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Happy Friday! It's July 26 and we're covering WordPress YouTubers speaking out, calls for fail-safes to avoid a CrowdStrike-esque disaster happening to WordPress, the WordPress 6.6.1 release, and much more.
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Psst: We want to know what you think. Take our annual survey for a chance to win one of two $150 Amazon gift cards. The survey closes August 11.
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Three big headlines
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1. WPTuts YouTuber says Gutenberg's UI/UX is a "disaster" in viral video
WordPress YouTubers fed up with the software are speaking out, with one popular content creator labelling Gutenberg's UI/UX a "disaster" and calling on his 169K subscribers to "change his mind."
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In the 16-minute video, he takes a critical look at WordPress from the perspective of a new user, describing it as "bloody convoluted" and "a real disjointed mess that just isn't a nice place to work."
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On Monday, Charlton followed up his video with a live-streamed discussion featuring three other popular WordPress YouTubers — Imran Siddiq (Web Squadron, 75.5K subscribers), Mark Crowell (Wicky Design, 16.7K subscribers), and Jeffrey Dalrymple (Lytbox Studio, 24.9K subscribers) — about whether creators should be openly critical of WordPress. The verdict? Now that the can of worms has been opened, they're not holding back.
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Central to the group's criticism of WordPress is the fact Gutenberg has been in development since 2018 yet lacks a cohesive user experience and many basic features and functionality found in competing platforms. Crowell says he was at WordCamp US in 2017 when WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg spoke about the Gutenberg project in his State of the Word. "Here we are in 2024, and I would say Divi back in 2017 is better than Gutenberg in 2024," Crowell says.
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Charlton says WordPress market share stats show uptake has essentially flatlined since Gutenberg was introduced. "That says something for the uptake of Gutenberg and full-site editing," Charlton says. "If there's that little uptake in six years of development, it says something."
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Siddiq says the group isn't criticizing WordPress as users of competing products. "We love WordPress. We use it daily. When we say something isn't right, it's because we care about the community and the product. We hope it's still here for another 40 years."
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Other YouTubers have also spoken out about their frustrations with WordPress, including Adam Preiser from WPCrafter.com who in a recent video with 11,000 views says WordPress 6.6 was "dead on arrival" due to all the major features requiring block themes, which he says are "not popular at all and very few people use them." His YouTube channel has 249K subscribers.
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The videos come after Automattic-sponsored contributor Anne McCarthy recently met with popular WordPress YouTubers to learn how the WordPress project could better support their work as video creators and educators.
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2. WordPress 6.6.1 fixes fatal errors, addresses CSS bug impacting Divi users
WordPress 6.6.1 was released Tuesday. Core committers Tonya Mork and Ella van Durpe led the release, which fixed seven bugs in core and another nine in the Block Editor, including two that caused fatal errors, one that caused security plugins to issue false warnings, and several others that created unwanted UI changes.
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But the most talked about bug, as Roger Montii highlights in his report for Search Engine Journal, WordPress Releases 6.6.1 To Fix Fatal Errors In 6.6, was an issue with CSS specificity that added underlines to links on websites using Divi and other page builders.
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The bug was first reported in the WordPress.org support forums, prompting a flurry of YouTube videos and Reddit threads detailing how to fix the issue as Divi users scrambled to fix their client sites ahead of an official patch.
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Yoast-sponsored contributor Carolina Nymark joked on X, "Can I stay in the world where ‘all links are underlined' just a little longer?"
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On a more serious note, Google-sponsored performance contributor Felix Arntz posted, "I don't have a good solution to avoid CSS breakage like apparently happened a lot in WordPress 6.6 in the future. But I do think there needs to be more consideration about such changes."
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The next major release, WordPress 6.7, is scheduled for November 12, 2024.
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In related news, WordPress 6.6 Test Lead Anne McCarthy wants folks to help test upcoming versions of WordPress earlier rather than wait for the beta period. In a recent interview with WP Shout, McCarthy says involving hosting companies and plugin and theme developers early in the testing process helps ensure the widest possible spread of use cases, configurations, and environments. "I'm always afraid we're only getting a certain kind of testing done. So that keeps me up at night," she says.
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3. Mullenweg urges "defense in depth" strategy following CrowdStrike incident
Posting on the Make WordPress Core blog last Saturday, the WordPress co-founder says, "If I committed a die(); to core, what happens? What if I modify the file on the server directly? What automated fail-stops can we build in? How can WordPress clients also protect themselves?"
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While IT engineer Relja Novović and software engineer Paul Schiretz commented on the post that all forced auto-updates should be stopped, Miriam Schwab, Elementor's Head of WordPress Relations, suggested a gradual roll-out system for core, and for themes and plugins. "That way, if there are issues, it will be discovered before everyone gets it, and a fix can be released to everyone. I believe this is common practice in software development in general, particularly when dealing with large user bases," Schwab says, adding that Elementor could help implement it.
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Pagely Senior Software Developer Scott Kingsley Clark says if an issue broke all WordPress sites, hosting companies would need to step in to help quickly find solutions. It's a view supported by GoDaddy's Courtney Robertson, who also suggests WordPress could adopt OpenSSF Scorecards, an open source project for assessing security risks through a series of automated checks.
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In other news
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WordPress project
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> WordPress' CMS market share remains steady at 35.36%, down slightly from 35.47 last month, according to Joost de Valk's latest analysis. Year-on-year growth rates for July show WordPress inched forward just 1.23% compared to Shopify's staggering 17.43% growth. The fastest-growing CMS is Framer Sites, which has had a 300% spike in growth since July 2023. Elementor remains the dominant force in page builders, increasing its year-on-year market share by 11.73% (joost.blog)
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> WordPress Meetup events in India are drawing the most engagement globally, with top in-person events in Ahmedabad and Mumbai getting at least 165 RSVPs, according to WordPress Community Team co-rep Isotta Peira. Global meetup trends from January 2023 to June 2024 show Learn WordPress online workshops—especially developer focused ones—are proving popular, on average drawing 47.5 RSVPs per event. Peira plans to develop a further regional analysis of the meetup trends to understand the types of events that are most successful in each area (Make WordPress Community)
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WordPress community
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> Doctor Popular has teamed up with WordPress.com to launch The Fediverse Files. According to Popular, the YouTube shorts series offers a guide to the social web, with interviews, songs, animations, and more. "I'm extremely passionate about the future of the Social Web, so this has been a dream project for me," he says. The first episode drops next week. Popular recently finished working at WP Engine where he hosted the long-running Press This podcast (Mastodon | YouTube)
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> Developer Brian Coords says it’s time for the Gutenberg project to hit pause on building an interface for basic users and instead fully focus on building out features and functionality for advanced users. “Give as much power as possible to the advanced developers, because just like before, they’ll use that power to create the ‘simplified’ user experiences that grow the ecosystem from a product-first perspective,” he says. “… focus on the power users who use WordPress every day and I promise you'll see more block themes and more adoption of the block editor from the people with the loudest microphones who are making the most popular content.” (Brian Coords)
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> WordCamp Lahore organizer Zaman Hassan is the latest recipient of the Yoast Care Fund (Yoast)
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> Carolina Nymark, creator of fullsiteediting.com and a Yoast-sponsored contributor, joined the latest episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast to discuss WordPress 6.6, Gutenberg 18.8, block themes and section styles (Gutenberg Times)
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Business, enterprise & acquisitions
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> On the latest episode of the Press This podcast, Mihail Stoychev and Georgi Petrov discuss why they originally created NitroPack (to scratch an itch) and why they recently sold it to WP Engine (to scale their solution for a broader audience) (WP Engine)
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> Convesio has launched ConvesioConvert, an omni-channel marketing automation and personalization platform. According to co-founder and CEO Tom Fanelli, the platform is like Klaviyo or Omnisend but has additional user-targeting features and is highly integrated with WooCommerce. The launch comes after the hosting company acquired Growmatik in May 2024 (YouTube)
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> Writer and developer Eric Karkovack says increased pricing within the WordPress ecosystem is challenging for consumers but reflects a maturing market and will ultimately lead to better products and services (The WP Minute)
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> WPMU DEV has retired its long-running newsletter, The WhiP, replacing it with a new one called DEV. The WhiP was originally started in 2014, providing a pun-filled weekly round-up of WordPress news (WPMU DEV)
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Conferences & events
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> WordSesh is back for 2024. Scheduled for July 30, the free virtual event will feature eight sessions across three live broadcasts in three time zones. All eight speakers have been announced and include Aurooba Ahmed (web developer), Claire Brotherton (developer, A Bright Clear Web), Sandy Edwards (Senior Marketing Manager, Bluehost), and Matt Mullenweg (Automattic CEO) (WordSesh)
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> The Spanish WordPress community is hosting WordPress Diversity Day on September 28 in Valencia. The one-day event will feature talks exploring the use, development and application of WordPress, as well as the importance of diversity and inclusion in marketing, design, content creation, entrepreneurship and business (WordPress Diversity Day)
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> The Italian WordPress community has announced Core Days, a new next gen event aimed at core developers, which will be held on November 8-9, 2024, in Rome. Organizers say the event will bring together the international community of core contributors in person to discuss the WordPress project, share best practices, find solutions to problems, and ensure the long-term sustainability and health of the WordPress developer community (Core Days)
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> Nominations are now open for The WP Awards 2024. The annual awards celebrate the WordPress community's favorite products and services (The WP Weekly)
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WP Community: Howard Spaeth
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This week, what's inspiring Howard Spaeth, owner, CEO and President of H Grant Designs.
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A podcast worth listening to: I don't listen to podcasts – I just can't get into them!
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A social media account worth following: My own on LinkedIn.
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An article worth reading: I don't really read articles but anything that I've found online about WordPress or business in general always gets my thoughts going.
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A concept worth understanding: That you are not in this alone. There are SO many people willing to lend a hand or work together, you just need to find them. I often find myself lending my knowledge and expertise that I have learned from others to help others.
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A habit worth forming: Work/life balance. It's easier said than done for sure BUT I used to work from 9am to 9pm for years and was feeling the burnout pretty quickly. Sure, we are never "truly" off, but setting those business hours and getting into other things besides work truly does help more than you think!
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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
🧗🏼♂️ Anne McCarthy on the four WordPress contribution pathways: entering no person's land, walking into a battle (by accident), trying to keep up, and smooth sailing (nomad.blog)
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📘 WordCamp Europe organizers have published a round-up of recaps of the recent 2024 event (WordCamp Europe)
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👩🏼🎨 Brian Gardner explains how the four dimensions of WordPress design—width, depth, reach, and height—correlate to its four distinct eras (WP Engine)
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🚼 Jenny Wong on returning to working with WordPress as a new parent (Human Made)
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Listen
🎙️ Eneko Garrido on how WordCamp Bilbao 2019 led him to translate WordPress into Basque, deepen his connection to his cultural heritage, and opened new career opportunities (WP Tavern)
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🧕🏼 Nadia Maya Ardiani and Miriam Schwab on why they wear head coverings as part of their cultures (Underrepresented in Tech)
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The Repository is a weekly email for the WordPress community by Rae Morey. Mike Johnston is our proofreader. 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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