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Happy weekend! It's June 22 and we're covering WP Includes’ research into the WordPress gender gap, WordCamp Europe 2024 recaps, WordPress 6.6, the theme directory refresh, and much more.
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P.S. If you enjoy reading The Repository, the best thing you can do to support our work is share this issue with your friends and colleagues. The second best thing? Buy a classified ad.
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Four big headlines
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1. WP Includes reveals stark gender gap in WordPress business leadership roles
According to Siobhan McKeown and Dee Teal from the women's mentorship initiative, 75% of WordPress companies are run by men, a figure they say was influenced by the early marketing of personal computers and the origins of the WordPress community.
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During the talk, McKeown reflected on the first WordPress Community Summit where she was one of only 14 women amongst 122 men. The summit opened doors for her, including a job at Audrey Capital, and it was where she met Tom Willmot, CEO of Human Made where she is now COO. She said many of the people pictured in the event's group photo were now running large WordPress businesses. "The network that was created in that moment was really solid and there were not many women there," McKeown said.
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She encouraged folks—particularly men—to complete the Gender Equality in WordPress Businesses Survey before it closes on June 28. The data will inform the upcoming Gender Equality in WordPress Businesses Report, which will be released in September.
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McKeown and Teal highlighted feedback from Elementor's Miriam Schwab who said filling out the survey was "eye-opening" for her: "The survey helped me hone in on what factors can indicate a gender equality issue in an organization, what what to keep an eye on. Just filling it out was an insightful exercise, in and of itself."
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McKeown also highlighted the power of "sponsors." Unlike mentors who offer guidance and advice, sponsors take an active role in the advancement of women and underrepresented people by actively providing access to opportunities for career advancement.
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2. WordCamp Europe recaps bring fresh insights
It's been a relatively quiet news week since WordCamp Europe 2024 wrapped up last Saturday—except for the avalanche of recaps. Here are some of the more insightful ones:
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The Repository is a proud media partner of WordCamp Europe 2024.
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3. WordPress 6.6 Beta 3 brings theme building tweaks
WordPress contributors are onto another round of testing with the release of WordPress 6.6 Beta 3 this week. Beta 3 includes 50 updates to the Site Editor since the Beta 2 release, including 39 tickets for WordPress core.
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The first release candidate for WordPress 6.6 is scheduled to ship on June 25 alongside the official field guide and developer notes. The general release is due out on July 16.
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4. WordPress.org theme directory unveils new block-powered design
Automattic-sponsored meta contributor Nick Diego says the changes involved converting everything to blocks and standardizing the directory's layout, fonts and colors with other recently updated sections of WordPress.org, including the plugin directory and support forums.
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Previewing single themes is now more dynamic, with users able to switch between style variations and patterns registered by the theme.
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The updated directory uses a block child theme alongside the shared WordPress.org parent block theme, which Diego says sets the stage for future improvements. This latest refresh is part of a broader effort to establish a design language across WordPress.org.
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In other news
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WordPress project
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> Gutenberg 18.6 introduces a new background image feature to several blocks as well as very early work on extensibility for Data Views. Data Views powers the post listing views available in the Site Editor and will become an important part of the admin redesign project (Make WordPress Core)
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> Speaking of Data Views, Anne McCarthy has published an in-depth update on the work underway to deliver them. As the Automattic-sponsored contributor explains, Data Views refers to an improved and reusable UI for different screens in WordPress that deal with collections of things, such as templates, patterns, posts, media, and more. Data Views will replace WP List Tables, and McCarthy says feedback is wanted and needed (Make WordPress Core)
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> The WordPress Sustainability Team has published the first version of a "Sustainable Events Handbook." According to team rep Nora Ferreirós, "As there's no perfect or defined way of being environmentally sustainable, the current objective of this handbook is to provide organizers and attendees with ideas of how they can contribute to making WordPress events more sustainable." It's hoped that one day, the information in the handbook will be incorporated into the WordCamp and meetup organizer handbooks (Make WordPress Sustainable)
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> WordPress-to-WordPress migrations are now going to be an important part of the Data Liberation project, according to Automattic-sponsored contributor Jordan Gillman. In his latest project update, Gillman touches on migration challenges and proposed solutions, like the Site Transfer Protocol, and encourages folks to join discussions on Slack and GitHub. The update comes after Matt Mullenweg said in his mid-year update at WordCamp Europe 2024 that there had been "very little progress" made on data liberation since it was announced last December (Make WordPress Core)
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WordPress community
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> StudioPress founder Brian Gardner is the new host of Press This after Doc Pop recently finished working at WP Engine. Pop started hosting the long-running podcast in 2022, taking over from former host David Vogelpohl. The podcast was originally created and hosted by Yoast SEO founder Joost de Valk (WP Engine | Doc Pop)
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> Cynthia Norman is this year's Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship recipient. Norman joined the WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program in its inaugural year as a mentee and has since been an active member of the WordPress Training Team (WordPress Foundation)
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> WordCamp Asia organizer Regan Khadgi is the latest recipient of the Yoast Care fund. The WordPress solutions engineer receives $500 for his contributions as an organizer, speaker, and translator helping to make WordPress more accessible to people in Nepal (Yoast)
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> Michelle Frechette, StellarWP's Director of Community Engagement, raised over $500 at WordCamp Europe to help underrepresented speakers and organizers attend future WordCamps. Frechette has posted a video featuring all the folks who took a selfie with her for the fundraiser (X)
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> Sam Alderson has called for clear guidelines that define what constitutes a "high quality" photo suitable for the WordPress Photo Directory. They say the directory should be renamed something like "WordPress Free Stock Photography" and moderators should be trained and provided with clear examples to raise the quality of photos in the directory (Sam Alderson)
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Business, enterprise & acquisitions
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> Ahmad Hussein has acquired Ai Bud, an AI content generator plugin for WordPress. The plugin has over 4,000 active installations, according to WordPress.org, and was originally created by Çağdaş Dağ. Hussein and Dağ have each shared their perspectives on buying and selling plugins (X)
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> InstaWP founder Vika Singhal celebrated crossing the 1 million website mark this week. The milestone represents a new site created every minute using the one-click WordPress sandbox launcher since it was released in 2022 (X)
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> Correction: The Repository incorrectly reported last week that Automattic for Agencies is an affiliate program. According to Mary Voelker, Automattic for Agencies' program manager, it's been designed for agencies who sell custom, 1:1 solutions based on a client's unique needs. This would typically involve recommending, implementing, and managing Automattic products—including WordPress.com, WooCommerce, WordPress VIP, Pressable, and Jetpack—on behalf of their clients. The program has been set up to offer a suite of tools and services that streamline the website management process for multi‑user teams and expands revenue opportunities through profit sharing and bulk discounts (Automattic)
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Conferences & events
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> WordCamp US 2024 will feature a new Showcase Day focused on exploring innovative uses of WordPress—and applications are open to WordCamp sponsors and their agency partners or affiliates. According to organizers, the day offers a "prime opportunity for exposure within the WordPress community and beyond,” but companies are being asked to keep their branding "restrained" (WordCamp US)
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> StellarWP is hosting Stellar Spark on July 19. The live virtual conference will feature 15 speakers who will "spark" ideas for growth, creativity, collaboration, and more across two tracks (StellarWP)
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> Canada's first regional WordCamp kicks off on July 13 in Ottawa, Ontario. The three-day event features an impressive speaker lineup, including developer Aurooba Ahmed, marketer Marc Benzakein, Syde CIO Robert Windisch, Post Status' Cory Miller, and podcaster Bud Kraus. The keynote will be given by Meggan Van Harten, co-CEO of Design de Plume, an Indigenous and women-owned creative agency (WordCamp Canada)
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> Tickets are still available for WPCampus. The annual conference from July 31 to August 2 in Washington D.C. will focus on the growth of higher education, accessibility, WordPress, and its people (WPCampus)
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Help diverse voices in WordPress be heard! Support Inclusion in Tech removes barriers for speakers at WordCamps. Donate and empower SiNC.
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Meanwhile...
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READ
🤷🏼♀️ Matt Medeiros suggests a lack of demand is why people aren't up in arms about WordPress leadership (The WP Minute)
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🗣️ Eric Karkovack proposes using the WordPress dashboard as a central channel for communicating project updates (The WP Minute+)
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💢 Mika Epstein documents ongoing harassment from a developer who was banned from hosting plugins at WordPress.org in 2018 (Half-Elf on Tech)
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🎁 Michelle Frechette shares her tips for contributing to WordPress (StellarWP)
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💭 Fränk Klein unpacks a recent post about the take up of block themes, reminding folks that there isn't one WordPress (WP Development)
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LISTEN
🎙️ Rae Morey (Editor: me!) in conversation with the wonderful Bud Kraus (Seriously, Bud?)
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📣 Jason Tucker and Sé Reed call for transparency and accountability in WordPress leadership (WPwatercooler)
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🌞 Nyasha Green on how she turned two layoffs in one year into "The Hopeful Workspace" podcast (The WP Minute+)
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🇨🇭 Patricia Brun Torre on the story behind how Basel, Switzerland, was chosen to host WordCamp Europe 2025 (KrausPress)
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The Repository is a weekly email for the WordPress community by Rae Morey. Thanks to Kinsta, our hosting sponsor, and MailPoet, our email sponsor.
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Send your feedback to [email protected] and help us provide high-quality news written entirely by humans that matters to the WordPress community.
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