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Issue #124
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This week in WordPress

Happy 19th birthday, WordPress!

There's a lot to get to today, but first, happy birthday, WordPress! Today—May 27—marks 19 years since co-founder Matt Mullenweg announced the first release of WordPress.
ICYMI – "Really cool website celebrating the 19th birthday of WordPress!" tweets Mullenweg, who name drops Olivia and David Bisset's passion project, #wp19day.

Since the pair launched #wp19day earlier this month, people from across the WordPress community have shared written and video tributes.
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This week, MasterWP Editorial Director Nyasha Green shared her interview with Olivia Bisset on WordPress and wp19 day. Olivia, the founder of LemonadeCode and MustHacks Jr, tells Green one of the best things about working on the project has been hearing stories about how WordPress has changed people's lives for the better.

#wp19day will be hosting two live shows today (head to wp19.day for details and links):
  • A panel in partnership with Post Status will put together a "WordPress Starter Pack" at 9am ET / 1pm UTC on Twitter Spaces
  • A special "mega meetup" with special guests, a draft, and a game show with prizes at 4:30pm ET / 8:30pm UTC on Zoom/YouTube
David tweets, "Do me a favor and if you haven't already post your thought to celebrate #WordPress 19th anniversary (5/27) on wp19.day today or this weekend. 🎉 If you are planning on a celebration or social, ping @wp19day or @lemonadecode. We'll reference all the stuff."

Meanwhile, WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy is encouraging folks to Share a Warm Fuzzy with long-time Audrey Capital-sponsored core contributor Samuel "Otto" Wood.

WordPress 6.0 "Arturo" now available

WordPress 6.0 "Arturo" shipped this week, and here are just a few of the stories you might want to spend some time with today.

First is WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg's announcement at WordPress.org, WordPress 6.0 "Arturo." As WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy says, "Expanding Gutenberg into a full site editing experience in WordPress means that all of the problems the community had to address were complex and far-reaching. WordPress 6.0 is an example of the community's commitment to tackling these tough challenges together."

There's also Sarah Gooding's write-up at WPTavern: WordPress 6.0 "Arturo" Adds More Templates and Patterns, Style Switching, and Block Locking UI.

There are a bunch of other WordPress 6.0 round-ups at iThemes, WPBeginner, Cloudways, Kinsta, Yoast, and MasterWP.

If you want to digest the release in bite-sized chunks, "… here's a thread of the new & shiny bits 🧵↓" tweets Extendify Head of Product Rich Tabor, who shares a nice summary of, well, all the new and shiny bits in WordPress 6.0.

For a similarly succinct rundown, "Happy with how the WordPress 6.0 'Arturo' video turned out. It's a quick overview of some of the main features introduced," tweets Automattic-sponsored contributor Matías Ventura, the lead architect of the Gutenberg project.
"Can you see it? It's my name, among more than 500 contributors that make possible the new version of WordPress core, 6.0, called 'Arturo,"' tweets José Arcos, a WordPress developer at the UN International Computing Centre, who was one of the 500+ people who contributed to this release. Freelance developer Shital Marakana also tweets, "📢 Wow! Proud to see my name "#ShitalMarakana" in @WordPress 6.0 'Arturo' Version 🏆🎉🌟❤😊😍👍"
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Do you remember what it was like using WordPress 5.0? Anne McCarthy, a WordPress product liaison at Automattic and co-release coordinator for WordPress 6.0, has created a short 13-minute video that shows the "immense amount of progress contributors have made on site building features," writes Gooding in New Video Explores Site Building Progress From WordPress 5.0 to 6.0.

Business Spotlight: LearnDash

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500+ contributors to WordPress 6.0 and other stats

"As usual, I put together some stats about WP 6.0 Core Contribution 📊📈📉 ‘Arturo' was released yesterday and features the work of more than 500 contributors from at least 53 countries and 134 companies 😍."

That tweet from Whodunit CTO Jb Audras, a core committer and WordPress Core Team rep. He links to WP 6.0 "Arturo" Contribution Stats.

Audras has published contributor stats going back to WordPress 5.5 (except for WordPress 5.8). They offer fascinating insights into who builds WordPress—and who influences the project.

Highlights for WordPress 6.0 include:
  • 519 people contributed to WordPress 6.0, including 129 people (25%) who were first-time core contributors.
  • Of the 53 countries represented, the United States had the largest number of contributors (591) followed by Russia with 373 contributions (led by Yoast-sponsored contributor and core committer Sergey Biryukov), and Australia with 308 contributions (led by 10up Lead Engineer Peter Wilson, who was the release's core tech lead).
  • Of the 134 companies that contributed, Automattic had the most contributors (70), followed by 10up (12), and Yoast (10). Multidots contributed 9 people, and rtCamp, Human Made, Bluehost, WP Syntex, Google, XWP, WP Engine, and AuthLab each contributed 4-6 people.
  • Automattic is still the most prolific company with employees credited in 1,483 contributions, followed by Yoast with 596 contributions, and Whodunit with 250.
Audras notes, "… contributions from USA are relatively declining in favor of a better repartition amongst other countries. I personally think it is a good thing for the project to have big contributors not all located in the US 🙂"

Enterprise agency XWP tweets, "Excellent read on #WordPress 6.0 Contributions Stats by @AudrasJb of @agence_whodunit! 👏 We are very proud to have been able to keep to the goal we set in December after #SOTW: to be one of the top 10 contributing companies in 2022! 💪 #XWP."

Meanwhile, ICYMI, there are some interesting numbers at Gutenstats.blog, a site that pulls stats from the 76.6 million WordPress.com websites and sites running Jetpack that have Gutenberg installed.

WordCamp Europe updates, plus regional WordCamps now easier to organize

With WordCamp Europe kicking off on Thursday, Michelle Frechette at Post Status has shared tips on how to Make the Most of WCEU.

If you're heading to Porto, Portugal for the two-day event (plus Contributor Day), be sure to check out the schedule. And if you haven't got a ticket yet, they are still 367 available (at the time this newsletter was sent).

Yoast tweets, "In our #YoastBooth during @WCEurope, we'll be hosting a fun traditional Dutch Shuffleboard game, also known as "sjoelbak". The person who scores the highest points will win an exclusive The Globe LEGO set 🤩 Be sure to swing by 😉"

If you're not heading to Porto, good news: WordCamp Europe organizers recently announced Tracks 1 and 2 will be live-streamed on YouTube.

In the latest issue of the WP Minute, Matt Medeiros highlights a promising panel discussion with WCEU Global Lead Taeke Reijenga on Acquisitions in WordPress. "The WP Minute has been covering these acquisitions individually over the past year but you may want to check out this panel to hear their takes on some of the major changes and takeovers within the community over the past year," Medeiros writes. And by "their" he's referring to Yoast's Marieke van de Rakt, GiveWP's Devin Walker, Pagely's Joshua Strebel, and The Events Calendar's Shane Pearlman.

Meanwhile, Community Team Removes Red Tape From Regional WordCamp Applications, is Sarah Gooding's headline at WPTavern. In past years, WordPress Community Support (WCS) has required regional events to jump through more hoops than regular WordCamps. Gooding reports regional WordCamp organizers can now directly apply to organize an event for their region using the regular WordCamp application form.

And from Rob Howard at MasterWP: Selling WordCamp sponsorships and catching shade. Howard shares his take on the criticism WordCamp US copped last week for the apparent high cost of its top-tier sponsorship packages.

WordPress.com announces new $5 per month Starter plans—with ads

This week, WordPress.com announced a new $5 per month Starter plan that bridges the gap between the company's Free and $15 per month Pro plan. The new plan includes a custom domain name, 6GB storage, the ability to use payment collection blocks, and integration with Google Analytics.

At WPTavern, Sarah Gooding says the update comes after WordPress.com rolled out major, unannounced pricing changes last month that slashed free storage limits and drew overwhelmingly negative feedback from users.

At PCMag, reporter Matthew Humphries says WordPress Starter is a nice step up from the free plan where storage is limited to just 1GB and a custom domain isn't included."

The new plan has received mixed reviews from users, with many comments on the announcement post questioning why ads are still included. WordPress commentator Jeff Chandler tweets, "That's a bunch of crap lol. $60 a year and still get ads. I guess the days of freeloaders only getting ads are over." Sé Reed, founder of Kerredyn Collaborative adds, "so ridiculous, you pay for ads! and they are such visually bad ads. all psoriasis feet and skin creams."

#WPCommunityFeels: Maja Loncar

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This week, what's inspiring Maja Loncar, GoDaddy Pro’s EMEA Field Marketing Manager.
A podcast worth listening to: @wpbuilds is just a great mix of fun and knowledge!

A concept worth understanding: Quantum wellness is the future of health focusing on cell optimization and slowing aging.

A Twitter account worth following: @divydovy is an exceptional leader and individual and I am happy to have met him, because of his work and life ethics. #admiration

An article worth reading: This GoDaddy blog post about how to start an online store. I have been in business development for more than 15 years. I have seen ups and downs of many brands for various reasons. Setting up an online store is a must-have brand and conversion tool and the more you understand how it works, you will be able to achieve better results. On another note, additional knowledge cannot harm you. It can only make you more confident in promising and delivering results.

A habit worth forming: Don’t miss meditation sessions. Those will reduce stress accumulation and increase the quality of life!

WordCamp Europe 2022: It's been a minute, but we're back in person

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At GoDaddy Pro, we’re excited to finally be back in person at this year’s WordCamp Europe, which runs June 2 to June 4 in Porto, Portugal. We’ve missed being around our fellow WordPressers, but we weren’t taking our foot off the pedal during the lockdowns.

If you’re going to be at WordCamp Europe next week, come see us and you’ll see we made some new WordPress friends who we’re proud to have joining us. We’ll be coming together with our fellow colleagues and WordCamp sponsors from Pagely, ManageWP, and Sucuri. We’ll be representing multiple Make WordPress teams at the camp kickoff Contribution Day, we have a couple of folks who will be speaking in sessions, and we’re also sponsoring the official camp After Party!

If you’ll be at WordCamp Europe this year, we want to see you! If not, be sure to follow along with all the action on Twitter—@GoDaddyPro. Learn more about what we’ve been up to lately and where we’ll be during WordCamp Europe on our blog, the GoDaddy Garage, in our article WordCamp Europe 2022!
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In other WordPress news...

  • Cloudflare's Radar estimates that 32% of web traffic consists of crawling—AKA bots seeking out new, interesting content on the internet. This has major environmental implications, as every "crawl" uses electricity. You can optimize crawling and help reduce your site's environmental impact using Yoast founder Joost de Valk's tips.
  • While you're at it, you might be able to help save the planet using your WordPress site. Freelance WordPress developer Hannah Smith joined this week's episode of The Matt Report to discuss site optimization and coding efficient web applications.
  • Gutenberg 13.3.0 introduces a new Table of Contents block, some enhancements to existing blocks to provide more ways to display content, and many more improvements. Check out Automattic-sponsored contributor Ryan Welcher's announcement post for more since Justin Tadlock has left his post as WPTavern's resident Gutenberg reporter.
  • Speaking of, Justin Tadlock's resignation has left a Gutenberg-sized vacancy at WPTavern. If you've ever wanted to inform, engage, and inspire WP Tavern readers, now's your chance!
  • Press This invited WP Engine's Nick Diego onto the podcast to discuss getting the most from your full-site editing builds. Get a feel for what Diego is looking forward to with the upcoming WordPress 6.0.
  • Slow growth and meager earnings are plaguing Shopify's post-pandemic future—but WooCommerce might be able to step up to the plate. MasterWP's Rob Howard has written an opinion piece on WooCommerce's unexpected opportunity to differentiate itself within a crowded e-commerce market.
  • Open Source Initiative has launched a new blog on WordPress. While the team briefly considered using Drupal instead, it would've been pricey and involved a tedious migration; plus, as OSI executive director Stefano Maffulli says, "nobody on staff really knows how to use it."
  • Developer Leonardo Losoviz has distilled his favorite learnings from WordSesh 2022 into a new post at MasterWP. If you've ever wanted a clear way to compare and contrast agency businesses from plugin businesses, analyze the details of WordPress' performance, or prepare for high traffic, this one's for you!
  • Scott Bolinger recently left the plugin space upon joining the team at GoDaddy. Per a Twitter announcement from earlier this week, Adrian Tobey of GroundHoggWP has acquired Bolinger's plugin, HollerWP.
  • Awesome Motive developer Tom McFarlin says we're forgetting the fact that WordPress is far more malleable than FSE and Next.js. In a new blog post, McFarlin helps us "remove our blinders" and remember the broad scope of capabilities WordPress equips us with.
  • No-code WordPress sites are growing in popularity, and for good reason. In another episode of Press This, Hot Dog Marketing founder Jessica Scanlon discusses no-code sites as they relate to growing a small business.
  • Sucuri recently discovered a credit card skimmer hiding amongst a WordPress site's theme files and stealing customers' financial details as they passed through WooCommerce. You can read about the investigation and Sucuri's analysis of the skimmer in a new blog post.
  • WordPress Core Contributor Alain Schlesser joined Press This to discuss the backwards compatibility conundrum with WP-CLI. Schlesser touches on his plans to "completely overhaul" the scaffolding of WP-CLI, as well as bundle a rewrite of the profile command for other users.
  • Equalize Digital founder and CEO Amber Hinds, Kinsta DevOps Engineer Alex Stine, and Bet Hannon Marketing Designer/Developer Meg Miller recorded a discussion panel and AMA for Global Accessibility Awareness Day. You can watch the recording at GoWP.
  • The Five for the Future program has improved over time to become more reliable and useful when it comes to tracking impact and success. Now, 5ftF is requesting feedback to ensure the project remains a stable foundation for WordPress users.
  • If you could write your own roadmap for the next few years of WordPress, what would it look like? MasterWP Editor Brian Coords' wishlist, 5 Things I'd Want to See Improved in WordPress Core, hit the front page of Hacker News this week, with developers sharing what they would like to see built into core in the coming years.
  • "This should have been published months ago but I found it extremely difficult to write it. I now feel like a weight has been lifted off of my chest," tweets Jeff Chandler. The long-time WordPress commentator links to An Update on WP Mainline and I, where he shares his journey dealing with anxiety and appeals to the WordPress community to help him rejoin the workforce.
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