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Happy Friday! It's August 16 and we're covering Twenty Twenty-Five, WPwatercooler, the WordPress 6.7 release squad, WP Tavern, and much more.
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Four big headlines
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1. First glimpse of Twenty Twenty-Five designs revealed
"Beautiful work ✨" posted Automattic-sponsored contributor Nick Diego.
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"Beatriz Fialho, who also designed Twenty Twenty-Four last year, is this year's design lead again. I'm curious to hear what everyone thinks of it!" posted GREYD's Jessica Lyschik, who co-led the development of Twenty Twenty-Four.
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The theme in progress is available on GitHub and will be released together with WordPress 6.7 on November 12, 2024.
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2. WordPress 6.7 release team announced
The WordPress 6.7 release squad was announced this week, with WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg serving in his usual role as release lead. Longtime core committer David Baumwald is coordinating the release, and fellow commiters Peter Wilson (10up) and Kira Schroder (GoDaddy) will share core tech lead duties.
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But it's the default theme design and development leads who are getting all the attention on social media.
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On X, Jessica Lyschik, who co-led the development of Twenty Twenty-Four, posted, "Finally the release squad is out, congrats @carolinapoena and @juanfraa on becoming the Default Theme Leads for Twenty Twenty-Five!" Tammie Lister, who's currently leading work on the default theme task force, added, "I am so delighted to see the design and development leads. Beatriz Fialho has created another incredible theme for us all to support them launching. Let's do this!"
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WordPress 6.7 is scheduled for release on November 12, 2024.
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3. Jyolsna JE debuts as WP Tavern's new freelance writer
"New WP Tavern content woooo!" posted the Tavern's founder, Jeff Chandler, yesterday, linking to the popular WordPress news site's first published story since March—and its author, Jyolsna JE.
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Jyolsna was one of seven writers who trialed for two jobs at the Tavern in February and March this year. At the time, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, who owns the site through his investment firm, Audrey Capital, announced he was giving the triallists full access to "post and participate however they like" as part of a two-week, $25-per-hour trial.
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Mullenweg said when the trial ended, he would offer two full-time jobs and set up a "fair and transparent" system for freelancers to contribute to WP Tavern. But five months later, it's unknown whether Mullenweg still plans to hire two full-timers.
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Jyolsna told The Repository she is freelancing for the Tavern while continuing in her role as Operations Manager at Awsm Digital Innovations and publishing at WP-Content. It's understood that none of the other six triallists have been hired. Last month, triallist James Giroux joined WordPress VIP.
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Jyolsna replaces former editor Sarah Gooding, who left the site in November 2023 after 10 years. Gooding was widely praised for her dedication to covering WordPress news and is now Head of Content Marketing at Socket.
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4. WPwatercooler ends 12-year run as hosts bid farewell in final episode
In episode 485, the trio discuss their reasons for quitting the show, including the personal and professional toll it has taken on them and their disillusionment with WordPress, the software that initially brought them together.
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"This was a labour of love that I kind of no longer love, is really what it comes down to, with the show, with WordPress. This is a burden now," according to Tucker, who says it costs money to run the show and singles out updates as the most frustrating thing about working with WordPress.
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Reed, who's a former WordPress Marketing Team rep, says it's difficult to have healthy conversations about WordPress and "I don't want to be a hater as my job or hobby."
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On Mastodon, co-host Cosper posted, "Pretty big day today. We said goodbye to *the* most influential #WordPress podcast, @wpwatercooler. 💔 485 episodes. Almost 12 years. A shitload of cross talk. It really was something special. Thanks to @jasontucker & @sereedmedia for letting me spend ~9 years goofing around with y'all."
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The trio has built an active community on Discord, which they plan to keep active. Reed says it has essentially replaced the podcast, allowing for the kinds of discussions the hosts had sought out as freelancers when they originally started the podcast.
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In related news: In September 2023, Reed filed a code of conduct violation against WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, claiming he had bullied and harassed her. In episode 484 of WPwatercooler, Reed revealed the WordPress Incident Response Team had ruled in her favor earlier this year, recommending that Mullenweg publicly apologize to her. The Repository reached out to the Incident Response Team for comment and Angela Jin, Head of Programs & Contributor Experience for WordPress.org at Automattic, said the team doesn't publicly discuss the specifics of report outcomes to respect the privacy of all parties involved.
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In other news
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WordPress project
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> Gutenberg 19.0 introduces two experimental features that allow users to connect blocks to custom fields and quickly edit within the Site Editor's "Pages" interface via Data Views. "Feedback is welcome and needed for both," says release lead Jorge Costa, an Automattic-sponsored core contributor (Make WordPress Core | WPTavern)
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> WordPress Playground now supports offline mode and can be installed as a progressive web app (PWA). According to Automattic-sponsored Playground contributor Berislav Grgičak, the update allows users access to playground.wordpress.net and continue working on projects, even while flying or in areas without internet access (WordPress Playground)
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> WordPress is now on Mastodon, 18 months after the idea was proposed (Mastodon | GitHub)
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> The WordPress Design Team is iterating on designs for adding comments in the Block Editor, refining visuals for toolbar actions, making visual tweaks to grid layouts (Make WordPress Design)
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> Automattic-sponsored contributor Justin Tadlock highlights the Learn WordPress redesign, WordPress Playground's new offline mode, support for loads of extra blocks, the ability to define block variations via a file, and the new New DataForm API in his monthly developer update (WordPress Developer Blog)
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> The WordPress Community Team has flagged 153 WordPress Meetup groups for removal from the WordPress Chapter Meetup Program. Meetup organizers have until September 16 to respond to keep their group active (Make WordPress Community)
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> The WordPress Test Team is seeking nominations for new reps (Make WordPress Test) | The WordPress Photo Directory Team is also looking for new reps (Make Photos)
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WordPress community
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> WPTuts' Paul Charlton has proposed pausing new feature development in WordPress 6.7 to focus solely on creating a unified dashboard experience. Comments on his video are mixed, and as developer Adrián Vrtel points out, there's "no chance of building all admin views in one release cycle" since the existing dashboard uses PHP and the new Full Site Editor is built with React (YouTube)
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> Corey Maass and Michelle Frechette are turning their idea for a community plugin directory into a reality, this week inviting plugin developers to join their Independent Plugin Alliance (Independent Plugin Alliance)
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> WordPress VIP has launched VIP Learn, a free enterprise-focused WordPress developer training program designed to help upskill existing WordPress developers for the enterprise. The platform features three courses on security, performance, and architecture and tooling (VIP Learn)
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> Should folks be open about discussing WordPress? Yes, according to Automattic-sponsored contributor Anne McCarthy, who adds, "please be as specific as possible in your feedback and please chime in even if the same feedback has already been shared" because a GitHub issue with 100 comments carries more weight than one with five (nomad.blog)
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Business, enterprise & acquisitions
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> Automattic has ranked number 71 on this year's Forbes Cloud 100 list. The listing highlights the company's $7.5 billion valuation, as of its latest October 2021 financing, and $800 million in funding to date. On LinkedIn, CFO Mark Davies posted, "8 years in a row... Automattic as a Cloud 100 List recipient." (Forbes | LinkedIn)
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> Rocket.net CEO Ben Gabler marked the hosting company's fourth anniversary and hitting $6 million in annual revenue. Gabler says the company is scaling quickly, with a target of $10 million in annual recurring revenue while keeping customer satisfaction above 97%. He puts the company's success down to strategic hiring, an API-driven platform, and a customer-first approach (Rocket.net)
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> Wordfence is tripling its highest bounty to $31,200 through October 14, 2024, for plugins and themes with 5+ million active installations (Wordfence)
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> WP Umbrella CEO Aurelio Volle shared how the WordPress management tool has achieved $500,000 in revenue and 30,000 active installations since launching in 2021 (WP Umbrella)
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> Developers are rethinking their reliance on Envato marketplaces following Shutterstock's acquisition. During a recent webinar, James Giroux (formerly Envato), Xaver Birsak (Mailster) and Konstantin Pronkevych (ThemeRex) shared their experiences with Envato and discuss the uncertainty the acquisition has sparked amongst those who rely on platforms like ThemeForest for their livelihood (Freemius)
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> Hostinger is celebrating surpassing 3 million active clients and 5 million managed domains (Hostinger | LinkedIn)
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Plugins, products & themes
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> Felipe Elia, 10up's Associate Director of Platform Engineering, has created a browser extension to help folks translate WordPress.org themes and plugins with Google Translate (Felipe Elia)
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> Yoast SEO now features a handy AI optimize tool designed to help users meet the plugin's content analysis and get content "over the SEO finish line." (Yoast)
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> WPML has launched a new AI-powered translation engine. According to Content Manager Dario Jazbec Hrvatin, native speakers have rated its translations as "perfect or near-perfect." (WPML)
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Conferences & events
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> WordCamp US organizers have announced the first 12 speakers who'll present at the conference's first-ever Showcase Day, but it's the commercial topics they'll be talking about that are getting folks excited. Topics include how XWP reinvented Vox Media's CMS, how Human Made scaled RecipeTin Eats to 45 million monthly views, how the Pew Research Center uses blocks, and how WordPress powers the New York Post (WordCamp US)
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> WordPress Accessibility Day organizers are still seeking sponsors and have unveiled this year's t-shirt. The 24-hour event will be held on October 9-10, 2024 (WordPress Accessibility Day)
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Got a something to promote? Our classifieds are seen by the most influential people in WordPress each week.
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Meanwhile...
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Read
📝 The Repository's Rae Morey on her journey as a journalist working with WordPress (HeroPress)
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🏗️ Eric Karkovack says there's more than one way to build a WordPress site (The WP Minute)
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Listen
📈 WP Product Talk's Katie Keith and Matt Cromwell on making a successful WordPress product (WP Tavern Jukebox)
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📫 Mailster's Xaver Birsak on transitioning from Envato to a successful subscription-based model (WPBuilds)
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🫀 Zen Agency's Joe Riviello on his journey from working as a cardiovascular perfusionist to running a web agency (Do the Woo)
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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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