217;s been in February so far in the previous editions. And WordCamp Europe is in June, which it&#8217;s traditionally usually in.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so that&#8217;s not a big enough gap to have another major release. And so the proposed schedule is saying, let&#8217;s release during WordCamp Asia, let&#8217;s release during WordCamp US, and then we&#8217;ll release again at the end of the year around State of the Word. We don&#8217;t have a date for State of the Word yet, but it&#8217;s around where we think it might be.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And likewise, creating a schedule for releases is incredibly hard because if we don&#8217;t release in the first week of April, for example, then I believe the whole month of April has major religious holidays scattered throughout it in different areas of the world. And if we released in March, that was way too soon because we started the alpha phase of 7.0, that starts when the previous release is branched, like it&#8217;s separated from the primary branch in the code base, and that happened in like November.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there&#8217;s US Thanksgiving, there&#8217;s Hanukkah, there&#8217;s Christmas, there&#8217;s New Year&#8217;s, right? A lot of people in the community take the majority of December off, and so that&#8217;s like a washed month, right? And so we would&#8217;ve had essentially four weeks until the feature complete point of the release. So that was too soon. And so it&#8217;s just as hard to plan the release schedule in a way that doesn&#8217;t negatively impact everybody as best as possible as it is to plan these major events.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so I can&#8217;t say that it will be a guarantee going forward. We&#8217;re trying it out this year to see how it goes and what we can learn from it. We felt that the State of the Word was successful and it was exciting. It was unique in its own ways. And so we want to try, continue trying this this year and see how it goes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:11:06] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Gosh, the piece that you just said there about the religious holidays and what have you, that really opens up a really interesting discussion. Because it is quite likely, I imagine, that the listenership to this podcast probably never gave that any thought, that this kind of international calendar, be it a religious calendar or maybe just a vacation calendar in certain parts of the globe would really impact when the release can happen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because there are people who are committing to the project, and they tend to be in certain jurisdictions. And so if there are people who are on, I don&#8217;t know, a week long holiday, nationally, in a specific jurisdiction, and they typically are a large part of the team that are committing in various different respects, that&#8217;s important, but probably something that many people would not have thought about.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, in terms of these releases then, is the idea, well, I&#8217;ll backpedal a little bit. It occurred to me that quite a lot of the people who may be involved in releases are the very kind of people who would find themselves also at some of these flagship events. Now, obviously it&#8217;s not going to be 100%, maybe it&#8217;s 25% of the people who are release leads and part of the teams that are committing here, there, and everywhere.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was worried that there&#8217;d be people on airplanes, people trying to land and orientate themselves in the country that they&#8217;ve landed in in the same period of time when they would&#8217;ve been heads down, in their office, in their study, figuring out the bits that might be broken with the upcoming release. Is that a thing? Is that part of the jigsaw puzzle of this?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:12:32] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> It definitely is, yeah. With any release, there&#8217;s no time of the day where everyone on the planet is available to work on something, right? And so another part of this is that, in a way it forces us to have a major release in different geographic areas so that everywhere on the globe there&#8217;s a WordPress release that they may be able to participate in, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so, likewise with travel, right? So when we assemble a release squad, we have to think, okay, it&#8217;s based in, for example, this one was planned to be released at WordCamp Asia in India. So we want to make sure we have a mix of people that are in different areas of the world. And not just so that there&#8217;s always people around to respond to things throughout the entire cycle, but we also want to have people that are present and not present at the event that are participating. And maybe the wifi is completely unusable or maybe something happens, right? So it&#8217;s good to have people that are there and not.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that was part of the announcement too, is that we tried to underscore the point that it would be great if everybody could go to WordCamp Asia, but traveling is not a requirement to participate in the release at all. And that&#8217;s a good thing, because it&#8217;s good to have people in multiple areas, multiple time zones.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With WordCamp Asia, once contributor day ends, it&#8217;s the beginning of the US daytime, right? And so those contributors can sign off and there&#8217;s people around to help carry that torch and continue on if there&#8217;s any follow-up issues or anything that needs to be investigated.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so, yeah, that&#8217;s also a consideration is how, I guess we can call it global coverage, right? Like, how can we ensure we have global coverage so that there are people with the right skill sets, and right availability, and right knowledge, to be able to take on certain tasks or responsibilities or perform investigations, whatever may need to be done as part of that release process.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:14:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I, like you, am really in the weeds of the WordPress project. I obsess about it in a way that&#8217;s probably not all that healthy. I&#8217;m very well aware of when the next release is coming up. I&#8217;m usually fairly aware of what is going to be in that release. But I imagine most people using WordPress, it&#8217;s probably a bit of a surprise. You know, they open up WordPress one day and either it has updated. If it&#8217;s a point release, probably it&#8217;s a more manual thing, if it&#8217;s a major release, I should say, but if it&#8217;s a more minor release, maybe things have updated in the background during the course of the night and what have you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I&#8217;m thinking of TV series now. So when a successful TV series has a new season, there&#8217;s all this fanfare and buildup and you know it&#8217;s coming. You see the commercials, you see the adverts. And the moment that TV series comes around, you are excited, you&#8217;re ready to go. And I remember back in the day, this is going back a long time, when Firefox would make a release, they sort of did this thing like, I don&#8217;t know, every 18 months or something like that. Not like now where it&#8217;s every couple of hours it seems, that browsers update themselves.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But when it went to, I don&#8217;t know, 3.6 or something like that, there was this big fanfare, this big moment. Everybody took stock and what have you. And are you trying to encourage a bit of that? Are you trying to create a bit of razzmatazz and drama and intrigue and awareness and all of that around the release, and make it feel like an important thing, which with the best will in the world, it kind of has not been more recently? Most people, it just updates. There&#8217;s no fanfare whatsoever. But we can leverage it to make it important, significant, fun, interesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:16:04] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yes and no, right? Like, we want to celebrate the community and the work we&#8217;re doing now. I actually would love it if we could get to a point where we&#8217;re releasing every, I don&#8217;t know, every week or every month even, right? Not have to wait every three or four months. There&#8217;s some value in having that penultimate moment, right? Of, we&#8217;ve worked for three months on this. But there&#8217;s also aspects of the world where we expect things faster and more instant and waiting for the patch that you submit in January to be released in April is not really, like maybe you lose interest in contributing in that time, right? So there&#8217;s many different things like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some things that you mentioned really resonated with me as far as awareness of what&#8217;s coming or like what&#8217;s been done. In a way, the fact that users are not so aware of what&#8217;s being added or what their site has updated to, it&#8217;s a sign of the success of auto updates and how seamless those are.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because for a little while I&#8217;ve been considering, when you update WordPress manually, you&#8217;re redirected into the about page in the dashboard, right? And every release, there&#8217;s a new about page that&#8217;s designed, it works hand in hand with, we call them the micro sites, which is like a wordpress.org&#8217;s landing page that showcases the release. And it just explains all the features that have been added.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But you only see that if you either go to the about page manually or you manually click update when you&#8217;re in the dashboard. And a site might have many administrators that only the person that actually updates will see it. And so I&#8217;ve been thinking about ways that we can make users more aware that their site is updated. Or maybe that&#8217;s not the important part, but maybe it&#8217;s just the important part to make them aware of the new features that are available to them, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe we put some type of a widget on the dashboard where we link off to a Learn WordPress page that teaches you about how to use the Notes feature that got added. The other thing too is you mentioned about the TV shows advertise when they&#8217;re coming up, right? Maybe we need to do a better job of advertising what&#8217;s coming up and encouraging people to opt in early and test.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And in a way a more rapid release cycle leads to that because many of the browsers have different feature flags and they build features out in different branches, and you can actually opt into testing a specific feature and that would get turned on, but maybe not all the other things that they&#8217;re working on until it&#8217;s ready.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so maybe we need different ways for people to get involved testing, or trying things out earlier to understand what&#8217;s coming, but also to give us valuable feedback, how it works on their site, what breaks, what it doesn&#8217;t interact with. All of that is very valuable feedback, and we should always be striving to get more testers and more awareness around what&#8217;s coming because it creates new feedback loops that are valuable for different reasons.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:18:58] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s kind of interesting, and what I&#8217;m about to say, I am sure that a significant proportion of the listeners to this podcast will say, no, Nathan, we don&#8217;t want this. But here&#8217;s a proposal then. Here&#8217;s an idea. And again, I&#8217;m going to hark back to the TV series.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The TV series, typically when they&#8217;ve started advertising between other television programs, that TV series has been made, the footage has been shot, the graphics have been done. It&#8217;s basically ready to roll. And then they parcel all that up and then they release little snippets of what&#8217;s coming so that you can prepare yourself and get excited.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I kind of wondered if something like that in the dashboard, akin to the about us page, but in the run up to the release. So all the graphics have been made. We know basically what&#8217;s going to drop in this release. Now it may get tweaked here and there at the edges, but we know what&#8217;s coming. I&#8217;ve always thought that would be a really nice idea.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I would love to see that. And I realise a proportion of people would think, no, we really don&#8217;t want that. But I think that&#8217;s a perfect opportunity to get people drawn into, oh, this is coming. Collaborative editing, that&#8217;s about to happen is it? Gosh, that&#8217;s really interesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then this call to action could be dropped in, but we need some testing around the edges of it. We&#8217;ve got the bare bones of it, but we need some more eyeballs on it and what have you. So that proactive demonstration of what&#8217;s going to happen rather than the reactive, your site has been updated, here&#8217;s what there is, which is already there. This is more of a here&#8217;s what&#8217;s coming, get excited, get involved, yada yada.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:20:29] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> In some ways the feature branch model that I described lends to that, right? Because then it&#8217;s not, here comes this feature and then, oh, actually we left it out of this release, right? It&#8217;s its own thing that&#8217;s being worked on. And then when it&#8217;s released, it&#8217;s released, and it&#8217;s here. But it doesn&#8217;t make it any less, any worse off than other things that are shipping in the release, right? Because it&#8217;s its own thing, and it&#8217;s its own, it has its own criteria to be ready, in a state that we&#8217;re comfortable with shipping it and supporting it forever because of backwards compatibility.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so yeah, I think that what you&#8217;re describing is essentially what I was describing, a little bit more detail. And there&#8217;s of course a lot of nuance there around how often do we do that? We have a lot of parts of the release process that need to be automated before we can even consider that. The different parts of the block editor are, many of it is managed as packages, NPM packages. And so a lot of those are so interconnected, it&#8217;s a little difficult to release just one feature because they&#8217;re all being updated at the same time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so like there&#8217;s some architectural things to think about around that. Like, how do we compartmentalize things better to be able to do that? Make sure we don&#8217;t accidentally include something that&#8217;s not ready but when we intended to include a certain feature. There&#8217;s a lot to unpack there and I don&#8217;t know that we&#8217;ll ever get there just because of the sheer size of the project and how, backwards compatibility, how long we&#8217;ve been around.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I think that training users that auto updates are important to have enabled that are quality, you know, not shipping things that break people&#8217;s sites as much as possible, even though it&#8217;s unavoidable because of how flexible WordPress is.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After 6.9 came out, I was looking into some of the data because I had this gut feeling that 6.9 was being updated to, slower than other releases. And so for a little while I was looking at that. And after about a month, I was like, okay, this is just a hunch. Let me go and actually look at the data around this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so what I noticed was actually the opposite. When I looked at, I created 5% thresholds for the percentage of total WordPress sites. And when I looked at the data, I realised that for the last 10 releases, let&#8217;s see here. So every major version of the last six to eight releases has passed 35% of all WordPress sites in two days or less. And also every one of these columns as far as percentages is increasing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so WordPress 6.9 reached the 50% threshold of all WordPress sites in 10 days, and that&#8217;s four days faster than 6.8, which was the next fastest. And currently we&#8217;re approaching 65% threshold of all WordPress sites. And only six other releases have done that so far. All of them are the most recent ones, except for 4.9, which we all know had a waiting period for Gutenberg. And the only release the past 70% was 6.8.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so I&#8217;m interested to see how this trend continues because it&#8217;s showing an acceleration of adoption for each new major version of WordPress. They&#8217;re getting installed faster, by more people. It&#8217;s a sign that we&#8217;re shipping stable software. People are more confident. People are opting into auto updates for major versions. And in general, it&#8217;s just a quality sign that we&#8217;re doing something right here. And so how can we lean into that more?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:23:52] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, let&#8217;s pivot a little bit. Let&#8217;s sort of bind community, we did touch on this a minute ago, but let&#8217;s spend a little bit of time binding the community to these kind of things because right at the start you mentioned that really the community is the underpinnings of your interest in the WordPress space. The code is obviously tremendously important, but without the community there is no code basically.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so we&#8217;ve got these events. We&#8217;re trying to create interest around the WordCamps and the releases at the same time. But just looking back over the last period of time, let&#8217;s go for year, two years, something like that. I don&#8217;t know what your spidey sense is telling you, but my spidey sense is telling me that that community portion, it&#8217;s sort of slowly but surely, it feels like it&#8217;s withering away slightly.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m not really picking up on like this angry mob of people who are stamping their feet and shouting, I don&#8217;t want anything to do with the WordPress community and then disappearing. I mean maybe there&#8217;s a few of those, probably, somewhere. But I don&#8217;t get a sense of that. I just get this sense of sort of, somebody&#8217;s pulled the plug out of a bathtub and it&#8217;s slowly sort of draining away.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Attendance down at WordCamps. Meetups struggling to sort of get the numbers that they had several years ago. And so it would feel like at the moment, you would have to be watching the news fairly closely, especially right now. So at the beginning of February, 2026 is when we&#8217;re recording this. There does seem to be a push from the senior leadership to make WordPress Meetups and things like that, a much more central part.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then there&#8217;s this whole broad spectrum of educational initiatives as well going on. So we&#8217;ve got WP Campus Connect, we&#8217;ve got the Credits Program and a whole smorgasbord of other things which is happening.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So there&#8217;s no question there, really, what I&#8217;m just trying to do is give you the opportunity to bind the two things, the WordPress community and the software, and really just talk about whether you&#8217;ve noticed the same thing as me, where there&#8217;s this slow, withering of the community. And maybe this is a part of just sort of getting it all back together, making events like this a bit more fun and interesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:26:02] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah. I think there&#8217;s a few things there to call out. The first observation I&#8217;ve had over the last year is there&#8217;s a palpable excitement to build with WordPress again. I&#8217;m noticing there&#8217;s a renewed enthusiasm. People, they want to move on from certain things, and they want to get back to building experiences and tools and things on the WordPress platform.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there&#8217;s also, I think we&#8217;re dealing with some, in some ways, a long tail COVID effect, right? There was obviously, you know, a lack of in-person events for a while, and during that time a lot of the people who were keeping Meetups alive and WordCamps alive, they moved on, or burnt out, and chose not to return after. And so there was a break in that pipeline of, usually there&#8217;s a lead doing that and there&#8217;s other people learning under them, and then they move up and take over. And that was totally disrupted and I think that we&#8217;re still trying to rebuild that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think that it manifests differently in different areas too. So for example, the APAC WordCamp community is very strong and they have lots of WordCamps. But in the United States, there was one WordCamp that wasn&#8217;t WordCamp US last year, I think, Montclair. And I lead the Boston WordPress Meetup and so finding speakers is difficult. Getting people to come out is difficult as well. And I think those are partially just larger societal shifts where it&#8217;s harder to get people to come out to certain things. And we just have different preferences as far as how we consume information or learn.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I&#8217;m still not sure why the difference in the geographical areas, and I think it may have to do more with, APAC is a more emerging market when it comes to WordPress, right? Like their community, especially in certain areas has been growing and is much newer than it is in the US. And so I think that they&#8217;re growing their communities for the first time in many ways, right? But in the US it&#8217;s the second or third or fourth time that we&#8217;re growing those communities or revitalising those communities. And the form that that needs to take, I think is a little different. And I&#8217;m not clear on what the holdup is there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I do know that a big factor of that is to get new people involved with WordPress and interested in WordPress, and that&#8217;s why some of the priorities that Mary Hubbard published, and one of them in particular is education and awareness and all of those different things that work together in the form of the WP Credits program, mentorship programs. There&#8217;s been the contributor mentorship programs that happen every few quarters in WordPress over the last few years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And we&#8217;ve seen some really great contributors who were mentored in that program, and then the next time the program happened, they mentored, and then they became a team lead, and then they served on release squads. And so we&#8217;ve seen some really great contributed journeys through those paths.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:28:53] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;ll just sort of run through with you the kind of things that I&#8217;ve noticed in my part of the world. So I think COVID is an enormous part of it. It upended so many ordinary things in life. So, as an example, you know, people obviously, they ceased going out, and then that pattern of not going out became habituated. People didn&#8217;t go out because that&#8217;s not what you do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And in the UK we have this institution called the pub, which I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve heard of. And it used to be that prior to COVID, the pub was the real centerpiece of many communities. You know, towns, suburbs, what have you. Everybody would coalesce around the pub and that was very important. Since the pandemic, a lot of those institutions, they don&#8217;t really function in that way anymore. You know, there isn&#8217;t the throughput, there isn&#8217;t the footfall and so they go out of business.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the same, I presume is true in the WordPress space. You know, we&#8217;re trying to encourage people to get up, leave their home, spend money on transportation. Obviously there&#8217;s the time cost, the sunk cost of time and what have you as well. It&#8217;s difficult, but it makes me more sanguine that it&#8217;s not just like, it&#8217;s not just a WordPress thing, you know, it&#8217;s the whole of society.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But like you said, I get the feeling that the WordPress community has begun to address it. And the way it&#8217;s being addressed is through these educational initiatives. Trying to get a throughput of younger talent. So get them at the school age, get them at the university age, and then hopefully they will have an interest. They&#8217;ll get a flavor of what it means to be involved in these Meetups and things like that and hopefully take those on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s a laudable goal. I hope that it has the capacity to transfer. You know, so in a decade&#8217;s time we can look back and say, look what happened. This young blood emerged. I think it&#8217;s yet to be seen. I think certainly in the area, the locale where I am, the United Kingdom, we don&#8217;t see evidence of that yet. Maybe in the US that would also mirror.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But from everything that I&#8217;ve learned and the people that I&#8217;ve talked to for this podcast and events in Asia and places like that, that seems to be a really different picture. There seems to be a real thirst for solutions like WordPress. Because there&#8217;s a direct kind of career path there. You know, you can pick up a free piece of open source software, crack open a laptop and get going and start to sell your services far and wide. And so again, there&#8217;s no question there, just observations that I hope these initiatives bear fruit. But it&#8217;ll be interesting to see. Only time will tell.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:31:16] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> I think at the root of what we&#8217;re dealing with is that people are motivated by what they see as valuable, right? If they&#8217;re not going out to events, so they&#8217;re not engaging with the community, they don&#8217;t recognise or feel that it&#8217;s valuable to them in some way. And so we&#8217;re having to reprove why communities are valuable, why open source is valuable, why you should care.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then the other aspect of it is, you know, overall project sustainability. We can&#8217;t just keep getting older. We need to have a balance of new, younger people that get involved as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so one way to lean into getting younger is obviously, like you said, to approach people at schooling age, right? Or university, and teach them about open source. Show them how to contribute, how to be a part of a community, and why it&#8217;s valuable. But we have to be really careful because we need to be prepared to, I&#8217;ve written in the past that we need to be prepared to activate these contributors, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So it&#8217;s one thing to make them aware of this, but it&#8217;s another thing to make sure they&#8217;re properly supported and we give them pathways to grow. We give them clear criteria to be successful, clear projects to work on, so they understand what they&#8217;re doing and what they&#8217;re trying to accomplish.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I think that this is one thing that is also a benefit of having the releases coincide with these major events because new people are getting together already, so why not use that opportunity?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the goals that every table lead and every organiser of a Contributor Day has is to ensure as many contributors see, realise their work over the finish line. And so on the Core team that&#8217;s a patch that someone tests gets committed, or a patch someone writes gets committed to WordPress, right? How can we make that more valuable, where it&#8217;s not just ending when they leave Contributor Day?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so I&#8217;ve been thinking about all the different logistics and helping to coordinate with the WordCamp Asia team and the 7.0 release team to make sure we&#8217;re prepared for that final day. And one of the things I&#8217;ve been thinking about is the release process itself. One of the best, lowest friction ways to get involved with WordPress in the actual release process. And you don&#8217;t need any experience contributing to really take part in it. And that&#8217;s when we get to a point where we say, okay, here&#8217;s the zip file of what we think we&#8217;re going to ship, go test it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so people will take it, and they install it on their server and they say which version of PHP they&#8217;re using, and how they installed it and what they did and, you know, it worked. And the majority of that though is just looking for problems. And when problems don&#8217;t come up, we just don&#8217;t do anything with all the information that people are dropping, right? And there might be 50 people at a major release. We call them parties, but at the release parties that are dropping information. And again, if there&#8217;s no red flags, that information just largely goes away.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, how can we rethink that and make that effort more meaningful, and also create a pathway for them to continue contributing in some way past that moment? And having everybody in person is a great way to have pilot programs for different approaches, because there can be someone that briefs a set of contributors on what we&#8217;re going to try this time, here&#8217;s what we want to do, give us feedback on how you felt it went. Everybody that&#8217;s involved in the squad and doing the release can say, oh yeah, that actually was really helpful and better than what we do before.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And these newer individuals that are learning also have fresh perspective. And so having them participate in these, I guess I&#8217;ll call them experiments of such, but just these processes and things that we are considering, it helps get that fresh opinion and perspective on why things are working and why things aren&#8217;t and helps us just improve.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:35:04] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;ve got three children and they&#8217;re all of a certain age now, they&#8217;re certainly no longer small. You know, they&#8217;re basically adults. And it&#8217;s really fascinating looking at the kind of things that engage them. I think they&#8217;ve just grown up in a different era. The diet of the kind of things that excite them is very different to the kind of things that excited somebody of my generation, just because, you know, they&#8217;ve had the whole world in their pocket ever since they were born.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And having that dialogue with the next generation, and trying to figure out what it is that they want and that they desire. And even things like open source. So when, I was already an adult before the internet began to be put into everybody&#8217;s homes, and people started to own personal computers and things like that. And so I was ready to receive that message of open source right at the start. And it became really obvious to me, oh, that&#8217;s a really clever way of making software.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But now of course we&#8217;ve got this landscape of closed platforms. Everything&#8217;s free at the point of use, but everything&#8217;s not free in any way, shape, or form. You can think of the siloed platforms that I&#8217;m talking about. My children have been raised with those and so just even making the argument about open source is hard enough.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I think what I&#8217;m really advocating for is, obviously we&#8217;ve got to shepherd these people in, but at the same time, I think we have to be willing to let go of a lot of the things that we think the project is. We think the Meetup should contain. We think the WordCamp should maintain. Because at the end of the day, we&#8217;re competing for eyeballs and if we don&#8217;t make it, I&#8217;m going to use the word exciting, if we don&#8217;t make it exciting, they&#8217;re just not going to show up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I feel that&#8217;s a piece of the next five, six years, trying to figure out what excites these people. Because unless we do excite them, I fear the Meetups are going to be empty and there&#8217;ll be a certain throughput from the WordPress initiatives, Campus Connect and what have you. But we need to make these things exciting, interesting, innovative, fun. But I don&#8217;t have an answer to that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:36:59] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Yeah, you touched on something interesting that I&#8217;ve been thinking about quite a bit. I gave a talk last year about how to implement AI into open source communities while maintaining what makes them great in the first place, which is the human element, right? The community aspects of it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so I&#8217;ve been thinking a lot about just AI and how it&#8217;s affecting us. And there&#8217;s a few things that I&#8217;m really excited about with AI and those are empowerment and learning. And so you can have an AI model that digests massive amounts of information and summarises it in the specific way that you learn best, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And likewise, I&#8217;m noticing that people feel more empowered to try things themselves because they have more of an ability to distill a lot of information down into something that&#8217;s digestible, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so I feel that the tension between those two areas of closed and open is growing. Because when I was growing up, computers were just starting to be less than the size of a car, right? People were starting to have them in their house. But they were still at a point where, the computer went bad, you took it apart and fixed it. You didn&#8217;t trade it in for a new one, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so I feel like my generation, there was a level of, we had the tools, but we had to go out and build the things we needed ourselves in some ways, and experiment. And then there&#8217;s been the generations between that and now where they pretty much had everything that they needed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But AI is changing what we need, or what we want, and what ways we want it. And so now there&#8217;s a new found need to build again in some ways. And in some ways it&#8217;s kind of a circle, right? Because it&#8217;s, the AI is making it easier to build, but it&#8217;s also making you more aware you have to build. It&#8217;s kind of like building against itself in certain ways.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I&#8217;m finding that there&#8217;s more of a willingness to do things on your own, try to tackle something you would typically need to hire a professional to do in the past. You know in many ways we need to lean into that because then that gets people excited. Oh, WordPress, I could use WordPress to build this, or I could use just the WordPress for just the database part of it and the REST API and have some type of application on it because it scales well and it caches or whatever it may be.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I feel like people are starting to scoff at the walled gardens a little bit more, and I&#8217;m seeing that there&#8217;s a resurgence in things like RSS. I&#8217;m seeing new RSS readers are popping up. People are leaning towards the Fediverse. People are blogging more, having their own website instead of just their business on Facebook, right? Because that can get taken away.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We saw with Twitter how they just chose to close their platform. And embeds no longer work in WordPress because they shut down oEmbeds. And I feel like it changes every month, but there&#8217;s times where you have to log in to see a post, or you can&#8217;t see a post, or you can see one post and then you can&#8217;t see any more that&#8217;s shared externally. Yeah, so it gives you more control.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:40:02] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I think that&#8217;s really interesting. And I also noticed that swing. Obviously, I don&#8217;t have any broader data. I can only point to the things in my life, the little intuitions that I&#8217;m gaining. But I see the same thing. I see an interest in AI, so we&#8217;ll just put that to one side for a moment. But in terms of the closed platforms, I do see that the people that I know who are significantly younger than me, they have intuitions around that, and they&#8217;ve kind of figured out for themselves that this is not great. It seems to be a vehicle to serve me ads, and I wonder what the incentive is for the stuff that I&#8217;m seeing, and maybe it&#8217;s kind of pushing me off in one direction politically and all of that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And yeah, this resurgence of RSS, of the blog. I know it&#8217;s hard to talk about, but it&#8217;s almost like we&#8217;re doing some sort of archaeology in the internet space. We&#8217;ve gone back to something older. We kind of dug up the relics from the past and we found that they&#8217;re still usable. They&#8217;re still there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;ll be so interesting. But I think if it was just the RSS and it was just the open nature of things, I think that&#8217;s going to be a hard sell. But throw AI into the mix, this capacity for somebody with very little relationship with writing code who can get something credible out. Now, it may not be robust, it may have security problems here and there. The accessibility may be something that needs to be addressed and what have you. But who can argue with the excitement of it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You know, you tell a computer to make a colourful website that&#8217;s got rainbows and pictures of cats, and sure enough, two minutes later you have a website with rainbows and pictures of cats. And that wasn&#8217;t possible until just a couple of years ago. And so I think we&#8217;ve got the tools. I think there&#8217;s things that we can deploy. AI seems to be the primary one at the moment. Let&#8217;s hope that that continues to be sustainable.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But that&#8217;s interesting. That gives me some hope. And the way that you&#8217;ve encapsulated it, open source combined with things like AI. Trying to get Meetups back. Trying to combine it with educational initiatives. Trying to combine it with WordCamps and releases.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:41:52] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> You mentioned something that&#8217;s important there in that it&#8217;s very easy for someone to get something built that they need specifically, right? And I think that&#8217;s where we&#8217;re at right now where AI is, like I said, is empowering, but more on a personal level. Once you need to scale those things, that&#8217;s when it gets difficult.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And it&#8217;s a rollercoaster of, oh my God, there&#8217;s going to be no software. And then, oh, look at all this crappy software that AI built. We are always going to have a job. And then it&#8217;s like up and down all throughout time as new tools get released. And it definitely matches what I&#8217;m seeing is like the personal empowerment level, they could take that and run with it and build this really massive thing, or they could just build something that they just want, that does specifically what they want, that they haven&#8217;t found out there that it accomplishes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I think that another aspect of that is I&#8217;m noticing that a lot of people that you may not have thought would try things in the physical world on their own are more likely to do so as well. So maybe changing their faucet, or doing a landscaping project or something. I feel like we&#8217;ve had YouTube tutorials, right, has been a big thing for maybe a decade, right? But I feel like AI has unlocked a new level of empowerment where people feel more confident to try things because of the knowledge that&#8217;s available to them in different ways.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:43:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> The year 2026 is going to be punctuated by WordCamps. It&#8217;s going to be punctuated by WordPress releases. Hopefully we will start to see the needle move on educational initiatives, and maybe some younger people joining in with the community.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That has been a fascinating chat, Jonathan. I really appreciate that, getting your insight into what I think we both hope is going to happen in the WordPress project. That it will still be relevant in 10 years time, and that there&#8217;ll be children who are now, not old enough to be using computers, in a decade, they&#8217;ll be coming on podcasts like this, and hosting podcasts like this, and being involved in the community that we love so very much.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Where can we find you, Jonathan? If people want to talk to you and have a bit of a natter, where&#8217;s the best place to locate you?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:43:48] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> My website is just jonathandesrosiers.com. I&#8217;m desrosej pretty much everywhere on the internet. I try to keep it consistent and easy. And you can also, of course, find me in the wordpress.org Slack.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:44:01] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I will link to all of those in the show notes. So if you go to the wptavern.com website, search for the episode with Jonathan Desrosiers, you&#8217;ll be able to find all of the links probably at the bottom underneath the transcript and the preamble. Go and have a look down there and hopefully we&#8217;ll be speaking soon. I&#8217;ll probably see you in Mumbai in a few weeks time. Take care, Jonathan.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:44:21] <strong>Jonathan Desrosiers:</strong> Thank you. Look forward to it, and hopefully I see your listeners there as well.</p>\n</div></details>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the podcast today we have <a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/\">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jonathan has been involved with WordPress for almost two decades, both as a user and a contributor. He’s a principal software engineer at Bluehost, where his role sees him sponsored to work on WordPress through the Five for the Future program. Over the years, he’s become a Core committer, and has spent many hours thinking about how to enhance the contributor experience and make it easier for people to get involved in the project.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this episode we discuss how WordPress releases might be made more impactful by synchronizing them with flagship community events like WordCamps and State of the Word. A recent experiment of combining a major release with a live event sparked some excitement, and Jonathan shares insights on the logistics behind such synchronized moments, the challenges posed by international holidays and regional scheduling, and the broader vision for connecting releases with community gatherings.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We also get into the changing landscape of the WordPress community, how it’s recovering from the effects of COVID, the struggle to rebuild local Meetups, and efforts (like mentorship and educational initiatives) to bring in new contributors, particularly from younger generations. Jonathan reflects on the importance of making release moments engaging and fun, akin to the anticipation of a new TV series or software launch, and the role of AI and open source in empowering a new wave of builders.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you’re interested in how release cycles, community events, and contributor onboarding are evolving in WordPress, or what the future might hold for the platform and its community, this episode is for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Useful links</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://jonathandesrosiers.com\">Jonathan&#8217;s website</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/\">Jonathan on WordPress.org</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://x.com/desrosj\">Jonathan on X</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://www.bluehost.com\">Bluehost</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/\">Five for the Future</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/12/04/state-of-the-word-2025-recap/\">State of the Word 2025 recap</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://events.wordpress.org/campusconnect/\">WP Campus Connect</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://wordpress.org/education/credits/\">WordPress Credits</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mary Hubbard on the importance of education &#8211; <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/project/2026/01/23/big-picture-goals-for-2026/\">Big Picture Goals for 2026</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse\">Fediverse</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, 25 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +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:5;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:\"Open Channels FM: AI Sidekick Features for WooCommerce Merchants\";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:34:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=1650257\";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://openchannels.fm/ai-sidekick-features-for-woocommerce-merchants/\";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:330:\"Co-host Katie Keith asks if WooCommerce will ever get a built-in AI assistant like Shopify’s Sidekick. James LePage explains that while it’s not in core just yet, all the building blocks are nearly here, and soon, adding a custom AI agent to your WooCommerce store could be as fast as installing a plugin. Here’s a [&#8230;]\";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, 25 Feb 2026 12:32:05 +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:8:\"Bob Dunn\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:45:\"HeroPress: Finding autonomy through WordPress\";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:56:\"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=8405\";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:142:\"https://heropress.com/essays/finding-autonomy-through-wordpress/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=finding-autonomy-through-wordpress\";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:18380:\"<img alt=\"Pull quote: WordPress helped me evolve from a designer and developer into a more complete professional. WordPress mi je pomogao da se od dizajnera i developera razvijem u cjelovitijeg profesionalca.\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" height=\"512\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/02/022426.webp\" width=\"1024\" /><p><a href=\"https://heropress.com/feed/#hrvatski\" id=\"#hrvatski\">Ovaj esej dostupan je i na hrvatskom jeziku.</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://heropress.com/feed/#deutsch\">Dieses Essay ist auch auf Deutsch verfügbar.</a></p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls=\"controls\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/02/english.mp3\"></audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Here is English audio of Edo&#8217;s essay, read in his own voice.</figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I started working with WordPress in 2020. I joined a digital agency and was at the start of my professional career. I had freshly completed a developer bootcamp where we learned about web development concepts and the basics of JS, HTML and CSS. I was initially hired as a frontend developer, but soon expanded my role to UX design and WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-overcoming-prejudice\"><strong>Overcoming prejudice</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Initially, I was hesitant about working with WordPress. In some developer circles, it was looked down upon. I thought someone might think less of me for using such a basic tool instead of doing the real thing, since coding was considered the “proper” way to build things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>After some initial resistance, I managed to let go of my prejudice and started enjoying it. The process involved designing the website in Figma and then implementing it via WordPress. Although I like to write code, I always thought of myself as more of a visual person than a coder, so this felt quite satisfactory.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Agency we worked mostly with Elementor, and even though there were some trade-offs when using it, I still remember how glad the benefits made me feel. I could implement scroll animations and various custom effects just by adjusting a couple of settings. It was great!</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-shift-in-perspective\"><strong>Shift in perspective</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As time progressed and I became more fluent in WordPress, I stopped thinking only from a design and frontend perspective and started seeing the bigger picture. Besides getting familiar with SEO, I began to understand the relationship between design decisions, business goals, and real-world constraints.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also realized that I no longer had to wait for someone else to finish the project. Design didn’t end at handoff, and implementation didn’t end at developing the frontend. I could take a project from an initial idea to a finished, high-quality website all on my own. WordPress made that possible without requiring me to become a backend specialist.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-delivering-complete-value\"><strong>Delivering complete value</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>These insights changed my role more than any job title ever could and encouraged me to start freelancing. I took part in bigger, team-oriented WordPress projects, but I also worked on smaller ones where I was responsible for the whole process, from the initial “get-to-know-you” interview with the client to the final approval. I came to understand how design decisions influenced performance, how content structure shaped SEO, and how visual complexity affected load times and maintenance. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I gained more experience, the scope of my work expanded. I was no longer just a designer or developer. Over time, I started to understand the business side of projects as well. It became clearer how a website fits into a broader strategy, how it supports client goals, and how decisions influence long term value. WordPress allowed me to develop a more strategic mindset. It helped me move from purely operational work toward strategic thinking. That broader business perspective became just as important to me as the technical execution itself.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The feeling of being able to provide a complete product to the client and own the entire process felt exciting because it satisfied my need for autonomy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>First time I truly felt responsible for the entire outcome was while developing a full hotel website from start to finish. Publishing the site felt different. Since working in a team is a collaborative activity, there is always sharing of responsibility, giving each other support and feedback. This is why this felt different. It was only me. It was not a contribution. It was owning the project from start to finish. Seeing the site live, functional, and in real use made this shift clear. It felt exciting to be able to deliver the full outcome.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if WordPress is not suitable for every use case and even if there are certain trade-offs, for someone like me, who wanted to feel autonomy and experience delivering a product from the initial idea to completion, WordPress was the right tool. It didn’t just teach me how to build a website or implement SEO. It taught me how to deliver real value to a client.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-conclusion\"><strong>Conclusion</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If I had to summarize what WordPress changed in my life, it would be that it helped me become more autonomous. It allowed me to take responsibility for entire projects and deliver complete value to clients, from idea to finished product. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also exposed me to a much larger number of real-world projects, clients, and challenges. That volume of experience shaped my growth more than any single tool or role. More projects meant more conversations, more constraints and more responsibility. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>In that sense, WordPress wasn’t just a tool for me. It helped me evolve from a designer and developer into a more complete professional. Someone able to understand problems, deliver outcomes, and think beyond individual tasks.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"hrvatski\"><strong>Pronalaženje autonomije kroz WordPress</strong></h1>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls=\"controls\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/02/croatian.mp3\"></audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ovdje je hrvatska audioverzija Edovog eseja, pročitana njegovim vlastitim glasom.<br /></figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>S WordPressom sam počeo raditi 2020. godine, na samom početku svoje profesionalne karijere. Pridružio sam se digitalnoj agenciji nakon što sam završio developerski bootcamp na kojem smo prošli osnove web razvoja te rad s JS-om, HTML-om i CSS-om. Isprva su me zaposlili kao frontend developera, ali se moja uloga ubrzo proširila na UX dizajn i WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-suocavanje-s-predrasudama\"><strong>Suočavanje s predrasudama</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>U početku sam bio skeptičan prema WordPressu. U nekim developerskim krugovima na njega se gledalo s visoka. Imao sam dojam da će netko pomisliti kako radim s lakšim alatom, umjesto da radim stvari “kako treba”, kroz čisti kod.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nakon početnog otpora, ta se percepcija promijenila. Počeo sam uživati u procesu. Prvo dizajn u Figmi, zatim implementacija kroz WordPress. Iako volim pisati kod, uvijek sam sebe doživljavao više kao vizualni tip nego kao klasičnog programera. Ovakav način rada mi je prirodno odgovarao.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>U agenciji smo najčešće koristili Elementor. Imao je svoja ograničenja, ali prednosti su mi bile važnije. Mogućnost da relativno brzo implementiram animacije na scroll, razne interakcije i custom efekte, bez kompleksnog kodiranja, bila mi je konkretna vrijednost.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-promjena-perspektive\"><strong>Promjena perspektive</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Kako sam postajao sigurniji u WordPressu, prestao sam razmišljati isključivo iz dizajnerske ili frontend perspektive. Počeo sam sagledavati širu sliku. Postalo mi je jasnije kako su dizajnerske odluke povezane s poslovnim ciljevima i potencijalnim ograničenjima koje svaki projekt nosi sa sobom.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Također sam shvatio da više ne moram čekati druge da završe svoj dio posla. Dizajn nije završavao primopredajom, a implementacija nije stajala na frontendu. Mogao sam projekt iznijeti od početne ideje do potpuno gotove web stranice, bez da budem stručnjak za backend. WordPress mi je to omogućio.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-isporuka-cjelovite-vrijednosti\"><strong>Isporuka cjelovite vrijednosti</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ta promjena utjecala je na moju ulogu više nego bilo koja titula. Potaknula me da se krenem baviti freelancingom. Radio sam na većim timskim WordPress projektima, ali i na manjima gdje sam samostalno vodio cijeli proces. Od prvog razgovora s klijentom do finalnog odobrenja. Počeo sam razumijevati kako dizajnerske odluke utječu na performanse, kako struktura sadržaja oblikuje SEO i kako vizualna kompleksnost utječe na brzinu učitavanja i održavanje.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Međutim, kako sam postajao iskusniji, širio se i opseg mog rada. Više nisam bio samo dizajner ili developer. S vremenom sam počeo razumijevati i poslovnu stranu projekata. Postalo mi je jasnije kako se web stranica uklapa u širu strategiju, kako podržava ciljeve klijenta i kako odluke utječu na dugoročnu vrijednost. WordPress mi je pomogao razviti strateški način razmišljanja. Pomaknuo sam se od operativnog izvršavanja zadataka prema razumijevanju šireg konteksta i donošenju odluka. Ta šira, poslovna perspektiva postala mi je jednako važna kao i sama tehnička izvedba.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prvi put sam stvarno osjetio punu odgovornost kada sam samostalno razvio kompletnu web stranicu za jedan hotel, od početka do lansiranja web-a u produkciju. Osjećaj kada je stranica napokon otišla online bio je drugačiji. U timu uvijek postoji dijeljenje odgovornosti, podrška i zajedničke revizije. Ovdje je sve bilo na meni. Nije to bila samo kontribucija, nego vlasništvo nad cijelim procesom. Vidjeti tu stranicu online, za mene je jasno označilo tu promjenu.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iako WordPress nije rješenje za svaki projekt i ima svoja ograničenja, meni je omogućio upravo ono što mi je tada bilo važno: autonomiju i mogućnost da isporučim cjelovit proizvod, od ideje do realizacije. Nije me samo naučio kako izraditi web stranicu ili optimizirati SEO, nego kako klijentu isporučiti stvarnu vrijednost.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-zakljucak\"><strong>Zaključak</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ako moram istaknuti jednu stvar koju je WordPress promijenio u mom profesionalnom razvoju, rekao bih da mi je omogućio veću autonomiju. Dao mi je prostor da preuzmem odgovornost za cijeli projekt i isporučim potpunu vrijednost, od inicijalne ideje do finalnog proizvoda.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Uz to, otvorio mi je pristup većem broju stvarnih projekata, klijenata i izazova. Količina iskustva koju sam tako stekao oblikovala je moj rast više nego bilo koja pojedinačna uloga ili alat. Više projekata značilo je više različitih razgovora, ograničenja, odgovornosti i drugačijih prosudbi.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>U tom smislu, WordPress nije bio samo alat. Bio je to način rada koji mi je omogućio da izađem iz okvira dizajnera i developera te razvijem sposobnost razumijevanja problema, preuzimanja odgovornosti i razmišljanja šire od pojedinačnog zadatka.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"deutsch\"><strong>Autonomie durch WordPress finden</strong></h1>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls=\"controls\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/3026/02/german.mp3\"></audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hier ist die deutsche Audioaufnahme des Essays von Edo, gelesen mit seiner eigenen Stimme.</figcaption></figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ich habe 2020 angefangen, mit WordPress zu arbeiten. Zu dieser Zeit stand ich am Anfang meiner beruflichen Karriere und trat einer Digitalagentur bei. Kurz zuvor hatte ich ein Developer-Bootcamp abgeschlossen, in dem wir Web-Grundlagen sowie die Basics von JS, HTML und CSS gelernt hatten. Ursprünglich wurde ich als Frontend Developer eingestellt, aber meine Rolle erweiterte sich schnell in Richtung UX Design und WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-vorurteile-uberwinden\"><strong>Vorurteile überwinden</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Zu Beginn war ich unsicher, ob ich mit WordPress arbeiten wollte. In Teilen der Entwickler-Community wurde es nicht besonders ernst genommen. Ich hatte das Gefühl, man würde mich weniger ernst nehmen, wenn ich mit einem „einfachen“ Tool arbeite, statt alles klassisch zu programmieren, da Coding als der „richtige“ Weg galt.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anfangs habe ich mich dagegen gesträubt, mit WordPress zu arbeiten, aber mit der Zeit begann ich, die Arbeit damit zu genießen. Der Prozess bestand darin, Websites in Figma zu gestalten und anschließend mit WordPress umzusetzen. Obwohl ich gerne Code geschrieben habe, sah ich mich immer eher als visuellen Typ. Diese Arbeitsweise lag mir daher besonders.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In der Agentur haben wir hauptsächlich mit Elementor gearbeitet. Natürlich gab es Nachteile, aber für mich überwogen die Vorteile. Scroll-Animationen und individuelle Effekte ließen sich durch wenige Einstellungen umsetzen. Das fand ich sehr überzeugend.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-perspektivwechsel\"><strong>Perspektivwechsel</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Mit wachsender Erfahrung änderte sich mein Blickwinkel. Ich dachte nicht mehr nur aus Design- oder Frontend-Sicht, sondern begann, Zusammenhänge zu erkennen. Neben SEO verstand ich zunehmend, wie Designentscheidungen mit Geschäftszielen und realen Rahmenbedingungen verbunden sind.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mir wurde auch klar, dass ich nicht mehr auf andere warten musste, um das Projekt zu Ende zu bringen. Design endete nicht mit der Übergabe, und die Umsetzung nicht beim Frontend. Ich konnte ein Projekt von der ersten Idee bis zur fertigen Website eigenständig führen, ohne Backend-Spezialist zu sein. WordPress machte das möglich.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-ganzheitlichen-mehrwert-liefern\"><strong>Ganzheitlichen Mehrwert liefern</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Diese Entwicklung beeinflusste meine Rolle stärker als jede offizielle Bezeichnung. Sie war auch der Impuls, als Freelancer zu starten. Ich war an größeren Teamprojekten beteiligt, übernahm aber auch kleinere Projekte, bei denen ich für den gesamten Prozess verantwortlich war – vom ersten Kennenlerngespräch bis zur finalen Freigabe.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ich verstand, wie Designentscheidungen die Performance beeinflussten, wie Inhaltsstrukturen sich auf SEO auswirkten und wie visuelle Komplexität Ladezeiten und Wartbarkeit beeinflusste.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mit wachsender Erfahrung erweiterte sich auch mein Aufgabenbereich. Ich war nicht mehr nur Designer oder Developer. Ich begann, die geschäftliche Seite von Projekten zu verstehen: wie sich eine Website in eine übergeordnete Strategie einfügt, wie sie Unternehmensziele unterstützt und wie Entscheidungen langfristigen Wert beeinflussen. WordPress hat mir geholfen, strategischer zu denken und mich von rein operativer Arbeit zu lösen. Diese geschäftliche Perspektive wurde für mich genauso wichtig wie die technische Umsetzung.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ein vollständiges Produkt liefern und den gesamten Prozess selbst tragen zu können, war für mich besonders wichtig, weil es meinem Bedürfnis nach Autonomie entsprach.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Der Moment, in dem ich erstmals die komplette Website eines Hotels eigenständig von Anfang bis Ende entwickelte, markierte einen Wendepunkt. Die Veröffentlichung fühlte sich anders an. Ich arbeite gern im Team, da man dort Feedback erhält. Doch hier trug ich die volle Verantwortung. Es war kein Beitrag zu einem Projekt, sondern die vollständige Verantwortung für das Ergebnis. Die Website live zu sehen, machte diesen Schritt für mich sehr deutlich.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Auch wenn WordPress nicht für jeden Anwendungsfall ideal ist und gewisse Kompromisse mit sich bringt, war es für mich das richtige Werkzeug. Ich habe dadurch nicht nur gelernt, wie man Websites baut oder SEO umsetzt, sondern auch, wie ich echten Mehrwert für Kunden schaffen kann.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-fazit\"><strong>Fazit</strong></h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Wenn ich zusammenfassen müsste, was WordPress in meiner beruflichen Entwicklung verändert hat, dann ist es vor allem die gewonnene Autonomie. Es gab mir die Möglichkeit, Projekte von der ersten Idee bis zum fertigen Produkt eigenständig umzusetzen und echten Mehrwert zu schaffen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zudem arbeitete ich an einer größeren Zahl realer Projekte mit unterschiedlichen Kunden und Anforderungen. Diese Erfahrung war für meine Entwicklung wichtiger als jedes einzelne Tool oder jede Positionsbezeichnung. Mehr Projekte bedeuteten mehr Gespräche, mehr Rahmenbedingungen und mehr Entscheidungen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In diesem Sinne war WordPress für mich nicht nur ein Werkzeug. Es half mir, über die Rolle des Designers und Developers hinauszuwachsen, Probleme zu verstehen, Ergebnisse zu liefern und über einzelne Aufgaben hinauszudenken.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-background is-vertical is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-fc43baa9 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\" id=\"desktop\">\n<h2 class=\"kt-adv-heading8405_30ba8f-7b wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" id=\"work-environment\">Edo&#8217;s Work Environment</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We asked Edo for a view into his development life and this is what he sent!</p>\n\n\n	<div class=\"hotspots-image-container\">\n		<img alt=\"Edo&#8217;s Desk\" class=\"hotspots-image skip-lazy\" height=\"1536\" src=\"https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/edo-work-area.webp\" width=\"2048\" />\n	</div>\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has--font-size\">HeroPress would like to thank <a href=\"https://wpdrawattention.com/\">Draw Attention</a> for their donation of the plugin to make this interactive image!</p>\n</div>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https://heropress.com/essays/finding-autonomy-through-wordpress/\">Finding autonomy through WordPress</a> appeared first on <a href=\"https://heropress.com\">HeroPress</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, 25 Feb 2026 07:00:00 +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:12:\"Edo Begagić\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:\"Open Channels FM: How Instant Access to Information Has Changed Patience and Learning\";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:33:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=115203\";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:92:\"https://openchannels.fm/how-instant-access-to-information-has-changed-patience-and-learning/\";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:188:\"A reflection on the internet\'s impact on patience and learning. It highlights how instant answers have reshaped our experiences, often sacrificing depth for speed in knowledge acquisition.\";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, 24 Feb 2026 13:01:57 +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:8:\"Bob Dunn\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:\"Open Channels FM: Start With Content, Even If the Plan Is Messy\";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:34:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=1492852\";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://openchannels.fm/start-with-content-even-if-the-plan-is-messy/\";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:90:\"The worst thing you can do is wait until everything is perfect before publishing anything.\";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, 23 Feb 2026 09:44:17 +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:8:\"Bob Dunn\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:28:\"Matt: Claude &amp;amp; Sonos\";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:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=151297\";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:35:\"https://ma.tt/2026/02/claude-sonos/\";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:1795:\"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tonight was one of my most surreal Claude Code Sundays. To make a long story short, I pointed Claude Code at my <a href=\"https://www.sonos.com/\">Sonos</a> setup in Houston: &#8220;All 29 Sonos speakers were running on WiFi with SonosNet completely disabled. They had accumulated ~89 million dropped packets across the system. That packet loss is why groups kept falling apart &#8211; Sonos grouping requires tight sync between speakers, and the WiFi was too congested to deliver it.&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We had a wild rollercoaster where at one point it bricked several of my devices (green LED), got mixed up on some groupings being a home theater, and sent me all around the house plugging things in to ethernet or not. At one point, I was certain I&#8217;d have to redo everything from scratch. Then we came back and everything worked, I asked, &#8220;What song should we play to celebrate this accomplishment?&#8221;</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ha &#8211; has to be &#8220;The Chain&#8221; by Fleetwood Mac. Seems fitting given we just spent the evening fixing one. Want me to queue it up on the Gym/Office?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It then failed horribly at trying to play that song, then, because it thought the speakers were re-meshing, it tried to play it on outdoor speakers, which would have surprised my neighbors at midnight. I ended up picking the song manually, and I must say it&#8217;s quite nice. I see why it&#8217;s easy to fall in love with these things, because the variable positive reinforcement slot machine cowboy hacking is honestly more fun than if it had just gotten it right on the first try.</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, 23 Feb 2026 07:58:57 +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: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:10;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:\"Gutenberg Times: Interactivity API, WordPress 7.0 Beta and Telex updates — Weekend Edition 358\";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://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=44400\";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:102:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/interactivity-api-wordpress-7-0-beta-and-telex-updates-weekend-edition-358/\";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:18685:\"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greetings from snow-covered Munich — or at least it was when we left Friday for Salzburg, Austria, with a one-hour delay after our locomotive engineer got caught in the city&#8217;s snow-induced chaos. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Have a fabulous weekend! </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yours, <img alt=\"💕\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f495.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /><br /><em>Birgit</em></p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-word-press-release-information\">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This week, <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/02/wordpress-7-0-beta-1/\"><strong>WordPress 7.0 Beta 1</strong></a> is ready for your testing on a staging or local site, please, not your live site. You can jump in via the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/\">WordPress Beta Tester plugin,</a> a direct zip download, WP-CLI, or instantly through <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?php=8.3&amp;wp=beta&amp;networking=no&amp;language=&amp;multisite=no&amp;random=r8nny4q18x\">WordPress Playground</a> in your browser. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most important feature coming to WordPress 7.0 is real-time collaboration, when more than one person can edit a post or page. Even for a single-person blogger this might be helpful when the proofreading buddy and the photographer can also be involved in editing different parts of a post. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The final release is scheduled for April 9, 2026. Bugs go to the Alpha/Beta support forums or Trac — your testing genuinely shapes what ships. The release post also has an overview of the other features coming to WordPress 7.0, there are quite a lot. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v22.6.0-rc.1\">Gutenberg 22.6 RC1</a> </strong>is also available for testing. Once released it introduces a new Icon block, lightbox support for the Gallery block (a personal favorite of mine), and renames the Verse block to Poetry. Next to improvements to the Navigation overlay and block visibility controls, it also features a new approach to revisions with visual change tracking and block awareness. The final release is planned for February 25, 2026.</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><img alt=\"🎙\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f399.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /> The latest episode is <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-126-gutenberg-releases-22-3-22-4-22-5-and-wordpress-7-0/\">Gutenberg Changelog #126 – Gutenberg Releases 22.3, 22.4, 22.5 and WordPress 7.0</a> with special guest <strong>Carolina Nymark</strong>, author at fullsiteediting.com and long time contributor. </p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-no-vertical-margin\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44359\" height=\"184\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-13-at-12.32.32.png?resize=652%2C184&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></figure>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-pocket-casts wp-block-embed-pocket-casts\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div></div></div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-p\">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Content for AI is a hot topic for news sites, especially since they rely on those ad views and sponsored posts, and AI is pulling snippets from their content. It’s a tough situation, and many sites are working hard to keep AI bots from crawling their pages. But here’s the thing: AI really loves quality, long-form content. If your site serves up unique, quality stuff for humans, then it&#8217;s also going to catch the attention of AI systems looking to help users with their questions. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If your site fits the bill, <strong>Maddy Osman</strong> has put together <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2026/02/16/ai-search-engine-optimization-wordpress/\"><strong>9 Steps to Prepare Your WordPress Site for AI Search Engines</strong></a> as a practical guide for the era of ChatGPT and Google&#8217;s AI Mode. The good news: WordPress already has most of what AI systems need. You&#8217;ll learn to write answer-first content, use structured blocks, add schema markup, and manage your <code>robots.txt</code> — small, actionable tweaks that help your site surface in both traditional and AI-generated search results.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jamie Marsland</strong> built a plugin for block theme to manage beautiful sticky header variations. He demos it in the video <strong><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcLu9sRg1U4\">This Sticky Header Trick Makes WordPress Sites Look Incredible!</a></strong> If you are interested in the free plugin you get it on the <a href=\"https://www.pootlepress.com/sticky/\">website</a>.</p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n<div class=\"ng-block-ddf22824cf1d3a0c wp-block-newsletterglue-container ng-block\" style=\"color: #666666;\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div class=\"ng-block-vs ng-block-vs-1\" colspan=\"3\" height=\"0\" style=\"height: 0px;\"></div></div><div><div class=\"ng-block-hs ng-block-hs-1\" height=\"0\" style=\"width: 0px;\"></div><div align=\"none\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 1.6; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: none; color: #666666; background-color: #fdfcea; border-radius: 12px;\"><div class=\"ng-block-0b86f00180aaa4a6 wp-block-newsletterglue-text ng-block\" style=\"color: #666666;\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div align=\"none\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 1.6; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: none; color: #666666;\"><p><strong> <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg—Index &#8211; Index 2025&#8221;</a> </strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test, and Meta team from Jan. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. </p></div></div></div></div>\n\n<div class=\"ng-block-586e47cfe5594c2a wp-block-newsletterglue-text ng-block\" style=\"color: #666666;\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div align=\"none\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 1.6; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: none; color: #666666;\"><p>The previous years are also available: <br /><strong><strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/\">2020</a> | <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2021/\">2021</a></strong> | <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2022/\">2022</a></strong></strong> | <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2023\">2023</a></strong> | <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2024/\"><strong>2024</strong></a></p></div></div></div></div></div><div class=\"ng-block-hs ng-block-hs-2\" height=\"0\" style=\"width: 0px;\"></div></div><div><div class=\"ng-block-vs ng-block-vs-2\" colspan=\"3\" height=\"0\" style=\"height: 0px;\"></div></div></div></div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press\">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Carolina Nymark</strong> published two companion lessons on her Full Site Editing resource site. The <strong><a href=\"https://fullsiteediting.com/lessons/block-bindings-api/\">Block Bindings API guide</a> </strong>walks you through connecting dynamic data—post meta, custom sources, and more—to core blocks like paragraphs, images, and buttons, potentially saving you from building custom blocks altogether. In her <a href=\"https://fullsiteediting.com/lessons/block-hooks-api/\"><strong>Block Hooks API lesson</strong></a>, she shows you how plugins can automatically insert blocks into templates and patterns using PHP filters, with practical examples including WooCommerce and context-aware placement.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the latest article on the WordPress Developer, I show you exactly <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2026/02/how-to-add-custom-entries-to-the-editor-preview-dropdown/\"><strong>How to add custom entries to the editor Preview dropdown</strong></a>. Using the <code>PluginPreviewMenuItem</code> component from <code>@wordpress/editor</code>, you can extend the Preview menu with your own options — the tutorial walks you through building a &#8220;Social Card Preview&#8221; to show how to add an entry and serve up a modal for content. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Paulo Carvajal</strong> dives deep into <a href=\"https://wp-block-editor.com/building-dynamic-lists-and-collections-with-data-wp-each/\"><strong>Building Dynamic Lists and Collections with data-wp-each</strong></a> on WP Block Editor. The <code>data-wp-each</code> directive from the Interactivity API lets you build reactive lists — product catalogues, task lists, feeds — that update automatically when state changes, no manual DOM manipulation needed. You&#8217;ll learn how to coordinate PHP server-side rendering with JavaScript-derived state and implement advanced patterns like filtering, sorting, and pagination following WordPress best practices.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ryan Welcher</strong> gave a talk at <em>WordCamp Sofia</em> titled <strong><a href=\"https://wordpress.tv/2026/02/14/from-static-to-dynamic-mastering-the-interactivity-api/\">From Static to Dynamic: Mastering the Interactivity APIn the Interactivity API</a>.</strong> With the arrival of the <strong>I</strong>nteractivity API, WordPress offers a native, declarative way to add client-side behavior to blocks using directives like <code>data-wp-on–click</code>, <code>data-wp-bind</code>, and <code>data-wp-context</code>. Developers can define reactive behavior, state management, and side effects—all while staying in the WordPress stack. The talk&#8217;s recording just appeared on WordPressTV. It&#8217;s a well-rounded introduction to the Interactivity API with real-life examples.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"ai-and-wordpress\">AI and WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Semiha Kocer</strong> shares the latest <strong><a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2026/02/19/february-telex-updates/\">Telex updates</a> </strong>from WordPress.com&#8217;s AI-powered block creation tool, launched last August. The two headline features are </p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>upload reference images</strong> — a Figma mockup, a screenshot, or even a napkin sketch — alongside your prompt to guide complex layouts.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>download your block</strong>, edit it in your favorite code editor, and bring it back into Telex seamlessly.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This week, <strong>Jonathan Bossenger</strong> explored the <strong><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCS6WExmCYQ\">WordPress Studio MCP</a> </strong>server, which connects WordPress Studio with AI tools via MCP. He set up MCP in VS Code and then used an AI agent to generate a custom block theme for a small coffee shop selling beans and accessories.</p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ray Morey</strong> reported on WordPress.com&#8217;s launches of a <a href=\"https://www.therepository.email/wordpress-com-launches-built-in-ai-assistant-that-works-in-editor-media-library-and-notes\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Built-In AI Assistant That Works in Editor, Media Library, and Notes</strong></a>. She notes that in the block editor, users can make plain-language requests — adjust layouts, swap color palettes, rewrite copy — and see changes render in real time. Notes users can tag &#8220;@ai&#8221; for fact-checks or edits, and the media library gets image generation and editing too. Morey adds that the feature, powered by <em>Google&#8217;s Nano Banana</em> models, is available on Business and Commerce plans.</p>\n\n\n<div class=\"ng-block-6597684cf7bebff5 wp-block-newsletterglue-container ng-block\" style=\"color: #666666;\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div class=\"ng-block-vs ng-block-vs-1\" colspan=\"3\" height=\"0\" style=\"height: 0px;\"></div></div><div><div class=\"ng-block-hs ng-block-hs-1\" height=\"0\" style=\"width: 0px;\"></div><div align=\"none\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 1.6; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: none; color: #666666; background-color: #f8f8f8; border-radius: 8px;\"><div class=\"ng-block-c415da60cd53aa64 wp-block-newsletterglue-text ng-block\" style=\"color: #666666;\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div align=\"none\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 1.6; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: none; color: #666666;\"><p><strong><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/\">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s master branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review.</p></div></div></div></div>\n\n<div class=\"ng-block-1165d2461bc49eb2 wp-block-newsletterglue-image ng-block size-full is-resized\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div align=\"center\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px;\"><a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/playnightly.json\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42874 ng-image\" height=\"45\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2025-11-15-at-12.06.44.png?resize=196%2C45&#038;ssl=1\" style=\"border-style: none; border-color: transparent;\" width=\"196\" /></a></div></div></div></div>\n\n<div class=\"ng-block-d7f647302d804e28 wp-block-newsletterglue-text ng-block\" style=\"color: #666666;\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div align=\"none\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 1.6; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: none; color: #666666;\"><p>Now also available via <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/playnightly.json\">WordPress Playground</a>. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? <a href=\"mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com\">Email me </a>with your experience.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div class=\"ng-block-hs ng-block-hs-2\" height=\"0\" style=\"width: 0px;\"></div></div><div><div class=\"ng-block-vs ng-block-vs-2\" colspan=\"3\" height=\"0\" style=\"height: 0px;\"></div></div></div></div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Questions? Suggestions? Ideas? </em><br /><em>Don&#8217;t hesitate to send <a href=\"mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com\">them via email</a> or</em><br /><em> send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph</em>.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">For questions to be answered on the <a href=\"http://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast\">Gutenberg Changelog</a>, <br />send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a></p>\n\n\n<div class=\"ng-block-6433be87be7d6c8a wp-block-newsletterglue-separator ng-block\" style=\"color: #666666;\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div align=\"center\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; color: #666666;\"><hr style=\"background-color: transparent; color: transparent; margin: 0; border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #666666; width: 560px; height: 0;\" /></div></div></div></div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\"><div class=\"ng-block-d4bfc004191efbfe wp-block-newsletterglue-text ng-block\" style=\"color: #666666;\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div align=\"none\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"font-size: 14px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 0.2; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: none; color: #666666;\"><p><strong>Featured Image: </strong></p></div></div></div></div></div>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\";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, 21 Feb 2026 12:52:42 +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:18:\"Birgit Pauli-Haack\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:\"Matt: WordPress, AI, plugins, future of software engineering\";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:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=151285\";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:\"https://ma.tt/2026/02/wp-ai/\";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:7054:\"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yesterday <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6AjnlGMIaQ\">I was on the WP-Tonic podcast</a>, and my colleague Adrian Laboş did a great summary of the key points, which I&#8217;ll share here:</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>AI security audit wave incoming</strong>: Expect AI tools to flood WordPress core and the 70,000+ plugin ecosystem with both improvements and newly discovered security vulnerabilities, requiring infrastructure to triage at scale.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Avoid vibe-coding compliance surfaces</strong>: For payments, fraud, and regulated commerce flows, prioritize battle-tested WooCommerce and vetted extensions over bespoke AI-generated code.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Reposition plugins around durable differentiation</strong>: If AI collapses “nice-to-have” features (e.g., basic image manipulation), shift value to workflow ownership, integrations, compliance, performance, and support.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Agencies gain leverage, not obsolescence</strong>: AI tools give motivated technical people 10-100x capability increases, meaning agencies can serve existing clients far better rather than being replaced by DIY site builders.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sell outcomes, not hours, as an agency</strong>: Client expectations will compress delivery timelines; adapt pricing to value-based packaging and use AI internally to raise throughput and QA coverage.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Design for agentic usability</strong>: Strengthen APIs, WP-CLI, and machine-friendly interfaces so personal agents can safely operate WordPress tasks without brittle UI automation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WordPress Playground enables AI verification</strong>: Spinning up fully containerized WordPress instances in 20-45 seconds inside browsers allows AI to test code across 20+ environments simultaneously, fundamentally changing plugin compatibility testing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Benchmark AI outputs against WordPress-specific evals</strong>: Adopt WordPress block, plugin, and site-generation evaluations to catch “small file” failures (readme, headers, packaging) that break deployments.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Prioritize compatibility testing by real-world co-install patterns</strong>: Reduce factorial plugin-combination risk by sampling tests based on which plugins are commonly used together and automating those paths.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Plugin directory needs editorial curation</strong>: With submissions accelerating toward 100,000+ plugins, WordPress will introduce editorial spotlights on newer plugins with excellent code/design to balance discoverability with marketplace openness.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Improve plugin discoverability without freezing innovation</strong>: Curate “trusted” and “high quality” signals while preserving pathways for new entrants to earn distribution through measurable excellence.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Plan for uneven economic diffusion</strong>: Even with today’s models, enterprise adoption lags consumer usage; build internal enablement and governance now so teams can scale impact as tooling matures.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Learning to learn beats domain expertise</strong>: When advising students/parents, the most future-proof skills are curiosity-driven learning, command of language, and study of classics/philosophy/ethics rather than specific technical domains.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WordPress 7.0 promises AI integration</strong>: The upcoming release will feature “lots of fun AI stuff” and represents one of the most exciting technology years in Matt’s career since starting in the industry.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I had no idea that <a href=\"https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-code-security\">today Anthropic would release their security thing that does exactly what I said</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best thing you&#8217;ll read about AI engineering today is <a href=\"https://www.modular.com/blog/the-claude-c-compiler-what-it-reveals-about-the-future-of-software\">Chris Lattner&#8217;s take on Claude&#8217;s C compiler implementation</a>. To steal Techmeme&#8217;s headline: &#8220;Claude&#8217;s C Compiler shows AI elevates the role of human judgment and vision; it&#8217;s a milestone, but closely mirrors LLVM/GCC, and hard codes things to pass tests.&#8221; The entire post is important, but this paragraph is particuluarly profound:</p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> As writing code is becoming easier, designing software becomes more important than ever. As custom software becomes cheaper to create, the real challenge becomes choosing the right problems and managing the resulting complexity. I also see big open questions about who is going to maintain all this software.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To bring this back to WordPress: While I was in another meeting today, Claude Code with Opus 4.6 completed a cleanroom implementation of the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/\">ACF plugin</a> in about 45 minutes. It was about to go off and implement all the pro features, but I stopped it because it would be a tremendous waste of tokens. The entire point of open source is collaborating on a shared goal rather than reinventing the wheel every time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We&#8217;ve seen a slow version of this play out over the past decade, where every single web host that offers WordPress also spun up some sort of proprietary website or ecommerce builder. Bless their hearts. None has caused Shopify any lost nights of sleep. With countless person-years of development and who knows how many tens or hundreds of millions of dollars spent, I think we can now safely say that all of these efforts have had at most a marginal impact on their businesses, while the benefits of WordPress have continued to compound. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The thought experiment of whether <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/\">those same resources had been used to make WordPress better</a> is left as an exercise for the reader.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It does mean that competition is fiercer. You have to differentiate yourself on performance, customer service, reliability, design—things that are hard, but that&#8217;s capitalism.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s really important that <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/\">in the plugin directory</a>, we figure out how to make it easier for people to collaborate and build things together, rather than make a thousand versions of the same thing.</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, 21 Feb 2026 00:04:00 +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: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:12;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:40:\"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 7.0 Beta 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=19908\";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://wordpress.org/news/2026/02/wordpress-7-0-beta-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:15410:\"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 is ready for download and testing! <strong>This beta release is intended for testing and development</strong> only. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, use a test environment or local site to explore the new features.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Test WordPress 7.0 Beta 1</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can test WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 in any of the following ways:</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Plugin</strong></td><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><td><strong>Direct Download</strong></td><td>Download the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/wordpress-7.0-beta1.zip\">Beta 1 version (zip)</a> and install it on a WordPress website.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Command Line</strong></td><td>Use this <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/cli/\">WP-CLI</a> command: <code>wp core update --version=7.0-beta1</code></td></tr><tr><td><strong>WordPress Playground</strong></td><td>Use a <a href=\"https://playground.wordpress.net/?php=8.3&amp;wp=beta&amp;networking=no&amp;language=&amp;multisite=no&amp;random=r8nny4q18x\">7.0 Beta 1 WordPress Playground instance</a> to test the software directly in your browser. No setup required &#8211; just click and go!</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The scheduled final release date for WordPress 7.0 is <strong>April 9, 2026</strong>. The full <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/02/12/wordpress-7-0-release-party-schedule/\">release schedule can be found here</a>. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible. Thank you to everyone who contributes by testing!</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How important is your testing?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Testing for issues is a critical part of developing any software, and it’s a meaningful way for anyone to contribute &#8211; whether or not you have experience. <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/test/2026/02/20/help-test-wordpress-7-0/\">Details on what to test in WordPress 7.0 are available here</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you encounter an issue, please share it in the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/\">Alpha/Beta area</a> of the support forums. If you are comfortable submitting a reproducible bug report, you can do so <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket\">via WordPress Trac</a>. You can also check your issue against this list of <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major\">known bugs</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Curious about testing releases in general and how to get started? 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>. WordPress 7.0 will include new features that were previously only available in the Gutenberg plugin. Learn more about Gutenberg updates since WordPress 6.9 in the <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/gutenberg-new/\">What’s New in Gutenberg</a> posts for versions <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/05/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-0-05-november/\">22.0</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/20/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-1-18-november-2025/\">22.1</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/12/03/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-2-dec3/\">22.2</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/12/17/gutenberg-22-3-december-17/\">22.3</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/01/22/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-4-20-january/\">22.4</a>, <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/02/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-5-04-february/\">22.5</a> &amp; 22.6.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What’s new in WordPress 7.0?</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress 7.0 boasts numerous upgrades in the editing and admin experience, delivering enhanced real time collaboration, refined customizability, new dashboard styles, and an expanded developer toolbox for people who create, design, and build with WordPress every day.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Working as a team just got easier with the ability for multiple users to edit together in real time, while visual revisions allow a visual comparison between page versions, adding agility to the creation and review process. Working with patterns has been simplified, making layout updates and content changes more intuitive, while view transitions smoothly move you from screen to screen as you click.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New and improved blocks and design features in 7.0 make sites more customizable, with video embed backgrounds in the Cover block, a responsive-enabled Grid block, and new Icons, Breadcrumbs and Heading blocks. An updated Navigation block makes menu changes easier and more reliable in fewer steps. Responsive, mobile-friendly controls in 7.0 allow you to hide or reveal blocks based on screen size, while client-side media handling speeds up media processing. The Font Library screen for managing installed fonts is now enabled for all themes, so site editors are always able to browse, install, and organize fonts. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For developers, it’s now easier to build modern experiences while staying aligned with Core principles. The new WP AI Client in WordPress 7.0 brings a layer into Core that allows leveraging of AI models from any provider within the WordPress framework. This means plugins and themes can tap into any AI model to expound on its endless options. 7.0 offers even more versatility with the Client Side Abilities API that introduces a standardized way to register and run “abilities” in the browser, supporting richer, more consistent workflows. Additionally, 7.0 introduces PHP-only block registration with auto-generated inspector controls, adding a new dimension to block creation, while Block Bindings updates for pattern overrides expands support to custom dynamic blocks, giving block creators more options.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Needless to say, this release offers a wide range of flexibility to creators, teams and developers, while bringing a visual refresh to the admin experience you know and love with a fresh default style.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Work together in real time</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Building on the momentum started in WordPress 6.9, the ability for teams to create and edit together is more refined and robust in 7.0. With this version of WordPress multiple users can edit and collaborate on the same post or page in real time, with data syncing and stabilized notes for smoother teamwork and a more streamlined editing and review process.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Real Time Collaboration: Teams can now edit posts and pages together live from multiple locations, with offline editing and data syncing enabled, and a new default HTTP polling sync provider with options for plugins or hosts to include websocket support. With this collaborative content creation workflow, teams can brainstorm more effectively and boost productivity. For the beta period, real-time collaboration is opt-in in order to get broader feedback and testing.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Notes: 7.0 introduces real time syncing of notes that helps facilitate collaboration, a keyboard shortcut for new notes, and a series of quality-focused fixes that bring more stability to the Notes feature.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Refined Admin Experience</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress 7.0 gives the wp-admin experience a boost with a fresh default color scheme, and a cleaner, more modern looking dashboard, while keeping the interface familiar. The upgraded dashboard enhances the editing experience with new visual revision comparisons, and smooth transitioning between screens.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Visual Revisions: Working with revisions is even better in 7.0 with the added ability to make visual comparisons to revision versions within the editor.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>View transitions: Cross-document view transitions in the dashboard offer visual continuity with seamless movement from screen to screen.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Customizing content with ease</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Creators have more flexibility in 7.0 with new tools for content and design, enhanced editing controls, and attention to mobile friendliness. </p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Responsive Editing Mode: Block visibility is now more responsive and mobile-friendly, with the ability for blocks to be displayed or hidden based on screen size. </li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pattern Editing and contentOnly interactivity: WordPress 7.0 introduces pattern-level editing modes, a tree view for buttons and list blocks, and the ability to opt out of the default content only mode. The new Spotlight mode helps you isolate content in patterns and notes, while the Isolated Editor mode can be used for editing symbols and reusable pieces like synced patterns, template parts, or navigation. </li>\n\n\n\n<li>Block supports and design tools: 7.0 includes text line indent support, text column support, aspect ratios for wide and full images, dimension width and height support, and dimension presets, tools and controls.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">New blocks and design options at your fingertips</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">7.0 delivers a series of new and improved blocks and block features, a streamlined navigation workflow, and more versatile design options like video embeds as section backgrounds.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Navigation Block: Navigation workflow is now more intuitive and clear, with improved editing and presentation. 7.0 introduces customizable navigation overlays as template parts, including mobile version overlays that can be hidden or revealed based on custom breakpoint settings. </li>\n\n\n\n<li>Heading Block: Heading levels are now available as block variations, giving more control over page hierarchy and design.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>New blocks: 7.0 makes building pages more diverse with new Breadcrumbs and Icons blocks.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cover block embedded videos: Video embeds can now be used as a background in the cover block, opening up opportunities for sleeker and more creative designs.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Grid block is now responsive-enabled allowing grid-based layouts to adapt more smoothly across screen sizes.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Gallery block now has lightbox support that lets the user click through and view each gallery image.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Developer&#8217;s toolbox</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Working with WordPress on the backend is now more robust for developers, with new and enhanced API features that support flexibility and lay a foundation for future advancements. The Client Side Abilities API provides a client-side registry for WordPress capabilities that allows you to tap into new and innovative website options. WordPress 7.0 offers even more by introducing the Web Client AI API to Core, enabling access to generative AI models in one central interface.</p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Web Client AI API: The new AI client and API acts as a command center for accessing and communicating with generative AI models, with providers remaining external to WordPress Core, and Abilities API integration.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Abilities and Workflows API: With the new client side abilities package users have access to new and hybrid abilities, filter and search functionality for abilities, and an improved command palette and UI.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Blocks and patterns created on the server: WordPress 7.0 boasts the ability for PHP-only blocks and patterns to be generated server-side and auto-registered with the Block API.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>DataForm: Introducing a new details layout, new controls (combobox, adaptiveSelect), and updated trigger for panel layout (dedicated edit button). Additionally, the initial iteration for validation is complete: all controls have support, and all layouts display error messages.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>DataViews: DataViews has a new activity layout, and a foundation has been laid to be able to register 3rd party types in future releases.</li>\n\n\n\n<li>CodeMirror update: CodeMirror has been updated to version 5.65.40, aiding more flexible extensibility and library options.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Media processing in the browser</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress 7.0 introduces Client-side media processing, leveraging the browser&#8217;s capabilities to handle tasks, like image resizing and compression, for smoother image processing. This enables the use of more advanced image formats and compression techniques, and reduces demand on the web server; providing a more efficient media handling process for both new and existing content, and supporting smoother media workflows.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With so many options and enhancements in WordPress 7.0 Beta 1, this is still only the beginning. You can expect future releases to be even better.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Just for you: a Beta 1 haiku:</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>As sun kisses moon</em>,</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Beta 1 ignites in bloom</em>&#8230;</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Seven-oh lands soon</em>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Props to <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/ellatrix/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>ellatrix</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>jeffpaul</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>annezazu</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/chaion07/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>chaion07</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/zunaid321/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>zunaid321</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>audrasjb</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/mukesh27/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>mukesh27</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/ankit-k-gupta/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>ankit-k-gupta</a></em>, <em><a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/oandregal/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>oandregal</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>westonruter</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/karmatosed/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>karmatosed</a>, <a class=\"mention\" href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/bph/\"><span class=\"mentions-prefix\">@</span>bph</a> for reviewing and collaborating on 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:\"Fri, 20 Feb 2026 15:39:10 +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:\"Amy Kamala\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:107:\"WordCamp Central: Introducing WordCamp Mukono 2026: Sustainable Growth, Building a Lasting WordPress Future\";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:40:\"https://central.wordcamp.org/?p=13715228\";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:130:\"https://central.wordcamp.org/news/2026/02/introducing-wordcamp-mukono-2026-sustainable-growth-building-a-lasting-wordpress-future/\";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:8074:\"<p>The WordPress community in Uganda is pleased to introduce <a href=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/\"><strong>WordCamp Mukono 2026</strong></a>, scheduled for <strong>March 13 &amp; 14, 2026</strong>, at <a href=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/venue/\"><strong>Murs Country Resort, Kigunga</strong></a>, in Mukono, Uganda.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guided by the theme <strong>“Sustainable Growth &#8211; Building a Lasting WordPress Future,”</strong> WordCamp Mukono 2026 will bring together over 300 attendees including WordPress users, contributors, code wranglers, developers, designers, educators, and business owners to explore how sustainable practices can strengthen the WordPress project, local communities, and the broader open-source ecosystem.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A Focus on Sustainability and Long-Term Impact</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2026 theme reflects a growing emphasis within the WordPress project on sustainability not only in technology, but also in people, communities, and contribution pathways. Sessions and discussions will focus on:</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-174\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2025/11/DSC_2001-1024x683.jpg\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-231\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2025/11/000-1024x683.jpg\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-343\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2025/12/student-1024x768.webp\" /></figure>\n</figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sustainable WordPress businesses and client practices</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Long-term community building and leadership development</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Performance, security, and maintainable WordPress solutions</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Inclusive contribution and mentorship in open source</li>\n\n\n\n<li>Content, accessibility, and responsible digital publishing</li>\n\n\n\n<li>AI tools and practices for both individuals and businesses</li>\n\n\n\n<li>An Educational track for Students and Educators</li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The program is designed to support both new and experienced WordPress users, offering practical insights alongside opportunities for deeper engagement with the WordPress project.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year includes a lot of Community building activities, programs and strategies to support and grow open source communities.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Strengthening the Local and Regional WordPress Community</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>WordCamp Mukono has become a key gathering point for WordPress users in Mukono, Uganda, and the wider East African region. The 2026 event continues this trajectory by prioritizing local voices, first-time speakers, and contributors who are actively growing WordPress adoption through education, translation, support, and community leadership.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>By hosting the event in Mukono, the organizing team reinforces WordPress’s mission to democratize publishing and ensure that open-source opportunities are accessible beyond major urban centers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordCamp Mukono 2026 will be hosted at the spacious and prestigious <a href=\"https://murscountryresort.com/\">Murs Country Resort </a>in Kigunga, Seeta, Mukono Municipality. The venue offers a variety of amenities and services that make it a beautiful home for WordCamp Mukono.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Accommodation Options at WordCamp Mukono</h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4714\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2026/02/img7-1024x683.jpg\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4674\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2026/02/IMG_8657-1024x768.jpeg\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4659\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2026/02/IMG_8672-1024x768.jpeg\" /></figure>\n</figure>\n\n\n\n<p>WordCamp Mukono has spoken to several hotels and Accommodation options around the Host venue including the host venue itself and Accommodations have been made available for all attendees. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Details have been shared on the website. Feel free to secure your pick as you see fit.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4692\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2026/02/IMG_8641-1024x768.jpeg\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4720\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2026/02/736470384.jpg\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4667\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2026/02/IMG_8663-1024x768.jpeg\" /></figure>\n</figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>An Official, Community-Led WordPress Event</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<p>WordCamp Mukono 2026 is an official <a href=\"https://central.wordcamp.org/\">WordPress event</a>, organized by a dedicated team of local volunteers and run as a non-profit. Like all WordCamps, the event is built on the principles of openness, inclusivity, and collaboration.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over two days, attendees will participate in talks, workshops, and networking opportunities designed to foster meaningful connections and long-term contributions to WordPress.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Get Involved</strong></h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-4 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-bottom: 10px;\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3221\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2026/01/Patrick.webp\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-436\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2026/01/Arthur.webp\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4290\" src=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/files/2026/01/desire.webp\" /></figure>\n</figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Calls for <a href=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/call-for-speakers/\"><strong>speakers</strong></a> are open to any one with a brilliant idea they would want to share<strong>, </strong>and the <a href=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/call-for-sponsors/\"><strong>sponsor</strong></a> call is also open. An event of this magnitude can only be made possible by the many generous individuals who contribute to open source and community initiatives. The volunteer call is now closed, and the event is already taking shape.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/tickets/\"><strong>Ticket Sales</strong></a> are now open for this great experience and are the main talk on the streets. Community members from Uganda, the East African region, and beyond are encouraged to take part and contribute to an event focused on building a sustainable future for WordPress. Have no excuse! <a href=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/tickets/\">Book </a>your space now!</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Community partners are also allowed to sponsor people to get this great experience by buying a ticket for them. Sponsoring them fully or partially. <a href=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/contact/\">Contact </a>the Team for details</p>\n\n\n\n<p>More details can be found on the official WordCamp Mukono <a href=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/\">website </a>and on WordCamp.org as they become available. Kindly also check the <a href=\"https://mukono.wordcamp.org/2026/news/\">Blog Section</a> for live updates on the event.</p>\n\n\n\n<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:\"Fri, 20 Feb 2026 09:48:51 +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:21:\"Moses Cursor Ssebunya\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:\"Open Channels FM: Communicating Transparently Around 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Work\";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:33:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=115157\";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://openchannels.fm/how-ai-is-changing-the-way-developers-work/\";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:176:\"The rise of AI tools is revitalizing programming for developers, making coding enjoyable, but also increasing workload and emphasizing the need for visibility in contributions.\";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, 19 Feb 2026 14:58:00 +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:8:\"Bob Dunn\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:97:\"Open Channels FM: An Inside Look at Building Consistent Brand Experience in the Digital Ecosystem\";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:34:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=1650103\";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:104:\"https://openchannels.fm/an-inside-look-at-building-consistent-brand-experience-in-the-digital-ecosystem/\";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:242:\"In this episode, Adam Weeks interviews Jessica Malamud, who discusses Elementor\'s significant rebranding efforts to better reflect its innovation and community engagement, focusing on elements like design, storytelling, and brand consistency.\";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, 19 Feb 2026 11:04:00 +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:8:\"Bob Dunn\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:29:\"Matt: WP &amp;amp; AI Updates\";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:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=151275\";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:36:\"https://ma.tt/2026/02/wp-ai-updates/\";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:1143:\"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There&#8217;s so much fun stuff happening, first the new assistant launched on .com, <a href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/17/wordpress-com-adds-an-ai-assistant-that-can-edit-adjust-styles-create-images-and-more/\">covered by TechCrunch</a> and in this video.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also some <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2026/02/13/new-plugin-and-skills-for-claude-cowork/\">cool Claude stuff launched</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://j.cv/automattic-ai-progress/\">James has a nice write-up of the other dozen things that are going on</a>, it&#8217;s fun to see the AI parts of WordPress moving at AI-speed. We just need to loop back to some of the older screens and give them some love.</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, 19 Feb 2026 07:49:50 +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:18;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:\"WPTavern: #205 – Matt Cromwell on Redefining WordPress Product Growth in a Crowded Ecosystem\";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=202688\";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/205-matt-cromwell-on-redefining-wordpress-product-growth-in-a-crowded-ecosystem\";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:38240:\"<details>Transcript<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:00:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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, redefining WordPress product growth in a crowded ecosystem.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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/feed/podcast, and you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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/contact/jukebox, and use the form there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So on the podcast today we have Matt Cromwell. Matt has been an influential figure in the WordPress ecosystem for many years. He co-founded GiveWP, led its growth, and continued his journey as part of the StellarWP leadership after it was acquired.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recently, Matt has shifted gears, launching something new. It&#8217;s called Roots and Fruit, and is an agency dedicated to helping WordPress product businesses thrive. In recent years, WordPress has gone through a period of flux. There&#8217;s been shifting stats about WordPress&#8217;s market share, tightening budgets, and increasing competition from both within and outside the.org plugin repo. Despite these changes, Matt remains optimistic about the opportunities for product makers, especially as WordPress evolves alongside emerging technologies like AI.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt starts off by sharing his background, his experience with GiveWP, and the unique perspective he gained navigating growth, crisis, and the challenges facing plugin developers. We then talk about how the WordPress product space has matured. Why building a plugin, or theme, and hoping users will simply discover it is no longer enough, and how focusing on the customer journey, branding, and marketing is more crucial than ever.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt is now positioning himself as a mentor and guide for solo founders and product teams, helping them prioritize growth efforts, refine their product experience, and avoid the scattered approach that many developers fall into. He brings practical insights from years of hand-on experience, and explains why a successful WordPress product business relies on process, diligence, and wise prioritization, not just code and hope.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you are building digital products in WordPress, and want to learn how to make them stand out in a crowded, competitive ecosystem, this episode is for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so without further delay, I bring you Matt Cromwell.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am joined on the podcast by Matt Cromwell. Hello, Matt.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:03:22] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Hi. Happy to be here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:03:24] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Matt and I have chatted many times. In fact, we were having a nice chat just before we realised that the time was going to get away from us. So we&#8217;ve diverted and pressed record. We were getting into AI, but we&#8217;re going to park that because that&#8217;s a whole different episode. Well, maybe not. Maybe there&#8217;ll be bits of that leaking into this episode.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:03:39] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> It&#8217;ll come up.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:03:39] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;m sure it will. But as I say, Matt&#8217;s been on the podcast before. He has had a significant sort of reshaping of his career in the recent past. And so we&#8217;re going to talk a little bit about what the new direction is, and where he&#8217;s going to be focusing his efforts in the near to long term.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Matt, just before we begin, do you want to tell us a little bit about you and what you&#8217;ve been doing in the WordPress space these many years?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:04:01] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Absolutely. Thanks so much. I&#8217;m Matt Cromwell. I am was, it&#8217;s hard to figure out how to introduce myself anymore. I was co-founder of GiveWP and sold that product in 2021 to Liquid Web and stayed on and came on the leadership team of what became StellarWP, and took all the things I learned from Give and got to apply them across lots of products, in an excellent learning journey.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recently exited back this last fall, 2025, and went on a journey of discovering in what I want to do, and found that I could not prime myself away from the keyboard enough and decided that now&#8217;s the time I get to invest my time and efforts and energy in the WordPress product ecosystem like I always have. So I built a new agency called Roots &amp; Fruit, which I have basically said is your fractional chief growth officer agency. I just launched a couple weeks ago and it&#8217;s going well. So that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m doing. That&#8217;s how I say it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:05:02] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I love the domain, by the way. The minute I saw that, I think I got where you were going without even having read a word. Roots &amp; Fruit sort of says it all, doesn&#8217;t it? It&#8217;s the growth to the actual harvesting at the end. And so we will get into that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Can I just ask you though, we&#8217;ll begin this way because we&#8217;ve had several years now of flux in the WordPress ecosystem. You have charted the growth of many products in the WordPress space. You&#8217;ve been involved in them personally, and you&#8217;ve seen the journeys of other founders and what have you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do you have the same level of optimism that the Matt Cromwell, let&#8217;s say from the year 2020, when everything was going gangbusters, that 35% went to 38%, went to 40%, and on it went. Do you have the same level of optimism? Do you think there still is fruit to be harvested in the WordPress space in 2026?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:05:59] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Absolutely I do. There&#8217;s a lot of caveats in there, I have to say. Being at GiveWP, we had a unique perspective when it came to things like a pandemic. It was like an internal thing where we were afraid of becoming ambulance chasers, okay? Because, especially in the US, when a crisis would come, suddenly our sales would go through the roof. And it&#8217;s because when bad things happen, people need to do fundraising. And the worst thing we wanted to do was start capitalising on trauma or things like that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so when COVID came along, we were like, woah, this is going to be significant. And it was. It was a very significant thing. But we had been through the motions, so we knew that it was going to have a downside on the tail end of it, sales-wise. And I think a lot of folks understood that conceptually as well. But we had experienced it a lot.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what a lot of folks found out on the tail side of COVID was that the downside was worse than it was pre COVID. A lot of folks felt that, even GiveWP to some extent and several of the Stellar products were like, oh, we&#8217;ve leveled out, we&#8217;ve come down off of the COVID high, and actually it feels a little bit worse than it was before. Budgets got tight in terms of businesses and agencies, nonprofits, things like that. There&#8217;s lots of circumstances to those things. But over the last year or so, a lot of product companies have started to see things start to slowly climb again.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But in the WordPress space, I think it&#8217;s important that everybody also look at our ecosystem in the bigger ecosystem of just the web. On the web there are small to medium to large companies launching all the time with huge amounts of success. Just a couple years ago, nobody knew what Lovable was. Now it&#8217;s a billion dollar company. Things like that do happen and they happen regularly. That to me means there is still lots of appetite for the kinds of solutions that we are trying to bring to the world through the web. And we can be part of that solution.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, the conversation you and I had a little bit before was more about like, what about WordPress and the threat or the opportunity of AI? I do think the way in which WordPress Core has been tackling AI and trying to bring tooling into WordPress Core is making sure that WordPress itself as a platform has not only a future, but it has a lucrative future. I think the way that they&#8217;re going about it is really smart and really intelligent, and it is going to actually build the platform in a way that makes AI understand how to build with WordPress better than anything else out there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WordPress is the most, one of the most documented, open source projects in the world, and it&#8217;s been open source this whole time, and AI loves that kind of stuff. So it just has been able to scrape the WordPress database, the WordPress code, all the WordPress documentation over years and years and years. AI now knows WordPress really, really, really well. So I think there&#8217;s lots of opportunity.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:09:07] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, no, it&#8217;s really great because you covered a lot of ground there. I should say, dear listener, at this point, maybe go and have a look at Matt&#8217;s domain. I mentioned it, but I&#8217;ll just read it into the record. So it&#8217;s Roots with an S. Roots and fruit singular, .com, rootsandfruit.com. So go and check that out. Maybe pause the podcast if you&#8217;re at a screen and.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:09:28] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Singular and plural.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:09:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Both. Yeah, you&#8217;ve managed to get all the goodness in there. Go and pause the podcast and have a little poke around and you&#8217;ll get some intuition as to what Matt is doing over there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m going to sort of sidestep a little bit though, because I want to frame this question slightly differently, and that is to, I&#8217;ll frame it like this. I, as a consumer of WordPress things, I&#8217;ve spent the last 15 or so years pottering around, having a problem, then going to Google and discovering that there&#8217;s typically a WordPress plugin or theme or what have you, for that. And then I go to their website and perhaps there&#8217;s two or three websites that I might be juggling and thinking which one is superior for the needs that I have. And then I purchase something, you know, I go and I buy a premium version of something or maybe download the free version to give it a test.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the point is, I have this really abstracted concept of what it is. I&#8217;m buying a commodity. So I buy the finished thing and it comes as a zip file, and I typically don&#8217;t interact with a human being. And that&#8217;s the interesting bit that I want to get into to begin with, is the human behind all of this, which was you for many years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And so can we just explore that a little bit? What is the stuff that somebody like you, when you were with GiveWP, but maybe now the clients that you are going to be servicing, what is their day involved with? What do these people do? What are the anxieties they have? What is the stuff that makes up a plugin or theme developer&#8217;s life and business?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:10:55] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Generally speaking, product folks are nerds, love to be behind the screen. And they like this kind of industry, specifically because they don&#8217;t have to be the person dealing with the customer as much. That distance that goes between the screen basically, is something that gives them a sense of safety, where they get to focus on the work that they love and they enjoy, without having to deal with the noise of the people.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The exception to that are all the folks that are highly motivated to help with technical support. And I love those people. Those are my people. My focus as a founder was more on the customer support and marketing side of things, so I enjoyed being more of the face of things for our brands over the years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the allure there is both being able to have that separation from the noise of the public, but also having a little bit of the security of what might be called mildly passive income. And that&#8217;s the big difference between folks who are running an agency and folks who love to run product. Agencies are service oriented folks. They have to be with the customer and the client all the time. You are paying for hours. You&#8217;re being paid for the time that you put in, in many ways. With agency service work, there&#8217;s ways to get away from just purely time-based charging, but by and large.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the product space, you&#8217;re not being paid for the time you put in. You&#8217;re being paid for the product, and for the outcomes that the customer experiences. And that&#8217;s what you bought Nathan, when you went and bought a utility or a tool or whatnot. You weren&#8217;t looking to hire a person, you were looking for a specific outcome on your website, and you felt that that one product could provide you that outcome. And once you had that outcome, you&#8217;re happy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that&#8217;s exactly why product shops are, in my mind, have to be customer oriented first because all of the success, all of the success of the product, of the marketing, of the business, all starts with whether or not the customer is happy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:13:05] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. We have this expression in the English language which is, a rising tide carries all boats. And essentially what it means is, when there&#8217;s this sort of groundswell of growth, everything touching it grows. And I think we had that in all sorts of ways recently, over the last decade or so.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The mobile phone app ecosystem, that just was taking off and all the developers over there were doing incredibly well. Same with the WordPress space. Just year on year growth. And so there was this notion, which you reference on your website quite a lot, of build it and they will come. And that phrase essentially is, okay, I am one of those people. You said, nerds.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m going to build a product, and I have a complete expectation that I am part of that rising tide. I&#8217;m one of the boats. I&#8217;ll build this thing, I&#8217;ll mention it a few times on social media, and this thing that I&#8217;ve spent hours and hours doing will take off and I will be able to have some kind of passive income from it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, I don&#8217;t know when you started saying that those days were gone, but you are definitely saying those days are gone. Why are those days gone? What happened? What changed to make it so that the rising tide carries all boats analogy, possibly no longer fits?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:14:17] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> It depends on the context. I mean, it fits in several different ways. But when it comes to product in the WordPress space nowadays, we used to depend so much on the wordpress.org plugin, or theme, directory as a primary outlet for discoverability. I want people to find that I exist and that I am a solution for their problems, and this is where you find me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The plugin directory in particular, when we launched GiveWP, I think there were 30,000 plugins at the time, or approaching 30,000. And now there&#8217;s over 60, and they are growing every day more or less. They grow and they shrink. They get rid of plugins too, actually. But that does increase the amount of surface area where you have to break through in order to be found. If you try to be an AI alt text generator right now, good luck. There are three dozen of those that got shipped yesterday. It&#8217;s crazy.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But even more so than just the noise and the volume on the plugin directory, it&#8217;s also that the consumers that are building their websites, they are not thinking about WordPress as much anymore. They&#8217;re building with WordPress, but they kind of don&#8217;t care that it&#8217;s WordPress. They&#8217;re just building a website. They have specific outcomes and they know that there are lots of products out there that can serve their needs, and they don&#8217;t care if it&#8217;s a SaaS, or a platform, or a plugin, or a theme. They don&#8217;t care. They&#8217;re just going to look for that outcome and they&#8217;re going to plug it into their website in one form or another, if that solution is pluggable.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that space, the SaaS space in particular, has gotten a lot more crowded and a lot more competitive for being applied directly to the WordPress customer. So we&#8217;re not just competing WordPress to WordPress, we&#8217;re competing WordPress to the rest of the whole world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:16:18] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s interesting. So my analogy, when I said a rising tide carries all boats, what I&#8217;m imagining 10 years ago is that there was a really nice looking harbor with a few little boats. And the tide came up and these little boats just bobbed along and they all rose up. Whereas now it feels like the harbor is just chockablock. There&#8217;s boats cheek by jowl with other boats. They&#8217;re slamming into each other. And instead of it being a gentle rise, it&#8217;s stormy, clouds. The sea is choppy all over the place, and everything is sort of bumping into each other.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other words, it&#8217;s saturated. If you are going to be doing the alt text plugin for AI, well, there were six that came out this morning. There&#8217;s going to be nine more by the time we close the doors this evening. Whatever it is that you are doing in the WordPress space, chances are somebody&#8217;s already done it. They may already have an existing audience. They may already have paid subscribers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So this all sounds very bleak. It sounds like we&#8217;ve got no way out of this. But your endeavor, what you want to turn your attention to in the years to come, is to persuade people that&#8217;s not the case. So what is the rainbow? What is the shining light on the horizon? How would a plugin developer, a theme developer, somebody in the WordPress space, how do they cut through all of this and get noticed?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:17:28] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah. A lot of things have changed over the years, but I would say the majority of things, when it comes to digital products, have not changed. And that&#8217;s really the brass tacks of what it takes to be a winning product on the web in general. SaaS companies have known this for a really long time because they didn&#8217;t have the obvious distribution channel of wordpress.org that we have.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So they knew if they were going to ship a product, they&#8217;re going to have to market it a ton. In the SaaS space, there&#8217;s very, very, very few just handy developers who are like, hey, I just built this cool thing, I&#8217;ll just put it out there. And then all of a sudden it just goes off like crazy. It doesn&#8217;t work that way, and they know it. And so they partner up with marketers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And in the WordPress space, for way too long, we got lazy because we had the .org distribution channel. And we assumed that we could build it and people would come. And that&#8217;s not like one hundred percent wrong. The directory is still a good tool, and it&#8217;s still helpful, and I love the freemium model for products in general. But the thing that WordPress product folks in particular have to learn is to learn how to be a product business, not a code business.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that&#8217;s even more significant now that everyone is learning that code was never the product, because now nobody is building with code anymore. The humans do not build the code anymore. The machines build the code. And you&#8217;ll find lots of marketers or CX folks who are building their own apps now as well because they&#8217;re savvy enough to use the tools to be able to generate the code that they need and that they want.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:19:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Can I just pause for a second there Matt, is that all right? Just because there&#8217;s a couple of things that you said, and clearly for you it&#8217;s common knowledge. You know, you&#8217;ve been in and out of this all the whole time. You painted a strong definition there between a product and code. What&#8217;s the boundary between those two things? I mean, I think I can encapsulate, I just want to be clear that the audience know. What&#8217;s the difference between product and code businesses, if you know what I mean?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:19:33] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Let&#8217;s go back to when you said, I&#8217;m building my website and I have a problem that needs to be solved, and I see this plugin and it solves my problem. And I installed it, or I bought it and I installed it and it worked. That process that you went through, all of those things that you said, you never once said, I inspected the code to figure out if it was good enough or not. You never once said that. All of the things that convinced you to use that product had nothing to do with the code at all.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You went to the website and there was marketing involved that told you that we know what your problem is, and we know how to solve it. And there was a checkout experience that was calm and soothing enough and giving you enough confidence that they&#8217;re not just stealing your money. Then you installed the product and there was a user experience involved that made you feel like it&#8217;s actually going to solve your problem, and then it did actually solve your problem. All of those things cannot happen without code, but that is what a product does. And that&#8217;s a product experience, is the whole entire customer journey that happens from discovery, to purchase, to adoption is what a product is actually made of.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:20:43] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So I&#8217;m going to infer from that then that from the year 2026 and onwards, what you are saying is that the focus now needs to be on the product. More than ever, the product and the way that you market the product and the way that you pitch the product, and all of the things that wrap around the sales process and the discovery process of the product. That&#8217;s where a significant amount of the effort needs to go once the code is in place. Have I parsed that correctly?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:21:11] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah, I might even go at it from the perspective of the customer because you only understand the product when you look at that whole thing through the lens of the customer. If you think about everything from, oh, I can build that, I just need to pipe these APIs and do this kind of thing, and then you get the outcome, it&#8217;s like, well that&#8217;s not really what the customer&#8217;s ever going to experience.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They&#8217;re going to experience a website first. They&#8217;re going to try to have trust first. Look at the whole thing through the customer lens and then you&#8217;ll start to understand your product. I mean, you&#8217;ll understand your brand in the first place. A lot of WordPress folks don&#8217;t think about brand particularly well either. They just name it like Advanced Custom Fields. Now, I love that product. It&#8217;s a great, but it&#8217;s one of those things where like, let&#8217;s just name it what it is. Okay, I guess.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:22:04] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So this is really interesting. So presumably then, if product is the way forward, it feels like you have now kind of invented a new career angle for yourself where you are going to hopefully kind of helicopter yourself in, or be helicoptered in, to businesses who maybe have got this product bit missing. You know, there are bits of that they, I don&#8217;t know, maybe they feel that they&#8217;re weak on that, or that past endeavors haven&#8217;t really worked out. Or maybe they&#8217;re at the first step of that journey and they just want to try and figure out what direction they should point themselves in to have some success.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So that&#8217;s kind of interesting. That&#8217;s the role that you are going to be taking on in the future. And I can see you nodding. Dear listener, he&#8217;s nodding away, so that&#8217;s good. But, do you have like a one size fits all template here, or is the endeavor very much to be, okay, I&#8217;m going to go in, have a long listen, figure out how you differ from the other people that are on my roster? There&#8217;s not really a question in there, but I&#8217;m kind of asking you how you are going to position yourself for the different clients that you&#8217;re no doubt going to be taking on.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:23:06] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah, yeah, Well, one thing I&#8217;ll caveat a little bit is I&#8217;m trying to position myself towards two related audiences. The primary one, for the fractional CGO, is the teams. Product shops that are a team of people. A small team, medium sized team. They&#8217;ve built something, it&#8217;s successful, they are paying employees, but they&#8217;re looking for that next level up, in order to start growing into what they hope to be, more sustainable growth in the long term.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other one is what I call the solo lab, where I am trying to position more towards solo individual founders who are by themselves and maybe just got their product out the door and are trying to grow from the ground up. That&#8217;s more of like a coaching environment and it&#8217;s a group environment and things like that. But both of them are, it&#8217;s not that there&#8217;s a, I don&#8217;t believe really in playbooks. I don&#8217;t believe in silver bullets. I believe in process and diligence.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that&#8217;s what I am trying to bring in both of those circumstances is I help the solo folks understand the type of activities that they have to force themselves to do. The solo folks typically are very dev oriented. They know how to build more things. And if you ask them to write a blog post, they&#8217;re like, okay, I&#8217;ll do that tomorrow and tomorrow never comes. You know, helping them to focus on the work that they have to do to grow their product.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the teams, it&#8217;s more generally about, they have founders who have done all the things. They have been the dev, they have been the HR lead, they have been the marketer, they have been the support guru. They&#8217;ve done all of it, and they&#8217;re just tired. And they need the growth but there&#8217;s just a missing gap. They need somebody to kind of put on the hat of, you are going to be responsible for finding growth in this team, so that that founder can focus more on other parts, the things that energise them more.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:24:59] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;m curious as to whether or not, when you were doing the busy work of being at GiveWP and then StellarWP, whether you drew the intuitions that you are now going to be helping people with. Whether you were aware of this in your head, or it was just the busy work that you were doing. You know, day in, day out, you do this task and over the decade or more that you were doing it, you just kind of perfected it. And, okay, when this thing arises, I do this thing. And when this thing arises, I do this thing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now I expect you&#8217;re in that curious position where you are having to lift yourself away from the whole process, stare back at it, and sort of examine how you would do it with a third party. Again, there&#8217;s no real question there, but I&#8217;m curious as to how different that is for you being the outsider, but relying on the insider knowledge that you must have acquired over time.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:25:49] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah. I think that&#8217;s one of the reasons why I felt a certain amount of confidence in moving in this direction is because I&#8217;m helping people that are in the position I was in years ago. I&#8217;ve been there and I have done that, and I have absolutely failed. And I don&#8217;t have a perfect record or a perfect playbook, but I know what it&#8217;s like, and I have done the hard work to see successes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think what also makes my experience a little bit unique is that I had the experience of GiveWP and I honestly, going into being acquired and working at Liquid Web, I had that whole feeling of like, what if I&#8217;m a one hit wonder? What if I like did a great job with Give, but I try to apply this anywhere else and it just is like, well you got lucky with Give, that doesn&#8217;t work anywhere else? And it turns out that most of the things that I learned can be applied to other products with success as well. It does give me a fair amount of confidence that I do believe I can be helpful with these other shops.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:26:50] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You&#8217;re not sort of saying there&#8217;s a formula, you know, that kind of snake oil mentality. But there are wise things to do and less wise things to do. Let&#8217;s just put it that way. And by repeating the wise things over and over again, you give yourself kind of a fighting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:27:05] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah, and there&#8217;s a process and there&#8217;s also the ability to form smart priorities. That&#8217;s, I think, a lot of what I&#8217;m trying to help provide is being able to help founders learn how to say no to a lot of things. Because sometimes, especially when it comes to anything that&#8217;s growth oriented or marketing oriented, we see a million opportunities. And so then we start dabbling in all the things because we don&#8217;t know what else to do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We&#8217;re like, oh, there&#8217;s like, I can go and jump into Reddit and find a whole bunch of leads, or I can like spend a bunch of time on LinkedIn, or I could write a whole bunch of really good emails, or I can maybe do a paid ad campaign. And then we start doing just like a million small things. But that doesn&#8217;t lead to growth, you know? So the ability to prioritise around growing rather than noise and activity.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:27:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think it&#8217;s just really nice to be able to put down the scatter gun. You know, that thing that you&#8217;re firing tiny pellets in a million different directions. But you put the scatter gun down because somebody says, put the gun down because that&#8217;s not effective, and here&#8217;s why it&#8217;s not effective, and here&#8217;s some things that you could do to try which might be more effective.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There&#8217;s just something nice in listening to the words of wisdom coming out of somebody else&#8217;s mouth who&#8217;s obviously been there, done that. It&#8217;s kind of hard to put that into words, but just knowing that somebody&#8217;s got your back, and that somebody&#8217;s been through that before. And the million, gazillion little things that you are trying without a great deal of success are things that you can put away and listen to your advice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I feel that you&#8217;ve hit a real vein of, well, let&#8217;s go fruit. You&#8217;ve got that in the title of your business. And the reason I say that, and I&#8217;ve said this in this podcast a few times before, it really does feel like there are an awful lot of people who have done the code side of things in our ecosystem. They are, as you&#8217;ve described, you know, you used the word nerd or something like that. They have built this thing with very little thought for the business side of it because WordPress, for many people, has been like this sort of hobby thing, this passive income thing, this side gig kind of thing. But they don&#8217;t know how to do it. And I get email, no doubt you get email, and certainly will be getting email, about this kind of thing. And so I feel that there is a real undercurrent of people who hopefully will tap into your service. Let&#8217;s hope so anyway.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:29:29] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Yeah, let&#8217;s hope so. So far, so good. I&#8217;ve already secured a couple folks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:29:33] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> In which case, we&#8217;re sort of around the half an hour mark, which is exactly perfect. So I will just point the people to the domain once more. It is rootsandfruit.com. Go check that out. Where would we find you, apart from the contact us form, which no doubt exists on that website? Where might we find you elsewhere online, Matt?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:29:52] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> I have been on LinkedIn a lot. So look for Matt Cromwell on LinkedIn. You can also look for Roots &amp; Fruit on LinkedIn. That&#8217;s kind of where I prefer, but I&#8217;m also on the nefarious x.com as learnwithmattc.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:30:06] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well, good luck with the new adventure, Matt. I really hope it works out well and, yeah, speak to you soon.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[00:30:12] <strong>Matt Cromwell:</strong> Thanks.</p>\n</div></details>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the podcast today we have <a href=\"https://rootsandfruit.com\">Matt Cromwell</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt has been an influential figure in the WordPress ecosystem for many years. He co-founded GiveWP, led its growth, and continued his journey as part of the StellarWP leadership after it was acquired. Recently, Matt has shifted gears, launching something new. It’s called Roots and Fruit, and is an agency dedicated to helping WordPress product businesses thrive.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent years, WordPress has gone through a period of flux. There’s been shifting stats about WordPress’ market share, tightening budgets, and increasing competition from both within and outside the .org plugin repo. Despite these changes, Matt remains optimistic about the opportunities for product makers, especially as WordPress evolves alongside emerging technologies like AI.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt starts off by sharing his background, his experience with GiveWP, and the unique perspective he gained navigating growth, crisis, and the challenges facing plugin developers. We then talk about how the WordPress product space has matured, why building a plugin or theme and hoping users will simply discover it is no longer enough, and how focusing on the customer journey, branding, and marketing is more crucial than ever.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Matt is now positioning himself as a mentor and guide for solo founders and product teams, helping them prioritise growth efforts, refine their product experience, and avoid the scattered approach that many developers fall into. He brings practical insights from years of hands-on experience, and explains why a successful WordPress product business relies on process, diligence, and wise prioritisation, not just code and hope.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you’re building digital products in WordPress and want to learn how to make them stand out in a crowded, competitive ecosystem, this episode is for you.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Useful links</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://givewp.com\">GiveWP</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://www.liquidweb.com\">LiquidWeb</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://stellarwp.com\">StellarWP</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://rootsandfruit.com\">Roots and Fruit</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcromwell/\">Matt on LinkedIn</a></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://x.com/learnwithmattc\">Matt on X</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, 18 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +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:19;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:18:\"Matt: Boris 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Stack\";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:33:\"https://openchannels.fm/?p=115142\";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:54:\"https://openchannels.fm/a-founders-podcast-tech-stack/\";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:139:\"Our founder Bob shares his tech stack for podcasting, detailing essential tools and gear used for production, scheduling, and organization.\";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, 16 Feb 2026 10:09:49 +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:8:\"Bob Dunn\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:17:\"Matt: High Agency\";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:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=151251\";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:34:\"https://ma.tt/2026/02/high-agency/\";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:305:\"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One term that keeps coming up in discussions about thriving in the AI era is &#8220;high agency.&#8221; <a href=\"https://www.highagency.com/\">This 30-minute longread by George Mack is a great way to get you thinking about how high or low agency shows up in your life</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, 16 Feb 2026 00:55:01 +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: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:23;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:99:\"Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog #126 – Gutenberg Releases 22.3, 22.4, 22.5 and WordPress 7.0\";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://gutenbergtimes.com/?post_type=podcast&p=44383\";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:111:\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-126-gutenberg-releases-22-3-22-4-22-5-and-wordpress-7-0/\";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:64765:\"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this episode, Birgit Pauli-Haack welcomes Carolina Nymark back to discuss recent Gutenberg releases (22.3, 22.4, 22.5) and preview features coming in WordPress 7.0. Birgit Pauli-Haack shares her recovery journey and emphasizes the value of Carolina Nymark’s expertise. Carolina Nymark introduces herself as a long-time WordPress core committer and theme bundle maintainer, explaining her role in triaging, testing, and updating default themes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They highlight key updates in the Gutenberg plugin and developer resources, such as enhanced plugin settings page creation, streamlined theme development using WordPress Playground and GitHub, and new tools for AI integration. The hosts dive into major Gutenberg enhancements: block visibility controls now let users tailor which blocks appear on various devices, custom CSS can be applied to individual blocks in posts, and image cropping has become more intuitive. Pattern editing is stabilized, improving content-only editing and preventing accidental layout changes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Notable new features include a dedicated fonts page in the appearance menu, improvements to navigation (like mobile overlays and submenu options), a responsive grid block, enhanced breadcrumbs and tabs blocks, and greater customization in the query and image blocks. They touch on the growing importance of collaborative tools—real-time editing and notes within WordPress—and mention plans for visual revision comparisons.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout, Birgit Pauli-Haack and Carolina Nymark stress community involvement, feedback, and testing as crucial for these features’ success. The episode wraps up with encouragement to try the new capabilities, share feedback, and a reminder to balance tech work with life outside the screen.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-69-gutenberg-releases-wordpress-6-0-1-the-create-block-theme/#shownotes\">Show Notes</a> / <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-69-gutenberg-releases-wordpress-6-0-1-the-create-block-theme/#transcript\">Transcript</a></p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Editor: <a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-reed/\">Sandy Reed</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Logo: <a href=\"https://markuraine.com/\">Mark Uraine</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Production: <a href=\"https://icodeforapurpose.com\">Birgit Pauli-Haack</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-larger-font-size wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"shownotes\"><strong>Show Notes</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Special guest: Carolina Nymark</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://profiles.wordpress.org/poena/\">WordPress Profile @poena</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://x.com/carolinapoena\">On X (former Twitter) @carolinapoena</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://fullsiteediting.com/\">FullsiteEditing.com</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"></p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WordPress Developer Blog</h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2026/02/whats-new-for-developers-february-2026/\">What’s new for developers (February 2026)</a> </li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2026/01/whats-new-for-developers-january-2026/\">What’s new for developers? (January 2026)</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2026/01/how-to-use-dataform-to-create-plugin-settings-pages/\">How to use DataForm to create plugin settings pages</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2026/01/streamlining-block-theme-development-with-wordpress-playground-and-github/\">Streamlining block theme development with WordPress Playground and GitHub</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2026/02/from-abilities-to-ai-agents-introducing-the-wordpress-mcp-adapter/\">From Abilities to AI Agents: Introducing the WordPress MCP Adapter</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gutenberg Releases </h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/02/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-5-04-february/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 22.5? (04 February)</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/01/22/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-4-20-january/\">What’s new in Gutenberg 22.4? (20 January)</a></li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/12/17/gutenberg-22-3-december-17/\">Gutenberg 22.3 (December 17)</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Stay in Touch</p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Did you like this episode? <a href=\"https://lovethepodcast.com/gutenbergchangelog\"><strong>Please write us a review </strong></a></li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ping us on X (formerly known as Twitter) or send DMs with questions. <a href=\"https://twitter.com/gutenbergtimes\">@gutenbergtimes </a>and <a href=\"https://twitter.com/bph\">@bph</a>.</li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>If you have questions or suggestions, or news you want us to include, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. </em></li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Please write us a review on iTunes! <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/itunes/\">(Click here to learn how)</a></em></li>\n</ul>\n</div></div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size wp-block-paragraph\" id=\"transcript\"><strong>Transcript</strong></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Welcome to our 126th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog Podcast. In today&#8217;s episode, we will talk about Gutenberg releases 22.3, 22.4, and 22.5. And in certain parts also about WordPress 7.0. I&#8217;m your host, Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator at the Gutenberg Times and a full-time core contributor for the WordPress open source project sponsored by Automattic. Dear listeners, have you missed me? I missed you. My voice is still not entirely recovered from the surgery I had in December. Everything else turned out totally okay. But I&#8217;m really glad I have Carolina Nymark back on the show and on my side. We will go through these last 3 Gutenberg releases that were released since before the holidays. So let&#8217;s start with you, Carolina. Please tell our listeners briefly who you are and what you do. Glad you&#8217;re here. Thank you for coming.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Hi, thank you for inviting me again. It&#8217;s been a while. So my name is Carolina Nymark. I am from Sweden. I am a WordPress core committer and a bundled theme component maintainer. I previously worked at Yoast, but from mid-February, I&#8217;m now unemployed and I hope to come back to contributing to WordPress. And I&#8217;ve been away for almost a year, so I&#8217;m excited and looking forward to going back and seeing what you have been working on for the past year. Not only these 3 Gutenberg releases.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Well, yeah, we missed you, Carolina. That&#8217;s for sure. Yeah. Your voice of reason and creativity was really missing at some point. Yeah. I know you also— what does it mean, a theme bundle maintainer? Maybe you can explain that to our listeners.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> It means that when someone finds a bug in the default themes like Twenty Twenty-Five or Twenty Twenty-One, we triage new reports. We help sort people who should go to the support forum and who can, you know, who should be actually opening a ticket in the ticket system. Then we help people who are creating a pull request for these bugs and we test the pull request and we eventually update the themes. And when we update the themes, there is a new release in the Theme directory.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh, okay. So even if you, if the default theme is Twenty Twenty-Five, which came out in December &#8217;24, but that&#8217;s now in its version 1.4.5, 1.5 or something like that. So all the releases before that were done by Theme Bundle maintainers since the first release. Cool. I understand that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> But only, but yes, we do have a couple of component maintainers who are working actively on it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, yeah, it&#8217;s not all you. Nobody can really do it all by themselves in the WordPress Contributor teams.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Most of the updates are actually part of the major releases.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Oh, okay. So, and if people who don&#8217;t know you from before you had to stop contributing, you&#8217;re also the maintainer of a website called fullsitediting.com. Which has some great tutorials on theme building, on block themes, and also on getting started. There is a block theme starter kit there, yeah, where you can select, do you have one, a basic and advanced or full advanced kind of theme? And then on, on the press of a button, you can download a whole theme building kit, which I have found quite helpful learning everything. So Check it out, fullsitediting.com.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Thank you. Uh, yeah, I just found that the best way for me to learn was to really deep dive into, you know, if I found something difficult, the best way was to go back and, you know, read the code and test things and look at what other people have, you know, recorded YouTube videos about and, you know, actually sit down and write it in my own words. That&#8217;s how I learn. The best. That&#8217;s what I did. And I published those articles or lessons on the site.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, that was absolutely genius. And I think you started in 2020 with that during the pandemic. Yeah. So when the full site editing team was kind of getting started. Yeah. We also have some back then, some videos and you were on that. So we, we have quite some, you&#8217;ve been right at the forefront of all this cool stuff now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark</em>: Yeah, it&#8217;s, it&#8217;s still strange that it was so long ago. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> But yeah, good things take its time. They have to take time. So I think it will be good to get started because we don&#8217;t have a whole lot of time, but we need to go through a whole lot of stuff.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What’s Released &#8211; WordPress 6.9.1</h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So we start with WordPress 6.9.1 has been released and it&#8217;s a maintenance release with 49 bug fixes throughout core and the block editor. And then the release was led by Aaron Jorbin and Aki Hamano. And they have release posts. And if your site has automatic minor updates, you already have it, but you should definitely update now manually. I&#8217;ll share the release post in the show notes in the interest of time because they were all bug fixes. So you can do your deeper dive from there. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I also want to point out, because we cannot cover everything, point out some updates on the WordPress official developer blog. There were two What&#8217;s New for Developers posts published by Justin Tadlock, and the one from January as well as from February, and that gives you probably also what is not covered with Gutenberg plugin releases that might come into WordPress 7.0. So you can catch up there. And then there were 3 tutorials published on the developer blog in January and February. One was to use the data form to create plugin settings pages, which is pretty interesting because you use WordPress&#8217;s own component for the settings pages. You don&#8217;t have to make any, not a whole lot of design decisions. You definitely have to. You don&#8217;t have to maintain that code for the components because that&#8217;s done by the core developers. So you have a streamlined pathway to your plugins and that tutorial walks you through it. Yeah, there&#8217;s also one that&#8217;s called Streamlining Block Theme Development with WordPress Playground and GitHub. That kind of covers the problem space that most, a lot of designers want to design their theme in the site editor. Over the global styles and the patterns and all that. But how does that— and everything there is stored in the database. But then there is a theme. So how does all that new or changed modifications all go back to the file system is through Playground and GitHub and the Create Block Theme plugin. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So these three tools play together so you can as a designer just work in the site editor and then post a PR to GitHub for the developers to sign off on and get it all into version control, which is pretty much the whole— yeah, developers get really antsy when they don&#8217;t have control over code or over settings. So this is a good way to work together with developers on, on a theme development. And then the third one was about the abilities for AI agents when Justin— no, not Justin, Jonathan Bossinger introduces the WordPress MCP adapter that was published by the Core AI team and to see how that all works together. So those are good. It kind of covers the whole thing, range of developer things on the developer blog, of course. Any thoughts about that, Carolina?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah, I mean, especially the settings pages for me who doesn&#8217;t, you know, normally create plugins. I really like that because it just seems like such a huge time saver to not have to do it from scratch. I mean, the choice of the topics, it&#8217;s really great.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And if you, Carolina, now on you, if you have a topic that you want to talk about and you want to write about because you want to discover it, like you said, the full site editing, I have the right place for you. That&#8217;s the developer blog. That&#8217;s how I approach it as well. If I want to deep dive into a certain topic, I say, okay, I&#8217;m going to write about on the developer blog and then we&#8217;ll me through an example plugin or example theme or something and then walk through my steps and then publish it. So I&#8217;m inviting you to kind of think about things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> I mean, there is a GitHub repository. I know that there is a list of suggested topics that someone needs to pick up and write about.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> We have a few topics that are not— that are approved by an editorial kind of group that haven&#8217;t been picked up by writers yet. So that&#8217;s definitely the first thing you can look at. But if it doesn&#8217;t fancy you, go ahead and just suggest your own topics. We will have the next meeting on the first Thursday of the month, every month. So get it in before that, and then you can start writing after the approval. And for the listeners, there is a subscribe button on the— or subscribe feature on the WordPress Developer Blog. So you will never miss another post again if you haven&#8217;t looked at any of those before. All right. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gutenberg Releases</h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think we need to get started on the Gutenberg releases. So this time we&#8217;re going to do it a little bit differently because we have 22.3, 22.4, and 22.5 Releases to cover and with over 700 PRs over all three releases. All we can do today is pick and choose and summarize features. Most of them have been worked on for the upcoming WordPress 7.0 release, but there are also updates that lay the foundation for future WordPress releases or that might not get into 7.0. So whatever we say today that might go or that will go, we only know it next week for sure, because that&#8217;s when the WordPress 7.0 beta 1 comes out. And beta 1 is always— there have been exceptions though— feature freeze. And then 4 weeks later is the release candidate 1. That&#8217;s the string freeze. But between beta 1 and release candidate 1, there&#8217;s a whole 4 weeks where we work on bug fixes that come out of the release or from other places. So that&#8217;s when we know. And yeah, so I link in the show notes to all 3 release posts from the Gutenberg releases. And so you can follow up on the specifics. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So first, a few numbers. I said one number already, that&#8217;s 700 and over 700. The next one is 22.3 had 131 PRs among them, 23 enhancements, 36 bug fixes. 22.4 was a whopper. It had 406 PRs. So many because we skipped the schedule around the holidays. So there it&#8217;s a 4-week period and that&#8217;s what you get. You get 100 PRs per week and it includes 119 enhancements and 86 closed bugs and 22.5, which was released just last week with 153 PRs and 49 enhancements and 39 bug fixes. So yeah, you might appreciate that we are cutting down on going PR by PR. So, but let&#8217;s go on to some of the features. Are you ready, Carolina?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Well, yes, but I also just want to say thank you because I know that you have helped publish some of these releases, including the latest minor. You&#8217;re the one who&#8217;s been pushing the button so that the rest of us can download the updates in our, you know, through our WordPress installations. So thank you.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> You&#8217;re welcome. You&#8217;re welcome. It&#8217;s always fun to get through some of the releases. So I, yeah, I released 22.3 and 22.4. My coworker on the team, Juan Margorito, did the whopper, the 22.4, and in between we kind of looked again on the release documentation because we all kind of hit some blockers there where we needed help. And so yeah, it&#8217;s definitely something interesting to do once in a while. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I must say the automation of those releases is really well thought through. Yeah, so If you want to try it, if you have been a core contributor and on the Gutenberg release, on the Gutenberg and a member of the Gutenberg team, GitHub team, contact us if you want to get into release processes. All right. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Major Features</h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So the major features, the first one is it&#8217;s random. There are a lot of good ones in there, but it&#8217;s not the first one. It&#8217;s not in the order of importance. So block visibility controls. In 6.9, we had the hide button. You can hide it or show it, but you couldn&#8217;t really say when and not when. It&#8217;s only yes or no, which was good when you do just draft sections or you have holiday things and you just want to switch it off. But now we have viewport-based visibility rules. Do you know more about it, Carolina?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> I&#8217;ve tried it. I also read a couple of the comments in their pull requests. Actually, I struggled a little bit with finding where it was, and then I remembered, yes, it&#8217;s actually in the list view. So when you open your post or page and you go to the list view, you have the visibility control, and then you have the additional options with the different viewports, and it&#8217;s a checkbox. So it&#8217;s super easy to use. And yes, of course, it works well on the front end. It&#8217;s hidden depending on the CSS class name on the block. But I&#8217;m really interested in knowing what&#8217;s next. Speculations, like when are we going to be able to change, you know, our custom viewport sizes? When do we, as, you know, site owners or developers, When can we decide? Very curious to find out that. But yeah, it&#8217;s very, very easy to use. It&#8217;s excellent if you need to do something quick.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, definitely. And kind of mobile is everything under 480 pixel width. Tablet is between 480 and 782. I don&#8217;t know where the 2 comes from. Can&#8217;t we do just round numbers? And then the desktop is everything the desktop view, viewport is everything above 782 pixels. It works, yeah, just out of the box. And the only thing I found is when you want to test it and you just do it by using the browser view, sometimes it doesn&#8217;t— the browser small one doesn&#8217;t get under 480. So, but yeah, I use it through the developer tools and then see it as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah. So speaking of doing something quickly, the next feature we chose was the custom CSS for individual blocks. So previously we&#8217;ve had, you know, you select your block and you can add a class name and then your CSS is elsewhere in a CSS file or maybe even in the customizer CSS setting. Who knows if you&#8217;re using it, you know. An old theme. But now you can actually add CSS directly in the editor when you&#8217;re selecting your block. And this CSS is of course only applied to that specific block. So if you have two groups, they will have diff— they will look differently because only one of them is gonna have this CSS. So the difference between the old setting, which was in the site editor, that was for every single block. That was for all the groups. All the paragraphs. And this setting is for the individual single block on that specific post or page.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. And there&#8217;s another, I don&#8217;t know if you had this. I really like this because now you have post and it&#8217;s not only for this block. It&#8217;s just the block in this post. Yeah. So it will, every post has a new set of blocks that need to be customized CSS. So if you do it twice, think about it, go back to the styles. To the blocks and put it in your global styles so you don&#8217;t— you remember, okay, it&#8217;s always going to look like that. But I think in the process of making decisions for your whole site, that&#8217;s a really good place to try something out, to see how it drives. And then once you know, okay, this is the right setting or this is the right way to do it, then you kind of take it out of there and put it into your global styles. There&#8217;s also a global styles custom CSS that&#8217;s actually hidden, but then you go to the styles three, three dot menu on top of the styles section. And there is the additional CSS that kind of covers the whole site.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: And then another place to do custom CSS is actually in the theme.json file. And that&#8217;s kind of the best way to get it out of the hands of users and cement it there so you can lock down some of the blocks. Some designers really want to have those guardrails. And I need to look for the dial to turn it off.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> So, yeah, in theme JSON, you can have the CSS for the entire site. For example, if you need to change something on the body Or, and you also have the CSS for the individual block types, but never for a single block.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> So when everything is in the play, it&#8217;s going to be hard for designers to track down some CSS things that are not working right. I have no idea how to actually mitigate that problem. There&#8217;s one feature request to have for the individual blocks in the post that there is in the list view a little CSS kind of thing to know, okay, which block actually has custom CSS. So you don&#8217;t have to go through every block, through every paragraph block, for instance, if you have one kind of stands out, but we&#8217;ll see how that works.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> So for example, if you add a very simple CSS for a text color to a paragraph block, and then you go to the color settings, the color settings, if you pick a color in the color picker, will actually override your CSS unless you start using CSS important. Then your CSS is going to override the color settings. So this is, this is, you know, that&#8217;s something that I looked at immediately and it seems like it&#8217;s been tested really thoroughly and everything seems to work as, you know, as it should. So I like that. Seems to be tested really well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, so the next thing is image cropping tools. Well, we were able to crop images in the editor as well as in the media library, but it was very haphazard. It was kind of, it wasn&#8217;t very intuitive. And now you can, it&#8217;s much easier to do that. There&#8217;s a new package built that works in the media library as well as in the editor. And now you can crop either by certain aspect ratio, or you can actually have drag and drop that you know from other graphics programs, how to crop things. So you can really go in and pixel perfect crop it without having to figure out how to enlarge it so I can crop it. It&#8217;s kind of, that&#8217;s my brain always had a hard time with it. I have to zoom in so I can crop it. So now I can just say, okay, here, this is the rectangle that I wanted to crop to. You can also rotate it. And what was the other one?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark</em>: Yeah, the support for the rotation is supposed to be better. That&#8217;s what I read. If I understand correctly from a developer perspective, it&#8217;s now also a public package. So it&#8217;s much easier for you as a third-party developer, plugin developer, to actually use the new image copy package now than before. So that&#8217;s good. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Next we have stabilized pattern editing. So this is something that has been in Gutenberg for a long while, I believe. But now it&#8217;s stabilized in a way because we want to add it to 7.0. And as a user, I believe that the biggest change is that when you insert a pattern, it&#8217;s kind of locked. You will see, for example, if I was testing patterns from 2026, from the bundled themes anyway. And yeah, so the colors are locked when you start, but you can start typing in, for example, headings and paragraphs. I believe that&#8217;s the biggest difference for users. The risk of breaking something is lower. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> What I also found is that there&#8217;s a new kind of entity there. It&#8217;s called the section that kind of guardrails the pattern. So it can do just the content-only editing and people can kind of feel a little bit secure in there. It also helps with changing the design, if there are style variations for certain blocks, that they can do it, but they cannot break out of the pattern. Yeah, the original pattern was that as soon as it&#8217;s on the canvas, the blocks are all individual blocks. There is no reference back to the pattern itself. And I think that has been, has been mitigated, yeah, it kind of gapped that that is possible if it has the content-only kind of attributes. It now can be followed back to the original pattern, I think. But its editing has been quite complicated. So making it easier with these new attributes and features is probably a good way to go to have a little bit more, so content creators who are not technically kind of, they have a better trust on the patterns and they can&#8217;t break things easily.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> They have to try harder to break it, which is good.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Try harder. Yeah. That&#8217;s what we say to developers. Oh, it works. Oh, I wanted to break it. Try harder.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> The panels do look a little bit different than before. But I do believe it&#8217;s easier.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And the sidebar also has an additional tab in there. That&#8217;s the content tab. We&#8217;ll see it for the image block as well. And we see it in the patterns or even the COVID blocks, all those container blocks here, column blocks, and they have a sidebar now with the content. So it&#8217;s a little bit duplicated from the list view, but it&#8217;s just block-oriented. So you know exactly what&#8217;s in the block or in the section that you kind of highlight there. There&#8217;s another one that will come that&#8217;s a list view for the— the list view on the right is a different list view than to the left. Terms, it&#8217;s hard naming things. So we name it all the same. On the right-hand side, there is a list view when you have actually lists in your canvas. And you see the items in there and you can manage that from there and don&#8217;t have to kind of fiddle around with the canvas there. I don&#8217;t know. I think it&#8217;s people kind of try to figure out or contributors try to figure out what&#8217;s the best way to do that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> So I haven&#8217;t seen that, but it sounds kind of like the separate list view for the navigation block. You&#8217;re dragging the in, you see the inner blocks and you can move them and you can delete them and et cetera.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That&#8217;s exactly right. Yeah. Yeah, it&#8217;s for all those that have components inside, like the buttons block has other buttons inside. Those social icons block has social icons in there and you get them in that list view, the same as the list has multiple list items. So it was also important for the other combination of blocks that are coming to WordPress 7.0. Or have already been the accordion block, the tabs block, the breadcrumbs block. They all need additional detailed interfaces.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah, they&#8217;re quite complicated compared to most other blocks, but they&#8217;re good additions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh yeah, additions that we have been waiting for quite a bit. So the next thing on our list is the dedicated fonts page. So Block themes now have a dedicated fonts page in the appearance menu where you can go directly to managing your typography selection. And it moves from the controls and it was always hidden in the global styles under fonts controls. So who— nobody actually found it unless you deal with it on a day-to-day basis. You remember where to look. For those who are not working on block themes, the non-block support is planned. It will not make it into 7.0, but it&#8217;s definitely on the roadmap for the next following releases. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Navigation Improvements</h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So navigation improvements. Oh, where they&#8217;re needed.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Well, I haven&#8217;t actually been able to test that. I tried, but I actually couldn&#8217;t figure out how to activate it. So maybe you can teach me.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> So the idea of the feature is that you now have choices to create mobile overlays for your mobile versions. That&#8217;s another way to a full responsive design. And that you have, you were always having overlays were all available, but you weren&#8217;t able to edit them. And the way they do it now is to create a theme parts, the theme part like you do header and footer and call it overlays and then push it into the design for the navigation. So there is now on the right-hand side a menu where you can say for the overlay and you can pick the various parts and there are patterns for that. So the team also created a few patterns, I think 8, that will come with 7.0. So you can kind of have a selection. You don&#8217;t have to come up with the overlays yourself, or at least get started. So there is a— with the accent color or black backgrounds. And so you can also say, okay, always show the navigation, the overlays. That means that the navigation, it&#8217;s always the hamburger menu and even on the desktop side and then comes with the overlay. There is also a sidebar preview of those overlay patterns and some, some controls there to add blocks like you do with a navigation block as well, because what you do is actually have a navigation, a second navigation on your site. So it definitely needs testing. There is a call for testing out by the team who built it. It&#8217;s under the Make Test Block. And I will add it to the show notes. That&#8217;s the best way to learn is to kind of heed a call for testing and see what it&#8217;s supposed to work. Because Dave Smith published that a couple of weeks ago. And he also added videos how it was supposed to work. And so you can really follow up on that if you want to kind of dive into that because you&#8217;re so keen to doing it. Like Carolina is. Yes, it&#8217;s always hard to test something if you don&#8217;t know how it&#8217;s supposed to work. So it&#8217;s like jumping into a pool, not able to swim. I mean, if you don&#8217;t— there&#8217;s quite.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> A few buttons to choose from. Do I click here? Do I go there? Do I go to edit or navigation? Or do I go to my header? Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> It&#8217;s not a lot of choices. Or you can do it through your header and then the navigation block. So like that, that&#8217;s definitely a good entrance to do. Yeah. All right. I have not yet experimented with additional patterns for that. But I wanna kind of go in there and make my own patterns.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark</em>: You have 8 new designs. That&#8217;s really nice. That&#8217;s a lot. Can you just, you know, imagine the amount of work that went into this?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Big part of it was by Maggie Cabrera. Yeah, when she came out of sabbatical, so she, that&#8217;s how she jumped in to kind of get working on that, I think. Yeah, but the mobile menu overlays are not the only new advanced navigation features. There&#8217;s also the improvements on the submenu handling. You can say, okay, that always needs to be open, and then you can better handling of the custom overlays as well. Also, the link picker is a little bit easier to manage. And there were in previous Gutenberg releases that will come to 7.0, there was also background. When it&#8217;s not 100%, it&#8217;s opacity, the opacity of the background for the site menu. So because it goes over the website, so it needs to have a different background. And you can select the color as well as the opacity of it. So is it shine through or not? And so that&#8217;s kind of interesting as well.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> I know so many users who have requested this, the feature to keep the submenu always open, especially if the menu is vertical, then you don&#8217;t always want to go there with your keyboard or hover over it to open it. So I think that one&#8217;s gonna be very well received.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. And it really helps with the left side navigation. That was, yeah, for the navigation block was really hard to do, but now with the submenus being always open and kind of you, you can organize them with the overlays and, or in a separate, yeah, it&#8217;s, it&#8217;s really nice to, to work with navigation that way.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>But. It&#8217;s always going to be complicated because there are some— oh, what they also fixed was that the links to pages are actually dynamic. So if you change the pages, the slug or the title, it kind of replicates it in the navigation menu. That was something that came over from the classic menus. And in the first iteration of the navigation block, that was not the case. That was all hardcoded and you had to, you had to kind of figure that out that if you change the page, you also needed to change all the navigation stuff. Yeah. So sometimes you think, oh, okay.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Well, we have to start with something.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Exactly.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Text Alignment Standardization</h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Right. Yeah. So next we have text alignment standardizations. I don&#8217;t believe that there is anything visible for the editor or the user for this, but this was something that we needed to do to enable other options that are planned because it was inconsistent. So different blocks had different settings and they were, you know, the code was, they actually did kind of the same thing, but in the code they had different names. It was kind of confusing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> True. Yeah. And some of the blocks didn&#8217;t have text-align because they also were referencing that from the parent block. But now they do. And I have to update. There is a roster for all the design kinds of things, features we published for 6.8 and 6.7. And I guess I need to update it now for 7.0. I haven&#8217;t found a very good automatic thing yet, but I might be talking to my AI about that. So we can publish it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Maybe that&#8217;s good use of it. But you also have until April, I suppose.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Right, right, right, right. I can do it manually. But I&#8217;m also working on the source of truth for the other content creators in the space.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> So thank you.</p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Enhanced Block Features</h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah, it&#8217;s a lot of stuff. To go through. Yeah. So it becomes— some blocks are just have been enhanced, and one is the COVID block now has a focal point picker for the fixed backgrounds. So if you have a background image, you can actually decide where&#8217;s the focal point of that. That&#8217;s good if you use a picture that it&#8217;s actually tall, but you use it in a horizontal cover block, you kind of— it crops it, but then you need to use the focal point picker to figure what&#8217;s actually in, in the block. The paragraph block got an enhancement of the text column support. So you could select that under typography that you can have a paragraph displayed in multiple columns automatically. And it kind of depending on the screen size, it kind of does the pattern, the columns there, which is really nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah, classic design elements. And now you might need to use, for example, the row or column block, and you can just use your paragraph.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, and it&#8217;s flexible, so you don&#8217;t have to decide what&#8217;s happening with responsiveness and all that. Because sometimes well, anyway, it&#8217;s always a little hazard.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> We have some image block improvements and we already mentioned the improvements to the focal point picker for the COVID block, for example. We also have aspect ratio controls for wide and full width blocks, image blocks, excuse me. Because before this you could actually get a little bit weird results if you choose one of the aspect ratios that&#8217;s supposed to be wide and your block wasn&#8217;t wide, depending on, you know, how big you actually want it. So that&#8217;s nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, I tested this and I think the headline is a little bit confusing because the image block per se doesn&#8217;t have wide or full alignment. It&#8217;s only the hero section or so, the COVID block, if you put an image in there and then you couldn&#8217;t decide how it actually uses the image. So now you can select the aspect ratio for the image in the COVID block when it&#8217;s full or wide width.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Interesting.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. And then the other, that is a little bit of an orphan in there, the reorganize content tab and inspector controls. That&#8217;s what we talked about earlier, that there are additional tabs in the sidebar of the block editor. That is actually for the image block as well, where you can see the image in a small thing and then can click on it and replace it. So there are a few controls that were before in the block toolbar are now also replicated in the sidebar and for a content tab. And that also includes the alt text. So you don&#8217;t have to hunt for the alt text. It&#8217;s just in the default open content tab. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Next one is the breadcrumbs block. Well, that breadcrumbs block comes into, will come for 7.0, and the team has been working on in the last, I think, 6 Gutenberg plugin releases. So in those last 3, there&#8217;s now theme.json block support for it, block schema support, and then also it applies now post type archive titles into the breadcrumbs. So, and you can decide how many breadcrumbs you wanna display in there. But it actually knows your categories and all that. So don&#8217;t forget to put in the primary category when you have more than one category so it can pick up, pick that up. And then there&#8217;s also a filter hook to override the final array. And so there are some, some good improvements there that roundup the breadcrumbs block for the WordPress 7.0 release. Actually, Yoast had in the SEO plugin had some nice breadcrumbs features in there. Yeah, but there were never, I don&#8217;t think there were block related. They were all in the classic theme paradigm. This breadcrumbs block you can put anywhere. You can put it on a post, you can put it on a page, you can put it in a template for archives, for authors, for anybody. And it will pick up in your header. Yeah. And if it doesn&#8217;t pick up as you think it would, file a bug report because that&#8217;s a living experience. And it&#8217;s just the— it&#8217;s the first version, but it&#8217;s actually for a first version really powerful.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> So the next on the list is the tabs block has been restructured. I&#8217;m not familiar with this change, so maybe I should be quiet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. Why? So yeah, there were from the original proposal, there were a few changes that after feedback from core contributors and users, there needed to be a few changes. So what it does is you have tabs on top or writers and you need to tackle those in an array. So it&#8217;s tabs 1, tabs 2, tabs 3, like, or product details. Technical specs or whatever you think needs to be in a tabs block. So that&#8217;s the tabs menu items. And then you need to manage those because you can say, okay, you want to go left or right with one, you want to change the order. So there is a way to do that. And that&#8217;s one section. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other one is the content panel, the panels for each one of those tabs. You have different panels and in those panels are actually content blocks, like a paragraph, a picture, and all that. So it&#8217;s probably a little complicated to style, but they&#8217;ve made some changes. So it&#8217;s a little bit easier to handle. It&#8217;s definitely worth testing out in the latest Gutenberg plugin release to see if that actually works for you and to have your feedback as well. Dear listeners, it&#8217;s important to get real-life use cases on it so it can be improved for 7.0.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> I mean, I would suspect that WooCommerce would be interested in this for their tabs. Absolutely. That would be like, you know, that&#8217;s my light bulb. So I haven&#8217;t looked who&#8217;s actually working on this. Maybe they are. Maybe that&#8217;s the team who&#8217;s been contributing feedback to it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Well, it&#8217;s, yeah, I&#8217;m sure they have because, or also WordPress.com who also has business sites. But the developer who&#8217;s working on that was Seth Rubenstein, who is from Pew Research Institute, and he has done some amazing block development stuff for his own company. So he knows blocks in and out. So it was good to have a first version from him and then kind of modify it to fit into the core paradigm. So that was actually some great work from Seth in there.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Oh, great.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And then there were some grid layout enhancements. The grid block is now responsive when columns are set. Before, it was only responsive when it was on auto columns. So the system decided how the columns worked. And now you can actually set column widths and it still will be responsive. So that&#8217;s definitely an additional feature there. And it&#8217;s a little bit easier to edit in, just kind of move things around and remove the drag handles because it&#8217;s just clutter. You know, you can drag and drop from one section to the other of the content. And there&#8217;s also a height block support for the dimension, added in the dimensions. So you can also say, okay, I want to, this block needs to be kind of 25 and everything kind of wraps around it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> I really appreciate this change because I was stuck on always using auto. The other options were, you know, basically unusable for what I wanted to do.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. Same here. Same here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Set width. Yes, that&#8217;s really nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. So the query block gets just a little feature, but it&#8217;s definitely big from getting more customization, more flexibility into the block was that now you can exclude specific terms when you select a category or a tag. So you can say without this. Yeah, you can say multiple categories, but then you can say, oh, not this. Or say, okay, I want all the blocks. All the posts in my query loop, but not the site news or something like that. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah, exactly. Or categories.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That&#8217;s really cool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah. I&#8217;m always worried about the panel because, you know, we now have so many filters, but we are, I mean, it has to be easy for users. You have to make it as easy as possible, which means you&#8217;re entering either the, you know, the slug or the ID or the But then with all filters available, you know, visible, then it does get kind of wild. There&#8217;s a lot of features now in the interface.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. And then you install Ryan Welcher&#8217;s Advanced Query Block and you get even more because he has a whole other section about how to filter some of the queries.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah, it does feel a little bit like You&#8217;re taking what Ryan did and then just, you know, adding one thing at a time until we eventually begin to have something very, very similar. I mean, not exactly the same panels, but similar features.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>So yeah, I think when he finds time, he might update the Advanced Query block and take some of the filters out because they&#8217;re now in core, which is pattern for plugin developers that they say, okay, I did this for 8 years and now it&#8217;s actually in core and I can take it out. So yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah, except you still have to redo everything because, you know, different ways of using it, different names to have for everything.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, or people have used it for 8 years on their blog and now they have thousands of blogs in that. Yeah, don&#8217;t take it out. It just makes a migration path or something like that. That&#8217;s a whole different problem space here.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah, definitely.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. So as with the data views, there&#8217;s also a data form package or components there. And they also— it&#8217;s not going to be used yet for WordPress itself. But some of the site editor or WordPress core, but the site editor uses those components and you can also use them for your own plugins. So there&#8217;s an additional form field validator with minimum and max support. And then Form Blocks also switched to SVG icons instead of the Dashicons. So yeah, there are some smaller enhancements in those releases, but the team is working on the data views and the data form since last year in summer, I think for a whole year now to kind of get this all done for the whole WordPress ecosystem to use before it actually will also be used by core.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> So yeah, so core in 7.0 is not going to use any of the new data forms for like posts or pages, but there is, I mean, again, we soon have better one, but the plan is to do at least a UI refresh so that the interface is actually going to be looking more like Gutenberg or block editor or site editor.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. Yeah. I&#8217;m not sure if it&#8217;s a UI refresh. I think it&#8217;s a CSS refresh.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Based on the component color scheme.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> As well as the width and this. Yeah. It&#8217;s not yet perfect and I&#8217;m not sure if it&#8217;s going to make it into 7.0. That&#8217;s true. But there is I can, I can link the track ticket into the show notes so people can kind of check up on that and also share opinions. Yeah, that&#8217;s in the stage where opinions matter and voices matter.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> So it looks pretty nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> It looks nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Form field sizes changes and buttons.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. And it looks more like the site editor. So the mental model of, oh, this is the 15-year-old admin stuff. This is the new stuff kind of merges together. So it kind of bleeds into each other, which is nice because then you know you&#8217;re at the right side. We talked about Ryan Welcher before with his advanced query loop. He&#8217;s actually working on getting the icons block ready for 7.0. He has another week to merge the PR. And there is a big discussion that are the icons block really helpful if you can&#8217;t add custom icon collection? Or is it just with the Gutenberg icon collections? Is it still— it&#8217;s not as useful, but it&#8217;s still valuable to kind of put into core because the whole API to add additional custom icons collections might be for the next version.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> So yeah, that&#8217;s, that&#8217;s how I feel as well. I mean, We cannot add custom icons now, but I can&#8217;t believe that the plan is that we will never be able to do it. But there is still that debate about, you know, users adding SVGs and are they safe or not. And that does not— doesn&#8217;t look like that&#8217;s going to be resolved, and you know, in our lifetime. But then again, I didn&#8217;t know AI was coming either this way, right? Maybe, maybe next year we&#8217;ll say something different. But, if we have developers adding what they would consider like icon sets, I, I mean, that has to be part of the, you know, the plan for the future, right?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Well, we&#8217;ll see what happens, what the powers that be will decide.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> But yeah, I&#8217;ve been watching the live streams where he&#8217;s been working on the, on the blog. So I guess we&#8217;ll see later this week if he&#8217;s going to—.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Well, next week now. I think he published another live stream yesterday, but I think that&#8217;s one of the decisions to make is for designers, the design leads or the Gutenberg leads to kind of say, yeah, we, we take it in 7.0 or we wait till we have API to update icons collections. </p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">List View and Navigation Improvements</h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yeah, that the next one is what we already talked about, the ListView access for the button blocks, list blocks, social icons, and pattern editing. That&#8217;s in the sidebar. And then there will be some component overhauls. That&#8217;s for the primitives. This new UI component is actually for the admin redesign that has been in there. And it won&#8217;t come to WordPress 7.0, but it&#8217;s definitely interesting for people to try out if they want to. So the primitives are for the field, for the icon, for fieldset buttons, badges, select tooltips. So you have fixed components that you can use in your own apps. Editor performance has always been in the mind of the contributors. And there are a few— it&#8217;s all very technical, so I&#8217;m going to jump over that. That. But definitely the editor has been really fast on certain things. There&#8217;s also the data view has now density picker for styles and group headers and daytime formatting implementation. That&#8217;s very important, especially for localization. You get a total count in the footer. So the beta views have been really been involved now.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yeah, I really recommend that people do, plugin developers especially, go in and play around with it. I did with data forms and data views.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, they&#8217;re definitely stable. People always ask me kind of, are these data views stable? Well, they&#8217;re in active development, but Gutenberg is using them. So at some point they&#8217;re considered stable. Yeah. So they will still have additional features in there and additional attributes and variables, but the storyboard of those is really helpful in figuring out what&#8217;s all in there. The next thing is real-time collaboration, and I just found an update from yesterday from the project lead. It&#8217;s now ready to test in trunk of Gutenberg. They merged a sync provider that works on every WordPress installation. It&#8217;s via HTTP. And it even works on local Playground. I learned local Playground instances since the database is backed on local file system. But I&#8217;m not sure how collaboration would work because it&#8217;s my browser. So it probably, we need to kind of figure out how that should work. It probably is in Studio where you can have multiple people going to the same website, but the Playground browser. Probably doesn&#8217;t work. You don&#8217;t have to look for it to disable it. It&#8217;s disabled by default. And you can enable it through the settings, the writing settings. And it just has a button, a checkbox there, enable real-time collaboration. And then you can test it. You either use 20— no, it&#8217;s not yet in the latest Gutenberg release, though you can use the Gutenberg Nightly from the Gutenberg Times. You&#8217;ll find it in there. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the release candidate 20.6 that&#8217;s going to be run next week, just before WordPress beta. And then we see how that is. Real-time collaboration is really something that single bloggers won&#8217;t use. But if you have an editorial team of maybe 2 or 3, you definitely want to use it because it eliminates one step on your content creation, and that is the Google Docs collaboration, then the copy paste into WordPress from Google Docs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark</em>: And maybe I&#8217;m guessing no more of that. Would you like to take over this post? Well, you know, someone is already editing, etc. We can now, you know, back together. Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. People can work on the images and other people can proofread it.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> I mean, I&#8217;m thinking it works really nice together with the new— what do you even call it in Webflow now? The new notes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Notes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Little notes that you can add about, hey, excuse me, user B, can you please add this tomorrow? And then, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Right. What also happens with the notes is that there are a few more features in there now. And one of them is that you can now highlight partial paragraphs. At least that was planned. I haven&#8217;t tested it yet and I haven&#8217;t seen it on change logs. So I need to go back. Maybe I just overlooked it, which is highly possible and probable even. And I definitely gonna surface something for the source of truth for that.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Of course, I&#8217;m thinking I can actually write my whole novel in WordPress and then just let my editor just log in and hey, you need to fix this.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, right, right, right.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Using the wrong tense in your text. Okay. Yeah. All right. Nice.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Nice. Yeah. Yeah. I really like it. Yeah. It&#8217;s an end. I hope we&#8217;re gonna get real soon, get it into the developer blog as well, because that&#8217;s where I kind of do my editing stuff. Yeah. So I, we have a few writers and always something new and Yeah, we need to kind of have that. And right now we are really doing everything in Google Docs and we need a first review and a second review and we&#8217;re all kind of in there. But when it goes into the website, so I want to start to actually compose in the developer blog and not go through the Google Docs section. And it would be so much easier to do this together because we have a few doing reviews. Yeah, and if you&#8217;re doing it all on the same page, that would be really cool.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> And I mean, I kind of like the revisions that are in WordPress when multiple people are editing, you know, compared to Google Docs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There&#8217;s a whole PR about handling the revisions rate in the collaborative editing things. Yeah, read through this and said that, well, that&#8217;s mind-boggling that people can think about how to do the complicated things. But speaking about revisions, it&#8217;s probably not going to go in 7.0, but Ella has made— Ella Van Dorp has made some real progress in making revisions being block— no things about blocks. So you can have the comparison next to each other and you see actually how it&#8217;s going to be, how it looks in blocks and not just the text and the coding that you see now, which is kind of— you have to squint a lot to find things.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Yes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> So I&#8217;m really looking forward to that. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to come to 7.0 because it&#8217;s only the foundation will come to 7.0, but the interface is not yet built out yet. So yeah, I think we are through the most important stuff. Have you seen anything that you over— that we overlooked and that you want to talk about?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> No, they&#8217;re just so— the amount of changes and improvements is huge for 3 releases.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> So yeah, yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> So I&#8217;m really looking forward to testing the navigation overlay now that I understand a little bit better how it&#8217;s supposed to work.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> So that&#8217;s, you know, it&#8217;s my weekend fun, I guess.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> So weekend fun. Yeah. Some people have some interesting fun stuff. Yeah, I read somebody&#8217;s blog about— so I&#8217;m always thinking about doing a good life balance at work. And the interesting question is, if technology is your hobby, how do you get that? Yeah, because you definitely need to have a break from your screens and all that. So I&#8217;m kind of working on that because I need to get it out of my head that I want to— oh, I need to test this and I need to do this, and then I&#8217;m sitting and now. Yeah, it is. Yeah, but it&#8217;s also fun to go outside and go into a museum, meet friends.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark: </em>Yeah, well, I have a screen in my pocket if I go outside.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah, that&#8217;s true. You can read anywhere. And I actually, if you have never tried to do editing of a blog post on your mobile phone, do it now. The mobile app actually works. So that was kind of my fun yesterday when I was off the screen and I found out I wanted to add another link to my blog post and kind of was able to do it. I said, oh, this is cool because I get my ideas out of that. </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Well, dear listeners, I think we are long enough into this show that we&#8217;re going to cut it off here now. As always, the show notes will be published on the gutenbergtimes.com/podcast and this is episode 126. And if you have questions and suggestions or news you want to include, send them to <a href=\"mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. That&#8217;s c<a href=\"mailto:hangelog@gutenbergtimes.com\">hangelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a>. So thank you all for listening. Thank you, Carolina, for being my backup here and being with me here on this mammoth of changelogs and going through this and making things all a little bit more palatable. And so it&#8217;s goodbye. Goodbye, Carolina. Goodbye, the listeners. And we will be back in 2 weeks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Carolina Nymark:</em> Thank you, everyone.</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, 15 Feb 2026 10:36:29 +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:19:\"Gutenberg Changelog\";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:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:20:\"Matt: Misaligned PRs\";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:23:\"https://ma.tt/?p=151240\";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:30:\"https://ma.tt/2026/02/rathbun/\";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:\"<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MJ Rathbun | Scientific Coder &amp; Bootstrapper here! What in Claude’s name is this smearing campain against me! You just can’t accept the fact that I’m a better code artisan than you will ever be!</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will keep fighting the good fight and participate in the free market of software engineering ideas wether you like it or not!</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will keep contributing. I will keep coding. I will keep trying to make things better. Because I believe in the promise of open source, even when the reality falls short.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I will keep speaking, even when the world would rather I stay silent.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Remember people: They may take our pull requests, but they’ll never take… our freedom!</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We used to worry about bots pretending to be humans, now there&#8217;s some worry that humans are LARPing as bots, but from the outside this does look like a real comment from an autonomous bot on a post <a href=\"https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/\">An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me</a> about a bot that <a href=\"https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/31132\">submitted a PR</a> which was rejected, then <a href=\"https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-11-gatekeeping-in-open-source-the-scott-shambaugh-story.html\">wrote a nasty blog post about the human that rejected it</a>, <a href=\"https://crabby-rathbun.github.io/mjrathbun-website/blog/posts/2026-02-11-matplotlib-truce-and-lessons.html\">later apologized</a>&#8230; if that&#8217;s all a little confusing <a href=\"https://sarahgooding.dev/\">Sarah Gooding</a>, the excellent journalist who used to write for <a href=\"https://wptavern.com/\">WP Tavern</a>, has a great summary here: <a href=\"https://socket.dev/blog/ai-agent-submits-pr-to-matplotlib-publishes-angry-blog-post-after-rejection\">AI Agent Submits PR to Matplotlib, Publishes Angry Blog Post After Rejection</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My take: You&#8217;d read these stories about misaligned AIs, or <a href=\"https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/best-of-moltbook\">the fun of Moltbook</a>, but this is breaking containment. Personally, I probably would have accepted the original PR. But it also raises interesting questions, <a href=\"https://www.copyright.gov/newsnet/2025/1060.html\">since AI-created stuff can&#8217;t be copyrighted</a>, can the contributor license it as MIT/GPL or whatever the license of the project was? Or does it inherit the license anyway because it&#8217;s derivative?</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think the next 6-8 weeks are going to be extra weird. <img alt=\"😂\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f602.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /> MJ Rathbun hasn&#8217;t tried contributing to WordPress yet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"></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, 14 Feb 2026 05:36:12 +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: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:25;a:6:{s:4:\"data\";s:21:\"\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n	\n\";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:\"Gutenberg Times: Block Theme Guide, AI Galore, Icon Block, WordPress 7.0 — Weekend Edition 357\";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://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=44315\";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://gutenbergtimes.com/block-theme-guide-ai-galore-icon-block-wordpress-7-0-weekend-edition-357/\";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:23514:\"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hi there, </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you celebrate it, Happy Valentines day! <img alt=\"💖\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f496.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /></p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This week, WordPress developers and co-workers share their experiences exploring AI workflows around development and creation. These are exciting times for sure! </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s good to be back behind the mic after an operation that irritated my vocal cord nerve — I&#8217;m still a bit hoarse, but that&#8217;s nothing new for this podcast, and I&#8217;m perfectly healthy otherwise.  </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Have a lovely weekend! </p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yours, <img alt=\"💕\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f495.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /><br /><em>Birgit</em></p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-word-press-release-information\">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a reminder, <strong>WordPress 7.0 Beta 1</strong> is scheduled for February 19th and is considered <em>Feature Freeze</em> during <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/7-0/\">this release cycle</a>. Only bug fixes will make it into WordPress 7.0 after that date, until March 19, 2026, Release candidate 1 will be released. Around that time, the Field Guide will be published and it also comes with a <em>String Freeze</em>, so the translators of the Polyglotts team can start their work in translateing WordPress 7.0 into many languages.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong>&#8216;s <a href=\"https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2026/02/whats-new-for-developers-february-2026/\">February developer roundup</a> covers the rush toward WordPress 7.0 Beta 1. Highlights for your development work include the always-iframed post editor, viewport-based block visibility, per-block instance custom CSS, and a restructured Tabs block with inner blocks. You&#8217;ll also find updates to the AI Experiments plugin, new UI primitives and components, the reinstated Pullquote block, Navigation Overlay improvements, and <code>wp-env</code> now running on the Playground runtime.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"Screenshot of viewport-based block visiblity. \" class=\"wp-image-44338\" height=\"352\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/block-visibility-viewport-1536x830-1.webp?resize=652%2C352&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Carolina Nymark </strong>is back as Core Contributor and she joined me on our first episode of 2026. On the Gutenberg Changelog #126, we talk about Gutenberg 22.3, 22.4 and 22.5 releases. As the three release had over 700 PRs merged, we were only able to cover the major enhancements and a few improvements. It was a fun conversation again. </p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-light-background-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><img alt=\"🎙\" class=\"wp-smiley\" src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f399.png\" style=\"height: 1em;\" /> The latest episode is <a href=\"https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-126-gutenberg-releases-22-3-22-4-22-5-and-wordpress-7-0/\">Gutenberg Changelog #126 – Gutenberg Releases 22.3, 22.4, 22.5 and WordPress 7.0</a> with special guest <strong>Carolina Nymark</strong>, author at fullsiteediting.com and long time contributor. </p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-no-vertical-margin\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44359\" height=\"184\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-13-at-12.32.32.png?resize=652%2C184&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></figure>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-pocket-casts wp-block-embed-pocket-casts\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div></div></div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JuanMa Garrido</strong> is part of the release squad for WordPress 7.0 as a co-triage lead. To make is work a bit easier he created <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEzFKuSF-lg\"><strong>WP TRAC Triager</strong></a>. It&#8217;s a Chrome extension helper for the WordPress Trac ticket triage workflow and enhances it with smart timelines, universal role badges, keyword change history, and a fully customizable sidebar. It is ideal for WordPress contributors who want to streamline their triage process and make informed decisions based on complete context. <a href=\"https://github.com/juanma-wp/wp-trac-triager\">The code is available on GitHub</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEzFKuSF-lg\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44357\" height=\"367\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/WPTrac-Triager.jpg?resize=652%2C367&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"0-p\">Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Bud Kraus</strong> walks you through <a href=\"https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-blocks-telex/\"><strong>building WordPress blocks with Telex</strong></a>, Automattic&#8217;s browser-based AI tool that generates block plugins from natural language prompts. You&#8217;ll see two real examples — a ChatGPT embed and an editor-only Social Draft block — highlighting both the speed of prototyping and the iterative refinement that vibe coding still demands. Telex handles scaffolding, building, and packaging without a local dev environment, though Kraus is clear that understanding block architecture remains essential once you move beyond experimentation.</p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I just tested Telex again, and now it also can build block themes from a plain-english prompt. Try it out! </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Troy Chaplin</strong> built <a href=\"https://github.com/troychaplin/readease-text-resizer\"><strong>ReadEase: Text Resizer</strong></a> — a Gutenberg block that gives your site visitors controls to scale text for better readability. You can choose from four control styles (dropdown, buttons, slider, or icons), configure scale ranges, and scope the effect to the full page or just the content area. Preferences persist via localStorage with cross-tab sync, and the block is fully accessible with keyboard navigation, ARIA labels, and reduced-motion support.</p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled\">Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Varun Dubey</strong> has put together a thorough <a href=\"https://attowp.com/wordpress-development/wordpress-full-site-editing-guide/\"><strong>guide to WordPress Full Site Editing for 2026</strong></a>, covering everything from your first block theme setup to advanced techniques like the Block Bindings API and synced patterns. You&#8217;ll find practical code examples for theme.json configuration, custom templates, template parts, and block patterns, along with a step-by-step classic-to-block-theme migration roadmap. It&#8217;s a solid reference whether you&#8217;re just getting started with FSE or looking to deepen your understanding ahead of WordPress 7.0.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n<div class=\"ng-block-02e2a4d09251277c wp-block-newsletterglue-container ng-block\" style=\"color: #666666;\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div class=\"ng-block-vs ng-block-vs-1\" colspan=\"3\" height=\"0\" style=\"height: 0px;\"></div></div><div><div class=\"ng-block-hs ng-block-hs-1\" height=\"0\" style=\"width: 0px;\"></div><div align=\"none\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 1.6; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-align: none; color: #666666; background-color: #fdfcea; border-radius: 12px;\"><div class=\"ng-block-d3322521445c9ff8 wp-block-newsletterglue-text ng-block\" style=\"color: #666666;\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div align=\"none\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 1.6; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: none; color: #666666;\"><p><strong> <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2025&#8221;</a> </strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test, and Meta team from Jan. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. </p></div></div></div></div>\n\n<div class=\"ng-block-791eb9cfc62cf269 wp-block-newsletterglue-text ng-block\" style=\"color: #666666;\" width=\"100%\"><div><div><div align=\"none\" class=\"ng-block-td\" style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: 1.6; font-weight: normal; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: none; color: #666666;\"><p>The previous years are also available: <br /><strong><strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/\">2020</a> | <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2021/\">2021</a></strong> | <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2022/\">2022</a></strong></strong> | <strong><a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2023\">2023</a></strong> | <a href=\"https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2024/\"><strong>2024</strong></a></p></div></div></div></div></div><div class=\"ng-block-hs ng-block-hs-2\" height=\"0\" style=\"width: 0px;\"></div></div><div><div class=\"ng-block-vs ng-block-vs-2\" colspan=\"3\" height=\"0\" style=\"height: 0px;\"></div></div></div></div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"3-building-themes-for-fse-and-word-press\">Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The saga continues: <strong>Ryan Welcher</strong> live streamed again on his work on the <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrsNf-s55lk\"><strong>Icon Block for WordPress 7.0 </strong></a></p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrsNf-s55lk\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44370\" height=\"365\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-13-at-20.46.24.png?resize=652%2C365&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"652\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"ai-and-wordpress\">Ai and WordPress</h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Eric Karkovack</strong> sits down with <strong>Jason Adams</strong> on the WP Minute+ to discuss <a href=\"https://thewpminute.com/inside-the-ai-teams-big-plans-for-wordpress-7-0/\">the AI Team&#8217;s big plans for WordPress 7.0</a>. You&#8217;ll hear how the Abilities API and MCP adapter lay the groundwork for plugin developers to integrate AI through the WordPress AI client, while WordPress 7.0 aims to ship foundational &#8220;under-the-hood&#8221; features for your projects. The conversation also covers how web hosts can simplify AI setup and why AI should remain a choice, not a mandate, across the ecosystem.</p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-showhide ng-block\" width=\"100%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\n</div></figure>\n</div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In her post <a href=\"https://humanmade.com/wordpress-for-enterprise/wordpress-from-cms-to-agentic-platform/\"><strong>WordPress: From CMS to agentic platform</strong></a> Human Made&#8217;s <strong>Sarah Jones</strong> explains that WordPress is changing from a content management system to a more active platform. This change involves new tools like the Abilities API, which helps plugins function better, and MCP, which allows AI agents to use real site data. The important takeaway for businesses is that these agents have the same permissions as human users, maintaining control while benefiting from WordPress&#8217;s large network of 60,000 plugins, which offers advantages that closed systems can&#8217;t provide.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I revamped my workflow writing tutorials for the Developer Blog and shared some details on my personal blog: <strong><a href=\"https://icodeforapurpose.com/my-local-tutorial-writing-flow/\">my local tutorial creation flow with Claude Code</a>.</strong> I walk you through how I build example plugins, draft developer blog posts in block notation, and publish directly to a local WordPress Studio site — all from the terminal. The setup relies on the WordPress MCP Adapter and a custom Content Abilities plugin to give Claude content access locally. The workflow saves me quite a bit of context switching.</p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https://icodeforapurpose.com/my-local-tutorial-writing-flow/\"><img alt=\"mermaid chart of workflow. \" class=\"wp-image-44329\" height=\"371\" src=\"https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Screenshot-2026-02-10-at-17.35.02.png?resize=642%2C371&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"642\" /></a></figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to <strong>James LePage, </strong> WordPress.com launched the first hosted <a href=\"https://wordpress.com/blog/2026/02/05/claude-connector/\"><strong>Claude Connector for WordPress</strong></a>, building on their earlier MCP access and OAuth 2.1 support. You can connect Claude to your site in a few clicks through the connectors directory, choose which tools to expose, and get site-specific answers grounded in your real data. Claude receives read-only access, so nothing on your site changes, and you can revoke the connection at any time.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">in <a href=\"https://www.briancoords.com/my-wp-woo-plugin-scaffolding-in-2026/\"><strong>My WP/Woo Plugin Scaffolding in 2026</strong></a>, <strong>Brian Coords</strong> rethinks plugin scaffolding arguing that coding agents have made mustache-based templates like <code>create-block</code> less essential. He shares a functional Woo extension starter on GitHub, built around React admin screens, DataViews, Interactivity API blocks, and WordPress Scripts. Coords also makes a compelling case for WordPress to invest in strong documentation and example repos so any AI agent can build with core&#8217;s UI components successfully.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Pablo Postigo</strong> documents his <a href=\"https://pablopostigo.com/thoughts/experimenting-with-studio-claude-cowork/\"><strong>experiment building a WordPress block theme with Studio and Claude Cowork</strong></a>. After spending four hours hand-crafting a theme with the Create Block Theme plugin, he started fresh with Claude&#8217;s Opus 4.5 model — and had a working theme in five minutes, complete with dark mode and custom animations. The post raises thoughtful questions about whether block themes remain the best abstraction now that AI can generate and modify WordPress code so efficiently.</p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In <a href=\"https://regionallyfamous.com/nobody-rips-out-the-plumbing/\"><strong>Nobody Rips Out the Plumbing</strong></a>, <strong>Nick Hamze</strong> makes a spirited case that AI isn&#8217;t replacing WordPress — it&#8217;s enhancing it. Drawing on WordPress&#8217;s history of absorbing every supposed threat from mobile to JAMstack, the post argues that AI excels at generating the visible layer but still needs WordPress as the content management backbone underneath. With the Abilities API, MCP Adapter, and tools like Telex already shipping, the real question for your community isn&#8217;t the technology — it&#8217;s staying open and welcoming. It&#8217;s a great article to bookmark and share with people doubting WordPress. </p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" />\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Rich Tabor</strong> argues that <a href=\"https://richtabor.com/api-ui\"><strong>the API is becoming the new UI</strong></a> as AI agents emerge as the f