Wordpress

WordPress 6.3 Beta 3 is ready for download and testing! This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it is recommended you evaluate Beta 3 on a test server and site. Get an overview of the 6.3 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.3-related posts in the coming weeks for further details. Also, save the date for a live product demo tentatively scheduled for Thursday, July 20, 2023 at 16:00 UTC (link TBD). This will be a great opportunity to join the WordPress community to celebrate the accomplishments of 6.3 and this final chapter of Phase 2. Beta 3 highlights Thanks to the many WordPress beta testers, this release contains approximately 34 (Site Editor) and 40+ (Trac) updates since the Beta 2 release. Nice work, team! Testers should note that the “Patterns Library” is now simply called Patterns in the UI. Additionally, pattern details now include a sync status and a lock icon is added for theme patterns. Browse the technical details for issues addressed since Beta 2 using these queries: GitHub commits for 6.3 Closed Trac tickets since June 28 Test the new features in WordPress 6.3 Testing for issues is a critical part of developing any software, and it’s a meaningful way for anyone to contribute—whether you have experience or not. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is too. Review the many new features in WordPress 6.3 and focus your testing efforts on those areas in particular. Encountered an issue? Please report it to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, you can file one on WordPress Trac. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. New to testing? This detailed guide is a great place to start if you’ve never tested a beta release. Want to know more about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on the Making WordPress Slack. Vulnerability bounty doubles during the Beta/RC phases Between the Beta 1 release and the final release candidate (RC), the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is double. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper. Get WordPress 6.3 Beta 3 You can test WordPress 6.3 Beta 3 in three ways: Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream). Option 2: Direct download the Beta 3 version (zip). Option 3: Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.3-beta3 The current target for the final release is August 8, 2023, which is about five weeks away. Your help testing this version ensures everything in this release is the best. A Beta 3 Haiku for You Beta three, a peek Summer here and winter there A fourth in one week Thank you to the contributors who collaborated on this post: @DanSoschin, @Meher, @JPantani, @eidolonnight, @davidbaumwald, @priethor, and @DanSoschin for the Haiku. View the full article

Join WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy in the 59th episode of the WordPress Briefing. Today she invites guest speaker Alex Kirk to discuss Polyglots’ work to continue to help bring translation to WordPress. Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording. Credits Host: Josepha Haden Chomphosy Guests: Alex Kirk Editor: Dustin Hartzler Logo: Javier Arce Production: Brett McSherry and Nicholas Garofalo Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod Show Notes Polyglots team Gutenberg Project roadmap GlotPress plugin Translating WordPress – Contribute to WordPress core, themes, and plugins by translating them into your language. WordPress Playground – WordPress that runs entirely in your browser. Translate Live: Updates to the Translation Playground Polyglots Roles and Capabilities – Including the GTE and PTE roles. WPCampus 2023 – A hybrid event, July 12th through the 14th, at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Topics focus on the growth of higher education, accessibility, WordPress, and anyone who works in higher education. Launch your WordPress Contributor Journey through the Mentorship Program Pilot – A cohort-based onboarding experience with guided courses and live workshops for those interested in contributing to the project but unsure where to begin. Make Team Dashboards Transcript ( Intro music ) [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:10] Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go. ( Intro music ) [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:39] I have with me Alex Kirk, who is a longtime WordPress contributor and who has been instrumental in recent innovations in the Polyglots’ work. Phase four of the Gutenberg project is native multilingual support, and so I see this work that is being done as instrumental, not only for our global community but in support of what’s to come in that specific roadmap. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:59] So without further ado, Alex Kirk, welcome to the WordPress Briefing. [Alex Kirk 00:01:03] Hello, how are you doing? [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:05] I’m good. I’m good. Can you, let’s, because I bet that not a lot of people know who you are, can you first start by just telling me a bit about your work with WordPress, and then let us know what GlotPress is, for those of us who don’t know yet? [Alex Kirk 00:01:19] All right. So, Automattic sponsors me to work in the WordPress project on the Meta team and on the Polyglots team. So I spent time on improving or helping improve the software that powers the translation on WordPress.org. But I also work on the meta team on things like Matrix and evaluating if it would be a good fit for WordPress to switch to Matrix for their chat system. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:46] So a lot of really big projects that you work on, all of that kind of stuff that has no easy solutions anymore, is where you are right now. Huh? [Alex Kirk 00:01:56] Yeah, there’s no clear path, but it’s our mission to find it. So that’s part of what makes things interesting. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:05] Cool. So for folks who don’t know too much about the Polyglots team or generally translating WordPress, the software, can you let us know a bit about what GlotPress is? [Alex Kirk 00:02:16] Right. So the translation system that powers WordPress.org is called GlotPress. It used to be a standalone software that was developed a couple of years ago, and it was transformed into a WordPress plugin at some point, and now powers the translation that happens on WordPress.org. So we translate WordPress core there from English to other languages, plugins, themes, block patterns, and it all happens through this software called GlotPress. There are a couple GlotPress installations around the world, but I think the WordPress.org one is one of the bigger ones. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:55] Probably, WordPress.org is pretty, pretty massive. Also, I think it’s great that you said that GlotPress was created a couple of years ago, like that, that indicates to me that you’re working on a really different timescale than a lot of folks are in WordPress. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:10] So Alex, tell me a little bit about what it takes to ship translated WordPress software. So, I mean, for people who don’t need translated WordPress, like obviously we don’t have a good idea of what it takes to make sure that WordPress is available in so many languages. So what goes into the work of making sure that that happens? [Alex Kirk 00:03:32] All right, so typically the WordPress software and plugins and themes are primarily created in English. And for it to be available in other languages, it needs to be translated. And for that to be able to happen, the programmers need to make the software translatable. Basically, they’re providing each English string for the translation software to be available to be transformed, so to speak, into another language and to what it’s being transformed to. This is what the translators do. So they go into the GlotPress software and see the list of texts that need to be translated and translate it to their language that they speak. Typically there is a process around this. [Alex Kirk 00:03:32] So, we’ve got people who have lots of experience in translation. And specifically in translating WordPress or WordPress plugins. And they’re kind of the, the people who help ensure good quality of translation. So anybody who’s working the WordPress project, so basically who has a WordPress.org account, can come in and address the translation. And that translation enters the system, so to speak, in a waiting state. And then somebody who we promoted to be a Translation Editor will come along and take a look at your translation and will approve it or will give you suggestions how to do the translation in a better way, or come up with maybe even a better translation. [Alex Kirk 00:05:03] You know, when you have like a small thing that’s just not right, like a missing full stop or something like that. They might just add it for you. And well, as soon as the plugin or software is translated to a certain level of translations those translations will be shipped out to the WordPress installs. [Alex Kirk 00:05:20] So, for example, for a plugin, you would reach 90% of translated strings. Those translations will then be basically packed up into zip file, a language pack and delivered to each WordPress so that you can have the translations available there. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:35] And is 90% the threshold for plugins only, or is that also the threshold for like themes and the CMS itself? [Alex Kirk 00:05:34] Well. We strive for 100%, I would say. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:47] Good. ( laughs ) [Alex Kirk 00:05:48] And, 90% more of a motivational point. To be actually honest, I’m not sure if the threshold is 90% for every project or even if it’s actually 90%. It’s different between different GlotPress installations and it’s basically something that is made as a setting that can be changed. There’s, it’s an arbitrary number. Typically you’d actually want to make sure that the most important strings are translated first. So the ones like, if you look at the whole picture, software usually consists of many parts, many of whom are not encountered by people on a regular basis. For example, error messages that could be like obscure error messages, and you could argue that those might be not as important. Or even sometimes you could even say like, do they need to be translated? Because if you encounter an error message and you search the internet, wouldn’t you probably want everybody to search for the English one to find the solution? But that set-aside, it’s important to have like the headline of the plugin or like the most important strings translated, and typically translating those most important strings will take you to a pretty high percentage so that we can then say it’s good enough to be shipped. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:07:02] Gotcha. I see, I see. Okay. Well, we talked a bit earlier about GlotPress’s timeline. It has been around for a bit, I know. But with that kind of in mind, have there been any notable changes to GlotPress recently? [Alex Kirk 00:07:19] Yeah, so I think for GlotPress there’s been a bit of an up and down over time in terms of engagement and progress on the software. But in, in the recent year, I think we’ve added a couple of things that have been very helpful for translators. So one of them was adding the commenting functionality, so yeah. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:07:35] Super helpful. Shocked it wasn’t there before. Sorry, translators. Sorry, all of our polyglots. [Alex Kirk 00:07:40] Well, it can be like there was when GlotPress was created there, there is like the, a big part of GlotPress are these states, like the waiting state when you enter translation, and then there’s approved state, which basically a translation we say it’s set to current, and there’s all sorts of process around it. So if the software is updated or translation might get fuzzy. But also like, if somebody submits a translation that doesn’t fully conform to what’s the translation editors, or like what the standards of the translation community have been set to, then you would have to need to reject it. [Alex Kirk 00:08:16] And that has been something that we felt wasn’t a very good and enticing way of telling people like, we appreciate your work. It wasn’t just quite right, but it’s more of a rejection. So this is how we came up with this like, let’s give people the option to say what was wrong and give them a chance to try again without making them feel rejected. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:08:38] Yeah. Sort of a “No, but…” as opposed to a, just refusal to receive it. [Alex Kirk 00:08:45] And other things that we’ve worked on is, like, with the recent search of AI, like getting help from AI on translation and also on reviews. So, there’s some interesting things that you can do with AI in that regard; that one important aspect of translations, it’s also that we’ve got glossaries for each language where people, basically the translation community, identifies certain words they want to translate them the same way every time. And with the AI, you can basically add to the prompt, like, please translate those words to those translations when you give me a translation for that. And as it can change over time, you can always adapt this to the prompt, and that has been proven quite helpful. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:09:25] That is great. That’s one of those things I know that AI has been like a really popular thing to talk about. And AI, specifically for translations, I think has caused some concern that maybe we’ll just like translate it all and hope that computers get it right when we know pretty certainly that computers don’t always get the translations right. But that’s not what you’re talking about, right? What you’re suggesting is that AI would suggest what could be translated and what it could be translated to, and then human beings have to confirm that that’s correct, right? [Alex Kirk 00:09:59] That’s exactly it. So basically, we give suggestions to the translators, and then they can modify a translation before they press save. It’s more of a, like supporting them in getting the translations, like looking up words more quickly and all of that. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:10:16] That’s wonderful. So is that the major sort of next step that is coming for GlotPress, or are there other things that we should keep an eye out for in that software? [Alex Kirk 00:10:27] So one direction that we’ve been taking GlotPress is basically making use of the fact that GlotPress is WordPress plugin now. And you know, typically, you would just use a GlotPress install. So on WordPress.Org, there’s like GlotPress installed, there’s translation projects created, something that we call “translation sets”. So for languages, you want to translate it to, it’s all pre-configured, and if you would install GlotPress to plugin on your own WordPress, it would be empty and not very useful. So what we’ve added is a way for you to basically be able to translate the plugins and themes that you’ve got installed in your WordPress into the language that you’re interested in. [Alex Kirk 00:11:07] So you might have a non-English website that you want to use certain plugins with, and they might not be fully translated at this point, so obviously, you could go to WordPress.org and help translate them, and that’s the way to, that’s preferred. But you could also now go install GlotPress on your own website and translate there. And then you have the translations there right when you enter them. And you can then contribute those translations back to WordPress.org. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:35] So that’s with local GlotPress? [Alex Kirk 00:11:37] That’s something that we call local GlotPress. And you know, since we then have all these translations in the local database, it means we can do even more with those translations. So typically, language packs would be delivered to WordPress, but with local GlotPress, you’ve got like all the GlotPress software there. [Alex Kirk 00:11:56] So we can do things like inline translation. So, on your own WordPress and wp-admin, for example, we can highlight all the strings that can be translated, and those strings just have to right-click them and enter your translation, and that way, you can basically go about and translate the whole ui, seeing your progress, as you’re making, basically turning the screen from red to green. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:12:20] Yeah. Yeah. So that’s something now that you can do in your local WordPress installation. [Alex Kirk 00:12:26] Basically, it’s completely independent of WordPress.org. We would ask you to contribute the translations back when you have them, but being independent also allows you to translate like premium plugins, which could not be hosted on WordPress.org or doing something like that we call like hyper-local translation. So, for example, I speak Austrian German natively, but even inside Austria, we’ve got different dialects or like special words that we use. And if I wanted to create a website that’s targeted at the Viennese market, for example, I might want to use those specific terms. And this is something I would have to argue for those translations to be accepted on WordPress.org because it’s a, it’s like a very targeted market. But if I have a local GlotPress, I can do those translations there. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:13:11] That seems awfully beneficial, especially as dialects. I’ve been having these conversations. I have, in my extended family, many children, and they are all learning languages and one of them has been having kind of thoughts about, like, dialects and how dialects are almost another language. And if so, like how do you know what everybody’s saying when you’re speaking all the same thing, but it’s kind of a little bit it sounds a little bit different. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:13:37] That’s certainly a thing in the US, the distinct dialects across our country. And so I imagine that that’s gonna be a really beneficial sort of implementation for countries that have a lot of different regional variations and certainly smaller countries that have technically the same language as somebody else, but a lot of regional differences, regional specific things. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:14:01] Is that the same or different as the live translations, Translate Live, that we talked about at the WordCamp Europe a couple weeks back? [Alex Kirk 00:14:12] Right. So, Translate Live is kind of the next step after local GlotPress. It’s like this happy marriage between the WordPress Playground and local GlotPress. So the WordPress Playground is also something that has come up a lot. It’s basically a way for you to run WordPress inside a browser window, so in JavaScript. And at first, it seems like mildly interesting, I would say. But when you combine it with other things like local GlotPress, it can lead to really interesting opportunities. So with inline translation, for example, on WordPress.org, you would typically find for every plugin, the UI would look the same. You would have a table of strings, and all that makes you realize you’re translating this certain plugin is that in the header of the page, it says this name of the plugin, but other than that, it can look really all the same. [Alex Kirk 00:15:07] And now, with WordPress Playground, you can put up a WordPress and run this plugin inside that Playground. And now, if you add local GlotPress to the picture, you can also do the inline translation of that plugin inside the WordPress Playground. So you’ve got inline translation. We add the glossary so they do make sure that you translate things the same way that they’re expected, and you don’t have to install the plugin. [Alex Kirk 00:15:33] And still, you can see what the translations will look like. You can see the strings next to each other, and what I think is most important, you will start with the strings that you see first, which are the most important ones. When you’re in the table view, those strings might be somewhere buried in the middle, and yeah, it’s really hard to see progress if you start with kind of obscure error messages, for example, versus just starting with the things that you see first. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:16:02] Yeah. So, moving translations away from table-based translations where you kind of have to know what you’re looking for. So the Translate Live, along with local GlotPress, along with WP Playground, is going to make it so that it’s easier to see visually what needs to be translated, where, what’s most valuable to translate for your mid users and your end users, basically. Yeah? [Alex Kirk 00:16:30] That, and also like for plug-in authors, it can be really good to see, you know, you can switch the languages in the Playground to another language, and you can quickly see like what’s the state of the translation in this language or in that language. And even things like, you know, Arabic as an RTL language rights to left language. The sidebar will change to the right, and you can also just switch language and see like, what’s my plugin like in this environment. I mean, this is not technically something that’s related to local GlotPress, but in this translation live ui, it’s very easy to change languages and see your plugin in another language. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:17:06] I mean, it’s not specifically related to, to Translations Live, but also, I think that if we’re saying that WordPress not necessarily is going to lead the way with translations and native multilingual support in our CMS because, of course, it’s still a little bit far out on our roadmap. We certainly have an opportunity to have the best implementation of that. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:17:27] And even if like that specific use case that you’re talking about isn’t related directly to what it is that you are working on for Polyglots and inside GlotPress and all of that, I do see that having more streamlined, more easy to see and access opportunities to like test the way that our software looks across varying environments, especially those that change it substantially from what we typically work in day-to-day for any individual developer or any individual WordPress site implementer. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:18:00] Like, I think that that is a big step forward for all of us and certainly for anyone who is having to use WordPress as not a native English speaker. And so you say it’s not related, but it still is a big, a big benefit for WordPress overall, I think, to have this kind of work happening so that we can have those benefits to the folks who are using our software. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:18:22] So there were a couple of different things that you mentioned over the course of our conversation. We’re gonna put some links to the show notes for all of those. But one thing that you mentioned that just kind of went by, and we never really had an opportunity to talk about it. You talked about the, I think it was GTEs, Global Translation Editors, the folks that are like approved as final approvers of translations. If there is someone who’s listening to this podcast who wants to become a GTE someday, where would they go to do that? [Alex Kirk 00:18:54] So the path to GTE is a PTE. ( laughs ) [Alex Kirk 00:18:59] So, we’ve got different levels of translation editors. Basically, you start, you could say you start off as a translator, and this is how you can kind of show that you can do good translations or that you’re very firm in your language. And this might make you be noticed in the community. [Alex Kirk 00:19:16] So we’re always looking for people who like to help with translations. And you might be then promoted to be a Project Translation Editor. Basically, it means that for a single language in a project, you’ll be able to approve translations. So, you’ll be the one who says, like, this translation is a good one and this conforms to the to the rules that we have stated as a translation community. [Alex Kirk 00:19:42] And further down the path then is the GTE, where you basically are allowed to approve translations across any project on translate.WordPress.org in your language. And that’s, usually you’ll be in, in that position with other GTEs. [Alex Kirk 00:20:04] So there is, like, in each community, there is like, we’re people based. We talk about what might be a good translation. We talk to each other, try to find rules that maybe prevent common mistranslations, or set the standards for how we want the software to be translated. And this is something where you get a voice as a translator, but as a GTE, you get into a position where you can actually make the changes or find consensus on how the software should be translated in your language. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:20:35] And if folks are not familiar where the Polyglots team works and meets, where would they find you all? [Alex Kirk 00:20:41] At make.WordPress.org/polyglots. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:20:45] Perfect. Alex, this has been such a fascinating conversation. Thank you so much for joining me today. [Alex Kirk 00:20:50] Thank you very much. ( Intermission music ) [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:20:59] So that brings us now to our small list of big things. First, WP Campus 2023 is taking place July 12th through the 14th. That’s a nonprofit three-day conference with topics that focus on the growth of higher education, accessibility, WordPress, and anyone who works in higher education. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:21:17] It’s a hybrid event. There is an in-person component on the beautiful campus of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. I’ll add information about that in our show notes for anyone who would like to join in person or online. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:21:32] The second thing is that the mentorship program pilot that I have been talking about a little bit over the last few months has been formally launched. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:21:39] If you are interested in contributing more to the project but not sure where to begin, take a look at this comprehensive onboarding experience. It’s cohort-based. It has some personalized one-to-one mentorship. There are guided courses, live workshops, all of that. So read more about it in our show notes and sign up for one-on-one team mentorship. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:21:59] And then, finally, Matt mentioned at WordCamp Europe an idea that he had been thinking of for some time a Make team dashboard that would sort of help define team metrics and help identify for individual contributors what should indicate team health and where they can find the most impactful projects to work on. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:22:20] A post has since been published on make.WordPress.org/meta calling for additional feedback on that idea, so that we have an understanding of what this could be, how the dashboard can kind of come to be. And so stop by and add your thoughts there in the comments. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:22:38] And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:22:42] Thanks for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks. ( Outro music ) View the full article

A way to escape chronic pain and give a sense of independence, is what using WordPress means for Italian-American Allison Dye. Now as a project manager and social media content manager living in North Carolina, USA, she uses the software in her work and in disability-advocacy. The People of WordPress series shares inspiring stories of how people’s lives can change for the better through WordPress and its global community of contributors. Allison was first introduced to WordPress when she was 13 years old. Her parents gave her own WordPress website to use, play, test, and try whatever she wanted with it. Her health issues had started when she was eight years old, and being able to express who she was and learn new skills provided an escape she needed. My first encounter with WordPress Allison said: “While the technical aspects of my new WordPress website intrigued me, I was more interested in the space it made for me to write. All throughout my childhood I had struggled with chronic pain, fatigue, and other unexplained symptoms. Having a private world I could call my own, I was able to write my story.” “There is something truly amazing about having a place to tell your story.” Allison Dye Her family faced many doctors, nurse, specialists and hospital visits, but could not get an answer to the difficulties faced by Allison. She said: “I felt like my life and world were out of control. But logging onto my little website and typing away on the computer keys gave me a sense of control. I couldn’t always do things that other kids had the energy to do. But I could get lost in writing for hours. I couldn’t control my life story, but I could write about it.” She felt it was like writing letters to her future self and would act as a reminder of how strong she had become. Even now when Allison writes on her website, she feels it is writing letters to her past self, expressing reassurance and pride. The practice of writing online continues to help her reflect on how she coped and made it through the difficulties. WordPress in the real world Allison hoped her early experiences with hospitals and being unwell was just part of being a child, and that in adulthood she would be healthy. She longed for this time. Growing up did not bring her this dream of a healthier life and an end to chronic pain. In fact, her condition worsened as she went through her teens and at 18 she finally received a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. Allison enjoying time with nature and trees This changed what had been conventional job choices, as she was not able to handle a 9 to 5 work schedule. She could not drive herself to work on some days and relied on her mother to help with transport. She knew that she would have to find another way to work and she was determined to find it. She began writing music and book reviews online, and then moved onto writing blog posts. As they were published she started to receive payment and a sense of power over her life. She said: “WordPress felt familiar, typing on the computer keys felt comfortable, and sharing my words with the world felt surreal.” Allison’s sense of ownership of the software became part of her strength. “I think I believed WordPress was mine somehow. I was learning that WordPress is something that belongs to everyone in some way. And I loved it.” Finding work with WordPress The confidence using the platform gave Allison led her to find more about what it could do and meet other people who used it. She said: “The thing I love about WordPress is that it’s not just for developers or bloggers or SEO experts. I began to meet more people in the community and was delighted to find people like me, who didn’t know the technical stuff, but were a part of WordPress.” This global community orbiting around the software gave her an opportunity to meet social media managers, designers, and people from many different areas. She found that ‘there was a place for everyone’. The guiding strength and fascination Allison found and still finds today is in that community. Allison said: “The community felt as important as the rest of everything that makes WordPress what it is. It felt like it was about people and relationships as well as codes and databases.” In 2020, she was hired by a WordPress company. She said: “I like being a part of a WordPress company, and I love that I contribute to a team that helps people with their websites. I understand the importance of having a space that’s yours. Whether it’s a business or personal site, having a website gives you the power of telling your own story.” WordPress gave Allison a freedom and an independence. She did not have to work a 9 to 5 job, rely on others to drive her on bad days with her MS, nor worry about days when she wanted to stay in her sweatshirts rather than go into an office to work. She said: “I have a 100% remote job which I can do despite the plot twists in my story, thanks to WordPress and the people in it.” WordPress took Allison into the world of project management for a small agency, and this experience was to help guide her path, skills and confidence into the future. She went on to work in content management in WordPress, building pages for awareness campaigns for non profit organizations and small businesses as a contractor. She helps people update their websites, add and edit content, perform basic updates and help them to learn how to use their sites. “I tell all my clients to use WordPress because there is really no other solution that can scale as easily for growing organizations and small businesses. I love how WordPress allows them to tell their stories, share their passion, and have a place to call their own on the internet.” Allison Dye As a fluent English and Italian speaker, Allison is able to support clients in different countries from where she lives. “I love that with WordPress I’m able to support clients remotely. This is thanks to all of the many WordPress contributors, developers, project managers, content writers, and many, many volunteers that work tirelessly to enable people around the world to use WordPress.” Allison also became a certified as an English As A Second Language (ESL) teacher. “My affinity for words and languages allows me to teach passionately and creatively. I’m Italian-American and am fluent in English and Italian. Teaching English allows me to share my passion for communication with others.” Welcomed into the WordPress community Allie interviewed for a podcast on her use of WordPress Allison attributes mentors and supporters in the WordPress community for helping her appreciate she really is part of it. Allison recalled: “It felt unreal. I wasn’t a dev, I don’t know how to code, and yet I got to be a part of it all? I felt like I was a fake. But Kimberly continues to remind me that I’m real, I get to be here, I get to stay, I have a place.” She was later encouraged to contribute by a WordPress community member to the Big Orange Heart, which aims to support and promote positive well-being and mental health within remote working communities. She said she felt ‘honored typing my words, pieces of my story, and sharing them with a community of people’. She also joined the WordCamp US 2021 online organizing team. Allison enjoys the fact that in the WordPress community, ‘everyone here is constantly working to be better and do better’. Facing the future with strength from her friends and colleagues in WordPress Allison was later diagnosed with two additional neurological conditions: Functional Neurological Disorder and Migraine. She said: “If it were not for WordPress I would really be unable to work. But WordPress and its community continue to be a part of my life and I am grateful to everyone who’s helped me along my way. I don’t know where I would even be without it.” She strives to raise awareness of dynamic disabilities and invisible illnesses like her own through podcasts and social media. She feels that her WordPress friends have helped her both in her professional life and in her wish to be an advocate for others with disabilities too. Allison hopes reading of her experience will help others who are worried about not progressing in a WordPress career due to health concerns. “I hope that it will remind anyone reading this that WordPress is a space for everyone. Healthy or not, developer or not, blogger or not — WordPress belongs to you too.” Allison Dye Share the stories Help share these stories of open source contributors and continue to grow the community. Meet more WordPressers in the People of WordPress series. Contributors Thanks to Allie Dye (@allisondye) for sharing about her adventures in WordPress. Props to Abha Thakor (@webcommsat) and the late Surendra Thakor (@sthakor) for interviews and writing the feature, Meher Bala (@meher) for work on images, and to Meher, Maja Loncan (@mloncar) and Chloe Bringmann (@cbringmann) for reviews. The People of WordPress series thanks Josepha Haden (@chanthaboune) and Topher DeRosia (@topher1kenobe) for their support. This People of WordPress feature is inspired by an essay originally published on HeroPress.com, a community initiative created by Topher DeRosia. It highlights people in the WordPress community who have overcome barriers and whose stories might otherwise go unheard. #HeroPress View the full article

WordPress 6.3 Beta 2 is ready for download and testing. This is the first release of the 6.3 cycle, as there was no Beta 1 due to technical issues with packaging the release. Rather than further delaying a beta release, the release squad has decided to package and ship Beta 2. This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, the release squad recommends you evaluate Beta 2 on a test server and site. WordPress 6.3 demonstrates incredible progress toward achieving the goals outlined in the WordPress roadmap and is the final major release of Phase 2. Phase 2 has focused mainly on the Site Editor, enabling site creators to build websites, design compelling layouts, and manage content without toggling between multiple configuration areas or editing code. Learn more about Gutenberg updates debuting since WordPress 6.2 by reviewing prior editions of What’s New in Gutenberg posts for 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5, 15.6, 15.7, 15.8, 15.9, 16.0, and 16.1 (post pending.) WordPress is the result of contributions by users, developers, and extenders across the globe. As this community seeks new features, the platform will continue to evolve, including the site editing features and beyond. Get an overview of the 6.3 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.3-related posts in the coming weeks for further details. A first look at 6.3 This latest WordPress release includes many updates spanning all platform areas, emphasizing the editing experience and polishing usability. This release contains more than 500 new features and enhancements and 400+ bug fixes. Performance Following the incredible performance improvements introduced in 6.2, the release includes more than 170 performance-related updates, including adding defer and async support to the WP Scripts API and fetchpriority support for images. Optimizations were made to block template resolution, image lazy-loading, and the emoji loader, all of which benefit LCP performance. Support for PHP versions 8.0, 8.1, and 8.2 has been improved. Site Editor The Site Editor expands to include navigating and editing pages, styles, templates, and content. The unified site editing experience will include a distraction-free mode, enhanced navigation, and an improved loading experience. Additionally, you can use the Site Editor to preview a block theme and adjust your site before activating the new theme. This release includes style revisions so you can toggle between and preview different saved styles. Rounding out the changes, 6.3 ushers in a new Command Palette, enabling users to context switch and perform actions quickly across different sections of the site editing experience. Prototype of the Command Palette in action Blocks New blocks for details, time-to-read, and footnotes debut in this release, along with updates for better handling of image aspect ratios and improved fallback states. Spacer blocks now include presets, and the cover block gets updates for managing text colors and layout support. The new height control for the Spacer block Patterns and Design Reusable blocks have been renamed to synced patterns. This change reflects the unification of reusable blocks and traditional block patterns (unsynced patterns) within the Editor. A new option allows you to assign patterns to templates, adding the ability to have starter patterns to speed up the creation process. Site creators can now easily create, save, and manage custom synced and unsynced patterns, as well as browse a directory of curated patterns. Additionally, the duotone filter and captions can now be edited in the Styles interface. Style your captions in the new Styles interface Usability Some key usability highlights include toolbar updates, updated template descriptions, enhanced list view drag-and-drop, improved padding and margin controls, and a new area for managing patterns (including reusable blocks, now called synced patterns.) Link control receives some updates, rounding out high-level usability enhancements in 6.3. Add and modify descriptions for templates Accessibility WordPress remains steadfast in making the site-building experience accessible to everyone. 6.3 incorporates over 50 accessibility improvements across the platform. Improved labeling, optimized tab and arrow-key navigation, revised heading hierarchy, and new controls in the admin image editor allow those using screen readers, keyboard navigation, and other assistive technology to navigate more easily. The login form, installation steps, and list tables (for sorting and selection) have all been updated. Additional accessibility tickets are viewable in the WordPress Trac. Other notes This release includes auto-rollback for failed manual updates of themes and plugins. Please note that the features in this list may change before the final release. Testing makes WordPress stronger! Testing for issues is a critical part of developing any software, and it’s a meaningful way for anyone to contribute—whether you have experience or not. While testing the upgrade process is essential, testing new features is too. Review the many new features listed above and focus your testing efforts on those areas in particular. If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, you can file one on WordPress Trac. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. New to testing? This detailed guide is a great place to start if you’ve never tested a beta release. Want to know more about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on the Making WordPress Slack. Vulnerability bounty doubles during Beta 2 Between the Beta 2 release and the final release candidate (RC) for each new WordPress version, the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the project’s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper. Get WordPress 6.3 Beta 2 You can test WordPress 6.3 Beta 2 in three ways: Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream). Option 2: Direct download the Beta 2 version (zip). Option 3: Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.3-beta2 The current target for the final release is August 8, 2023, which is about six weeks away. Your help testing this version ensures everything in this release is the best. The first haiku for 6.3 A chapter closes Excitement yet much newness Phase 2 finale Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @DanSoschin, @Meher, @JPantani, @CBringmann, @AudrasJB, @annezazu, @ndiego, @davidbaumwald, @desrosj, @priethor, @flixos90, and @JPantani for authoring the haiku. View the full article

Join WordPress guest host, Chief of Staff and Head of Operations, Chloé Bringmann, and special guest Head of Programs and Contributor Experience, Angela Jin, in the 58th episode of the WordPress Briefing as they discuss the next generation of WordCamps. Credits Guest Host: Chloé Bringmann Guest: Angela Jin Editor: Dustin Hartzler Logo: Javier Arce Production: Brett McSherry Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod Show Notes WordCamp Europe 2023 Keynote Establishment of a formal WordPress Sustainability Team WordPress 6.4 Development Cycle Announced WCUS – Still looking for volunteers The Next Generation of WordCamps Idea generation: Next Gen WordCamps! Discussion: Next Generation Event Tooling Twenty Years of WordPress at WCEU Contributor Handbook Transcript (Intro music) [Chloé Bringmann 00:00:10] Hello, everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your guest host Chloé Bringmann. And here we go. (Intro music) [Chloé Bringmann 00:00:40] So I have the privilege of guest hosting this episode of the WordPress Briefing. And today I have with me a very special guest. The Head of Programs and Contributor Experience, Angela Jin. Welcome. Before we dive into all the questions, can you tell me and our listeners a little bit about your role in the WordPress community? [Angela Jin 00:01:01] Yeah, happy to, and thank you so much for having me. I’m very excited to be here. I am the Head of Programs and Contributor Experience, and I provide oversight and guidance for our WordPress programs, such as our events programs, training, and Five for the Future, with an eye toward ensuring their sustainability and growth. I’m very fortunate to work with our contributors across many teams around the world. In addition to troubleshooting and helping folks figure out how to move forward, I also spend a good amount of time exploring with others what could be in our programs. [Chloé Bringmann 00:01:41] We just got back from WordCamp Europe in Athens, Greece. It was such an energizing event for me, but I’m curious about what your impressions were of the past week. [Angela Jin 00:01:52] Yeah, it was fantastic. I’m always really inspired by what a group of like-minded people can achieve together. There’s a lot of passion for this particular WordCamp, and it made for a really wonderful WordPress experience. Full of lots of great connections and memories; I have a million follow-ups and probably even more thoughts to reflect on. So it’s great. There were a lot of new WordPressers there. So it was lovely to meet them. And I’m really excited to see how many exciting new projects and ideas that we have in the space. [Chloé Bringmann 00:02:27] Same, you said it perfectly. Josepha also mentioned in the flagship’s keynote, the proposal for the next generation of WordCamps. I’m curious about what the main ideas and goals, as discussed thus far, are of that proposal. [Angela Jin 00:02:42] For sure. So WordCamps have been fundamental for the WordPress community for a very long time. And while they have continued to grow larger and reach more places around the world, it’s also undeniable that the way that people meet has changed since 2006. [Angela Jin 00:03:01] And so, just as WordPress itself iterates we’re looking at iterating on WordCamps so that they move from fundamental to indispensable for the WordPressers of today and tomorrow. So event attendees today are looking to learn essential skills, make connections that lead to neat opportunities, and more. [Angela Jin 00:03:23] So to that end, we put forth an updated purpose for our events, which is that WordPress events spark innovation and adoption by way of accessible training and networking for users, builders, designers, and extenders. We celebrate community by accelerating 21st-century skills, professional opportunities, and partnerships for WordPressers of today and tomorrow. [Angela Jin 00:03:47] So the goal here is to create events that are more clearly defined – who these are for what you will gain from attending. We are looking to see events that take a deeper dive into content, or topics and provide more advanced content. And let’s try out some different formats and see how that shapes our event experience. And so it is a big shift. And change is always hard. [Angela Jin 00:04:13] However, the feedback that I’ve gotten so far, and certainly at WordCamp Europe, is that this is a very welcome evolution. And the Community team has already received over 60 proposals. So I’m very excited about that. In fact, a WordPress Community Day in Rome has already been announced and is focused on providing meet-up organizing and community management skills. So that’s pretty cool. [Chloé Bringmann 00:04:37] Wow, that’s incredible. I love that we’ve gotten 60 suggestions already and that we already have an event in place. That’s fantastic. In that blog post, too, it’s mentioned that WordCamps should prioritize inclusivity and diversity. How can organizers ensure these values are upheld in the next generation of WordCamps and beyond events? Into our day-to-day project involvement? [Angela Jin 00:05:04] Excellent question. So while WordCamps themselves are changing, some of our core values, like prioritizing inclusivity and diversity, are non-negotiable. For the whole project, we have a diversity, equity, and inclusion statement, and a Code of Conduct that lays out how we expect our community to engage with each other in this space. [Angela Jin 00:05:27] And on top of that, our programs do focus on providing resources and training like how to create a diverse speaker roster. And we have diverse speaker training workshops on how to organize a diverse and inclusive WordPress event. And we also have a great list of third-party resources as well. And so, with so many events, we create a lot of opportunities to grow as a visible contributor, whether it is a speaker, a volunteer, or an organizer. [Angela Jin 00:05:56] And so with the next generation of events, we could more intentionally create these spaces for groups that historically have been underrepresented. Even long before my post went live, the BlackPress meetup group, for example, wanted to create an event that connected with historically black colleges and universities. And an event like that that really invites a specific group to learn all about WordPress would be a really great experience and a wonderful way to celebrate that community and a great connection to the broader community so that we can intentionally get to the diversity that we want to see. [Angela Jin 00:06:38] And I also want to add that the people who are underrepresented in our community are more likely to need financial sponsorship. And so even though we do keep our ticket prices low so that our events are more easily accessible, the cost of travel continues to increase, not to mention the time and energy required to participate in these events. So an excellent way that companies can help is to sponsor somebody’s time and somebody’s contributions, which we’re always trying to encourage through the Five for the Future program. [Chloé Bringmann 00:07:11] Beautiful. So, with that in mind, how do you foresee the next generation of WordCamps impacting the WordPress community, that larger ecosystem? So, what changes do you hope to see regarding community engagement, learning opportunities, and best practices? [Angela Jin 00:07:31] I foresee us evolving our tried and true event format into a dynamic wealth of community-led opportunities. I know that online events were pretty exhausting during the worst of the pandemic, but there is a ton of unexplored opportunities there. And community research is also showing that online is a great way to create more inclusive and diverse events. [Angela Jin 00:07:58] The Training team, with their learn WordPress online workshops, have really led the way with our online events. And there are so many more people that we can reach there. [Angela Jin 00:08:08] And so in addition to providing more advanced content, I also hope to see content around broader tech and business trends that influence WordPress, and conversely, how WordPress can shape those trends as well. And with all of that, I really hope that we can bring in more community members that otherwise wouldn’t be interested in what we currently offer, especially a younger generation that will help us drive the next generation of WordPress, the open source project. [Chloé Bringmann 00:08:39] Very excited to hear all of this, and I bet our listeners are too. I’m curious how they and community members can provide feedback or get involved with this next generation of WordCamps. [Angela Jin 00:08:50] I’m going to encourage everyone, please come chat with the Community team and comment on the current posts. We really welcome your feedback to help us get our events to this next iteration of what they will become. There are two posts, in particular, one is to suggest ideas of event formats and topics that you would like to see. And the second is if you are an organizer, we’re inviting you to hear some recommendations for improved tooling that would be helpful for your event site. And we’ll include links to those posts in the show notes. [Chloé Bringmann 00:09:26] One final question for you, Angela. Any thoughts as we prepare for WordCamp US and the Community Summit, which will be in National Harbor, Maryland, in August? [Angela Jin 00:09:37] For the Community Summit in particular, if you want to attend and you haven’t already applied, please please do make sure to apply as soon as possible. And encourage somebody else who you think should attend to apply as well. [Angela Jin 00:09:53] And if financial constraints are a blocker, we are aiming to help with the cost of hotel and or flight. And so one way to help support the diversity and inclusion of this event, and really to the whole project, is to also contribute to the Community Summit travel fund. You can find information about all of that on the Community Summit site. [Angela Jin 00:10:15] And next, if you have a topic in mind that you think needs to be discussed at the Community Summit, please please also share that information with us as well. And last but not least, I am, I am so excited. I’m not going to spoil anything. But I have been working with the WordCamp US organizing team and looking at some of what they have planned and some of the content. It’s going to be a truly incredible event, so don’t miss out. [Chloé Bringmann 00:010:41] Oh, wonderful. Thank you so much for joining me, Angela. And I can’t wait to see you and the WordPress community in August in person. [Chloé Bringmann 00:010:58] Which brings us now to our small list of big things. First up is the proposal and establishment of a new WordPress contributor team, the Sustainability team. Coming into WordCamp Europe, a proposal was put forward to create a team that would embed sustainable practices and processes in the ecosystem to ensure the Project’s longevity, both socially, economically, and as well environmentally. At WordCamp Europe, this proposal was confirmed, and the Sustainability team is now officially the 22nd contributor team that WordPressers can support with their contributions. Head on over to their making WordPress Slack channel, #sustainability, and join the conversation. [Chloé Bringmann 00:011:39] Second, I would like to call your attention to the 6.4 development cycle post that was published on June 5th. 6.4 will be the third major release of 2023 and supports our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts by being led by those contributors that identify as underrepresented gender. This release will also be the first to kick off phase three of the Gutenberg roadmap, which is collaborative editing and workflows. I’ve included a link to the post in our show notes and encourage anyone who is interested in being part of this momentous release to join us in making this both impactful and meaningful. [Chloé Bringmann 00:012:16] Finally, WordCamp US, as discussed, will be upon us before we know it starting on August 24th at National Harbor, Maryland. While tickets may be sold out, volunteers are still very much needed to make the flagship event run smoothly. So stop by us.wordcamp.org, raise your hand, and join us in August for engagement, inspiration, and learning. And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. I’m your guest host Chloé Bringmann and thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. View the full article

Inspiring the global community The atmosphere was electric at WordCamp Europe (WCEU) 2023 in Athens, Greece, as WordPress celebrated its 20th anniversary and the opportunity to gather in person for inspiration and engagement. More than 2,500 individuals from 94 countries came together in person or through the live stream to participate in a remarkable three-day event (plus Contributor Day) filled with talks, networking, and learning opportunities. The event concluded on June 10 with a captivating keynote address by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and Gutenberg Product Architect Matías Ventura, who highlighted the advancements and upcoming milestones of the WordPress Project. One significant update shared during the keynote was the successful reactivation of WordCamps. This time last year, we organized eight in-person WordCamps, and by the end of 2022, the number had risen to 23. Thanks to the enthusiasm and involvement of the WordPress community, we are already on track to organize 25 WordCamps in the first half of this year alone. Josepha also emphasized the importance of the upcoming Community Summit on August 22-23. This in-person gathering brings contributors together across the WordPress open source project, fostering cross-project discussions vital for future growth and sustainability. For more information, visit the official Community Summit website. Discussing the Five for the Future (5ftF) program, Josepha highlighted the impressive growth in active contributors and company pledges over the past year. She also underscored the expansion of the WordPress ecosystem, citing examples like Openverse, which now provides access to nearly 800 million images and audio files, all easily accessible in the Site Editor. Another exciting addition to the WordPress repertoire is WP Playground. This new feature allows users to build WordPress applications instantly in the browser without needing a PHP server. This tool provides a swift and seamless experience, reducing the installation time from five minutes to a near-instantaneous 500 milliseconds. The application of WP Playground may seem like magic, but its practical application promises tangible and revolutionary benefits for WordPress users. Matías Ventura then took the stage to share updates on Gutenberg. Through a visually stunning video built entirely with blocks, he showcased the six-year development journey and the transition from words to blocks to a final design. The upcoming WordPress version 6.3 will mark the completion of the first two phases of Gutenberg, consolidating all these features into a cohesive and user-friendly experience. He also highlighted the introduction of features such as the Wayfinder tool, Style Book, and the ability to save patterns, further empowering users to own their web presence and voice. Following the keynote presentation, the WordPress leadership engaged in a lively Q&A session with the audience, further illustrating the continuous evolution within the WordPress Project. This session highlighted how the WordPress community innovates, iterates, and continually improves to create a better platform for today and tomorrow. Join the global community and be part of the WordPress journey toward a brighter future! Special thanks to @cbringmann and @eidolonnight for review and collaboration. View the full article

May has been a month of celebrating WordPress and the open source community that makes it possible. In honor of the project’s 20th anniversary, WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy reflected on this journey and the opportunity to build a better future for those who come after: The more our community invests in itself and supports one another, the stronger WordPress and the open source software movement become. Josepha Haden Chomphosy in Celebrating 20 Years of WordPress. Read on for highlights of this milestone and the latest updates in the WordPress space. WordPress at 20 May 27, 2023, marked the 20th anniversary of WordPress’ first release. Since its inception by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little in 2003, the project has transformed the digital publishing landscape and enabled millions of people to craft their stories. WordPress enthusiasts from all over the world gathered at more than 130 events to celebrate this important milestone. WP20’s commemorative book, Building Blocks: The Evolution of WordPress, was published in tandem and documents some of the most significant moments and changes of the last decade of the project. Download the new WP20 wallpapers made in 3D. The anniversary date may have passed, but the festivities and fun aren’t over. You can still join a meetup, sign the #WP20 From Blogs to Blocks campaign birthday card, or participate in #WP20 social celebrations. Join Josepha Haden Chomphosy in Episode 55 of WP Briefing as she looks back at the 20 years of WordPress and how the community made WordPress what it is today. WordPress 6.3 is expected on August 8 Work on WordPress 6.3 officially kicked off with the announcement of its development cycle and release squad. Set for release on August 8, 2023, this version will be the second major update of WordPress in 2023 and will mark the end of Phase 2 of the project’s development roadmap. WordPress 6.3 aims to bring a cohesive site editing experience by introducing expanded functionality, richer interfaces, and a dedicated focus on refinement. Check out the 6.3 roadmap post for a tentative preview of anticipated features. WordPress 6.2.2 security release WordPress 6.2.2 became available for download on May 20, 2023. This release was a quick response to resolve a regression introduced in 6.2.1, specifically with shortcode support in block templates, and to further patch a vulnerability already addressed in the previous version. Update your site if you haven’t yet. New in the Gutenberg plugin Three new versions of Gutenberg have shipped in the last month: Gutenberg 15.7, released on May 3, 2023, brings a new direct option to upload and replace a site’s logo from the block settings sidebar. Other enhancements include easier access to duotone filter controls via the style settings sidebar and an update to fluid typography to refine responsiveness. Gutenberg 15.8 shipped on May 17, 2023, and includes a new “Pages” item in the Site Editor sidebar to edit pages without leaving the interface. Moreover, this version brings the ability to navigate through revisions in the global styles interface and to preview block themes inside the Site Editor. Gutenberg 15.9 is ready for download as of May 31, 2023. The latest Gutenberg release comes with a new command tool and several enhancements to the Site Editor experience, including a more intuitive drag-and-drop function for moving blocks. The latest Core Editor Improvement post highlights features such as revisions and the ability to preview block themes, and how they enable a smoother site editing experience. Team updates: Next-generation WordCamps, proposal for a Sustainability Team, and more The Community Team proposed broadening the purpose of WordPress events to “spark innovation and adoption by way of accessible training and networking.” This opens the door to organizing a more diverse range of formats focused on specific topics and audiences. WordPress contributors suggested creating an official Sustainability Team. The Polyglots Team rebranded the WP Translation Playground tool as Translate Live and announced improvements that make translating plugins and themes easier. The new WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program pilot aims to provide cohort-based and 1:1 mentorship to prepare new and aspiring contributors for success. Results of the 2022 WordPress Annual Survey were announced last month. The Training Team published a new course on Creating a 4-page business website. See What’s new on Learn WordPress in May 2023 for the latest learning resources. Meet Stacks—the first community theme born from the Community Themes initiative. This theme is designed for creating slide decks that can be used for a presentation. This Core proposal explores ways to reduce the maintenance of older default WordPress themes and retire them. The May 2023 issues of What’s New for Developers?, the Polyglots monthly newsletter, and the Meetup Organizer newsletter are available for reading. Find out how WordPress and its global community of contributors made a difference in Stefano Cassone’s life in the latest edition of People of WordPress. What is WordPress Playground, and why it matters? WP Briefing Episode 56 discusses the benefits and potential of this tool with special guests Rich Tabor and Adam Zielinski. Feedback & testing requests Core Team members seek feedback on the new command tool introduced in the Gutenberg plugin and its API. The latest call of the Full Site Editing (FSE) Outreach Program invites you to test some features being worked on to upgrade and polish the experience of using the Site Editor. Share your thoughts by June 8, 2023. Version 22.5 of the WordPress mobile app for iOS and Android is ready for testing. Which next generation of WordPress events would you like to see? Share your ideas and start exploring new event formats this year. WordPress events updates Get ready for WordCamp Europe 2023 from June 8-10 in Athens, Greece! The event will start with Contributor Day on June 8, followed by two days of presentations and workshops. Attendees can join a wellness track and a dedicated space to connect, among many other initiatives. The WordCamp US organizing team is calling for volunteers. For another year, the WordPress Foundation’s Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship will award funding for a woman-identifying contributor to attend WordCamp US 2023. Applications are open through June 12, 2023. WordCamp Sylhet 2023, the second ever WordCamp in Bangladesh, was successfully held on May 19-20 with its first Contributor Day. Join #WPDiversity with a free online workshop on How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events APAC. The event will take place on July 2, 2023. Don’t miss these other upcoming WordCamps: WordCamp Cartagena, Spain on June 10-11, 2023 WordCamp Montclair, NJ, USA on June 24, 2023 Join WordPress project leadership on June 10 at WordCamp Europe 2023 to hear about the latest developments and what’s next for WordPress. Check out the schedule for details. Have a story we should include in the next issue of The Month in WordPress? Fill out this quick form to let us know. The following folks contributed to this Month in WordPress: @rmartinezduque, @nahidsharifkomol, @chaion07, @devinmaeztri, @bsanevans, @ninianepress. View the full article

Join WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy in the 57th episode of the WordPress Briefing as she discusses the Contributor Mentorship Program to help increase the success of new contributors over time. Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording. Credits Editor: Dustin Hartzler Logo: Javier Arce Production: Brett McSherry Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod Show Notes WordCamp Europe 2023, Athens, Greece. This event includes a special Keynote from Matt Mullenweg, Josepha Haden Chomposy, and Matías Ventura. WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program: Pilot Program Proposal Make WordPress Community: Idea generation: Next Gen WordCamps! WordPress ‘Milestones’ volume two book Building Blocks: The Evolution of WordPress is available in several formats for download on GitHub. Transcript Read more: Episode 57: The Power of WordPress Mentorship [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00] (Intro music) Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Joseph Hayden Chomphosy. Here we go! (Intro music) [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:40] Over the course of this year, there has been a lot of research and examination of the contributor funnel in the WordPress community. That research confirms some assumptions about what most contributor stories have in common: the hurdles, the general paths taken, and the way that problem-solving was done. Then in February of this year, Hari Shanker published a proposal for a mentorship program for WordPress. And now we’ve got a pilot program that’s been defined and is waiting for your feedback. If you’ve not read the post about the contributor mentorship program, for one do it. But if you would rather hear a synopsis from me, don’t worry, I’m about to give you a 10-cent tour. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:22] First up, who is doing this? This pilot program has been outlined by a community working group. We often have working groups in WordPress, and they almost always have specific projects around events or programs, or code updates. Since this working group is focused on a project-wide program, there is project-wide representation in it. All the names are at the bottom of the post, which you can find in our show notes. But it’s got folks who contribute with code or contribute with time or contribute with design folks who are self-sponsored or corporately sponsored, just a nice mix of people. The program as a whole, though, is being stewarded by Hari Shankar, a longtime supporter of and contributor to WordPress. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:06] So next, what is this for? There are a few goals for the program. But the overarching goal is to increase the success of new contributors over time. We can all agree that if we were to have 1000s of new contributors every day, but they couldn’t find their way to impactful contributions or meaningful connections quickly, then we would have done them a disservice. And they probably won’t continue to be part of the community without a bit more effort. The when and the where are essentially “right now and right here,” so that brings us finally to Why. Why are we doing this mentorship program? Apart from to help people who want to contribute have an easier path to success – which frankly is enough of a reason anyway – the why is wrapped up in our overall philosophies in the project. If we believe that good ideas can come from anywhere and that contributions of any size matter. And that open source is an idea that can change our generation and that we are democratizing publishing, then bringing new people brings new ideas, and beginner contributions can grow over time. We can maintain this idea, this concept of open source, into the next generation and to future generations. And always keep our sights on the open web. To learn more about this and other project-wide initiatives, swing by make.wordpress.org/project or check the links in today’s show notes on wordpress.org/news/podcast. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:53] Which brings us now to our small list of big things. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:56] First on the list is WordCamp Europe. That’s coming up at the end of the week on June 8 through 10th in Athens, Greece. There will be a major update from Matt and friends, so even if you aren’t there in person, keep an eye out for those recordings. But for those who are there and you’re curious about the mentorship program or anything else to do with WordPress and contributing to the project, you can come find me or Angela Jin, Hari will also be there, Chloé will be there, Héctor will be there, lots of people, and we want to hear your thoughts and answer your questions. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:27] Second is a call for brainpower! A call for your brainstorms! On the subject of the next generation, we’ve got a discussion going on about the next generation of WordCamps. We’ve been discussing what new types and varieties might be available, and that might make sense for people as we get back to in-person events. So if you’ve got a kind of WordCamp that you’ve been desperately wanting to try, now’s the time to let folks know about it. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:54] And the final thing is the second volume of The WordPress history book called Building Blocks: The Evolution of WordPress is now available for download in several formats as well as on GitHub. Stop buy, give it a read, and relive some of the highlights of the past ten years of the WordPress project. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:12] And that, my friends, is your smallest of big things. Thanks for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host Josepha Haden Chomposy, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks. View the full article

With WordCamp Europe 2023 in June, we feature Stefano Cassone, a web designer, photographer and volunteer translator, who believes his life has been transformed through WordPress and its community. The People of WordPress series shares inspiring stories of how people’s lives can change for the better through WordPress and its global community of contributors. Stefano with a laptop covered in WordPress event stickers Stefano has always been fascinated by the internet. His initial learning in the 1990s was through joining friends at a local pub where they could explore how websites were structured and learn to use chat software. This led to Stefano creating websites for fun in 1998, and his first paid job was for the shop where he bought comics. He turned to content management systems (CMS) to speed up the creation process for sites, but found he needed more documentation to really understand their capabilities. Then he read a magazine article about WordPress, a CMS which was being used to make incredible blog sites, and was supported by an international community and documentation. Over time, Stefano started using that documentation to work on websites in Italian. WordPress provides a life-changing turning point Stefano describes himself as an introvert. He found that WordPress helped him to work from home, to develop his skills and the quality of what he could produce, as well as build his self-confidence. A catalyst for the turning point in his life and career was the discovery of an area for events on the WordPress dashboard. On this page, he found a forthcoming local meetup in Rome. In November 2017, Stefano took the step to go along to this event, led by a curiosity of what he might discover and intrigued by how a software could be supported by a vast community. The topic at the event was on WP-CLI, a command line interface for WordPress. He recalled that he felt outside his comfort zone as he did not regard himself as a developer and at that point, had only used the software for simple jobs. He wondered whether using the software as his only CMS was going to be a long term option and if these meetups were suitable for him. At the meetup, people were talking about a forthcoming event, called WordCamp Rome. Through his research, he saw that there was a lot of enthusiasm for this event. This intrigued him and he wondered if it would show him that he could have a career using the software after all. Unfamiliar with WordCamps, Stefano found it difficult at first to know what he could go to and how to get involved, but he persevered and attended the event. “The WordCamp was a great discovery: talks at all levels from basic to those for developers, advanced and very advanced. I was immediately struck by the enthusiasm of the volunteers. It was an environment where I felt very comfortable, so much so, that I asked myself how I could participate in some WordCamps.” Stefano Cassone From this event, Stefano was encouraged by those he met to consider applying as a volunteer for a future WordCamp. There was also much talk at the event about ‘Slack’. It was new to Stefano, but with help from those attending, he signed up for the messaging tool Slack, used by the WordPress community. He was still unsure how he could contribute, and if he would be welcome. Joining thousands of volunteer translators of WordPress Italian General Translation Editors at WordPress Italia 2022 Stefano took the plunge and was excited to find there was a team called Polyglots. In this team, people from across the world translate the WordPress software into many different languages. He started with translating a theme he was using in his work. Little by little he became more interested in plugins and attended meetings with other translators. He offered his skills to translate into Italian themes and plugins in general and as his experience grew, he took on the volunteer role of a General Translation Editor. He also took care of the translation into Italian of the WordPress Core. More recently he has joined the group of translators for the HelpHub, which is part of the WordPress documentation system. He said: “Participating in the WordPress Slack has helped me enormously: I’ve met a lot of people who I now call friends. Moreover, by translating, I learned a lot about how themes and plugins work. “It’s a great way to contribute to WordPress, especially for someone like me who is not a developer. Translating also allows me to fully understand how WordPress works.” “I always say that translating themes, plugins, and the Core software is the best way to learn WordPress, better than any course or book.” Stefano Cassone Sharing skills to support Open Source WordPress Stefano volunteering as a photographer at a WordCamp in 2019 with other contributors. Stefano’s growing commitment to the open source WordPress project was further boosted through his volunteering. He was a volunteer at WordCamp Rome 2018 and participated there in his first Contributor Day where he had the opportunity to translate the software with others. He was also able to bring his own hobbies and skills to help the project grow and reach others. One example was his passion for photography, and he volunteered as a photographer for many other events in Italy organized by the WordPress community. He said: “This commitment to the community also allows me to have fun: being a photographer means having the opportunity to walk around the halls and capture moments of the life of a WordCamp.” The more WordCamps he attended, the more he wanted to be part of and keep contributing to the wider WordPress community. Contribution to WordPress is inspiring Stefano at the Support Table at a WordPress Contributor Day When Stefano was asked to become an organizer for the WordPress meetup in Rome in October 2019, he knew he wanted to be part of reaching and supporting more people in his area. He faced challenges with finding venues, but a greater issue was to come: the Covid-19 pandemic. Spurred on by the Italian WordPress community as a whole, he was determined that the meetup was still needed. The regular event was transformed into an online meeting. He was able to gain help from people he had met as a volunteer to share their expertise with meetup attendees. The community in Italy also worked together to put on WordCamp Italia online. It brought together the organizers of previous meetups and WordCamps, and new contributors too. Stefano volunteered in both online editions of this camp, including being part of the social and communication team. He found it to not only be a fun experience but also one that helped him grow professionally and learn from so many others. He went onto help restart the Rome WordPress meetup in-person meetings in May 2022 and was an organizer for the third WordCamp Rome and volunteering for camps in 2023. What will WordPress bring you? Stefano inspired by his journey at WordCamps asks what will WordPress bring you? “Persona and professional growth and friendship” are some of the things they have brought Stefano. Contributing boosted his confidence and willingness to try new opportunities in his work. He said: “The best thing I got out of joining the WordPress community was the chance to collaborate with some people on a working basis and, I have to say, that was incredible. Being with many of them you have an incredible opportunity to grow in knowledge, you just have to be ready to learn. With WordPress you never stop learning.” His top recommendation is: “Join your local meetup or think about organizing one, it will introduce you to an amazing world. Don’t be afraid to meet people at WordCamps and Contributor Days, because you will learn more there than in dozens of courses. Talk to people at those events and don’t worry. The WordPress community is inclusive so you’ll always feel welcome, and you will see enthusiasm like you’ve never seen at other IT events. Sign-up and get involved.” Share the stories Help share these stories of open source contributors and continue to grow the community. Meet more WordPressers in the People of WordPress series. Contributors Thanks to Stefano Cassone (@deadpool76) for sharing about his adventures in WordPress. Thank you to Abha Thakor (@webcommsat), the late Surendra Thakor (@sthakor) and Meher Bala (@meher) for interviews, writing the feature and collaborating on images, to Chloe Bringmann (@cbringmann), Mark Smallman (@marks99), Nalini Thakor (@nalininonstopnewsuk), Mary Baum (@marybaum), and Maja Loncar (@majaloncar) for help with reviews. The People of WordPress series thanks Josepha Haden (@chanthaboune) and Topher DeRosia (@topher1kenobe) for their support. This People of WordPress feature is inspired by an essay originally published on HeroPress.com, a community initiative created by Topher DeRosia. It highlights people in the WordPress community who have overcome barriers and whose stories might otherwise go unheard. #HeroPress View the full article

You did it and I think congratulations are in order! You, dear WordPress enthusiast, have helped WordPress thrive for the past 20 years. It’s an incredible accomplishment, and I couldn’t be more thankful. Did you know: WordPress is seven years older than TikTok (2016), came four years before Tumbler (2007) and the first iPhone (2007), beat Facebook to market by about a year (2004), and is about five weeks older than Tesla (July 2003). May 27, 2023, marks exactly 20 years since Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little forked b2/cafelog to create WordPress Version 0.70. Quite a bit has taken place in the past 20 years, and imagine how much more we can accomplish together in the next 20! You can read about the first 20 years of WordPress in two parts: Milestones: The Story of WordPress (2003 – 2013) Building Blocks: The Evolution of WordPress (2013 – 2023) Whether you celebrate at one of the 100+ meetup events, are strutting your stuff in some limited edition WP20 swag, or joining in a collective reflection on WordPress in your unique way on social media, WP20 is a celebration of you – the WordPress community. A Common Legacy As I scroll through the amazing photos and memories shared on social media of past WordCamps and meetups, I think about the people who got WordPress to where it is today. The thousands of contributors who patched bugs and tested new features; organized events and fostered community; or wrote documentation and translated strings — how those contributions paved the road we travel today. A road that allows more people across the globe to use WordPress and contribute to WordPress, advancing the mission of democratizing publishing and giving us a little more freedom in the world. To the giants on whose shoulders we stand, those unsung, tireless, and passionate committers working through long nights and longer weekends: all of WordPress thanks you! The dedication to and support of open source software has and will continue to ensure that WordPress endures for another 20 years and beyond. the freedom to build. the freedom to change. the freedom to share. The more our community invests in itself and supports one another, the stronger WordPress and the open source software movement becomes. And WordPress benefits, not just the present community, but future generations of contributors, entrepreneurs, educators, and enterprises large and small alike. A Shared Future If the last two decades are any indication of what lies ahead, then wow, the opportunity to innovate, lead, and sustain a versatile publishing platform will be profound! Looking ahead at the next few years, our community will navigate Gutenberg Phases 3 and 4 together, delivering features that bring easy collaboration and multillingual support directly into the software. These next steps for WordPress will ensure our legacy of creating useful, relevant, and reliable software remains strong while keeping in mind the core elements of our mission regarding accessibility, performance, and stability. By renewing our emphasis on the Five for the Future program, and continuing to elevate our standing, we can make WordPress the household name it deserves to be. We can be more recognizable in known growth markets such as the enterprise and education sectors, but also every community beyond the open source and developer communities. Opportunity abounds! When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for. Clarissa Pinkola Estes There is no time like the present to invest in the future of WordPress. The community is the greatest asset within the WordPress ecosystem. This means every WordPress user, from casual bloggers to enterprise extenders, is invited to rediscover all that our community means and does, and how each one of us can further our positive impact. Through all our planning, both short- and long-term, we can ensure that WordPress never loses sight of its user. Each one of us individually, and together, can do our part to make WordPress better, just as we have done each day for the past 7,305 days. View the full article

Join guest host Rich Tabor and WordPress Playground innovator Adam Zielinski as they discuss the capabilities and promise of WP Playground in episode 56 of the WordPress Briefing. Stay tuned for your small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording. Credits Host: Josepha Haden Chomphosy Guests: Rich Tabor and Adam Zielinski Editor: Dustin Hartzler Logo: Javier Arce Production: Brett McSherry and Nicholas Garofalo Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod Show Notes WordPress Playground and the Playground Github repo WordCamp Gliwice WordCamp Europe 2023, Contributor Day, and WP Connect #meta-playground in the Making WordPress Slack ChatGPT WooCommerce CloudFest and Daniel Bachhuber The Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship for travel to WordCamp US 2023 Find your closest location for a WordPress 20th Anniversary celebration Changes to the WCUS event for 2023 Transcript [Josepha Haden Chomphosy Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00] (Intro music) Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress Open Source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go. (Intro continues) [Josepha Haden Chomphosy Haden Chomphosy 00:00:40] Today we’re gonna spend a little time talking about WP Playground. This is a project that debuted at State of the Word in December 2022, but it was demoed for me about a month prior in November. I was, and remain, absolutely floored by the potential future applications, as well as the innovative thinking behind it. So I’ve invited a couple of excellent WordPress futurists to the show today so that we can listen in on their conversation. Welcome guys. [Rich Tabor 00:01:07] Hey everyone, I’m Rich Tabor, and I’m here today with Adam Zielinski to talk about WordPress Playground. So for those of you who don’t know what WordPress Playground is, can you tell us a little bit more about it, Adam? [Adam Zielinski 00:01:18] Absolutely. WordPress Playground is WordPress that works in your browser like there’s no server with PHP or database like there’s just your browser and JavaScript, and you can run it in so many more places that we’ll all get to. For example, I just came back from WordCamp Gliwice, where on a Contributor Day, a couple of developers got set up with WordPress in just a couple of minutes, whereas normally, it can take hours to do that. [Rich Tabor 00:01:44] Yeah, that’s, that’s pretty impressive. Do you think that, particularly for WordCamps and other demo-type areas, this would be something that’s very useful? Or what do you think would be the other problems that could be solved with WordPress Playground? [Adam Zielinski 00:01:55] Playground solves one primary problem, and that is WordPress is pretty difficult to get started with. I’m not even talking about creating your website, but let’s say, someone told you there’s this WordPress thing that you should try. Well, you Google for it, and you find installation instructions, and there’s like three hours of work for you there. So then maybe you’ll find a hosting company, and you have to pay some money. So with WordPress Playground, you can actually try it for free because there’s no cost to run it. It just runs on your device. If you’re a developer, and you want to start learning WordPress, normally you have to go through quite an extensive setup process, and there are some tools to make it easier, but maybe there’s still friction like you have to even own a computer, like a PC device or a Mac. Playground can run on your phone, and it can power interactive tutorials that you can use and just start learning there and there with zero setup. Like if you work on a product team and someone asks you to test a code change, with Playground you can just click a link and test it with no infrastructure behind it. And if you’re a company creating a plugin, you can just show your plugin in a live demo to people. And this isn’t something many plugins are doing because it’s quite hard to get a live demo set up. [Rich Tabor 00:03:12] Ah, that’s pretty impressive. So, you know, amongst like tutorials, code changes for developer environments, the mobile application running, do you think that, since there’s such a wide brevity of ideas that WordPress Playground can kind of plug into, would this be more of a developer tool? Is that right? Or is Playground more of a like a click and play-type application that can run anywhere and demo anything? [Adam Zielinski 00:03:36] I’d say it’s both, but it’s more transparent for the users. So there are a whole lot of things you can do with Playground as a developer, as I just mentioned. But who are you doing these things for? Well, some of them are for the users, as in live demos, or there’s a WordCamp Europe coming, and I know some people are doing workshops there. They are going to use Playground to get everyone set up. So now that’s, well, maybe a workshop that teaches you how to build a theme, for example, right? Now you can just get started without any setup process. So there’s both, it’s very useful for development teams, and it’s very useful for them to build stuff for the final users. [Rich Tabor 00:04:21] That’s great. I know you, and I have probably both been in the same scenario at WordCamps when you’re trying to get dev environments set up, and it takes, you know, the better half of the workshop to get to step one. So this is really gonna be interesting to see it, especially at WordCamp Europe, and to see it getting into action. Are you planning on going to WordCamp Europe this year? [Adam Zielinski 00:04:39] Absolutely, I will have a table at Contributor Day, a WordPress Playground table. So yeah, everyone’s invited to come over. I’ll show you a lot of cool stuff. And then at WP Connect on Saturday at 10:00 AM, there will be a WordPress Playground session where you’ll be able to learn more and see some cool demos. And this will be a conversational format, so we’ll just have a nice chat. [Rich Tabor 00:05:01] Super cool. So how else can people find out a little bit more info about Playground and perhaps even get involved and contribute to the project? [Adam Zielinski 00:05:08] There’s a developer.WordPress.org/playground website. There’s a link in a show notes where you’ll be able, like this is the perfect entry point to the entire rabbit hole of WordPress Playground. There’s a quite a few projects under the WordPress Playground umbrella, and they all live in a single GitHub repository where you can just find any issue that interests if you want to contribute and just start contributing. Also, there’s a Slack channel in WordPress org space called #meta-playground, and I highly encourage everyone interested in coming over to say hi. And probably one of the best places to ask questions and get acquainted with the community. [Rich Tabor 00:05:54] Oh, that’s great; I’m very intrigued about the project overall. I think that there’s an immense amount of potential, for WordPress Playground. Just last question here, like, where do you see the future of this project going? What is the most interesting application that hasn’t been done yet, or the things that are really gonna be the next level in unlocking Playground for everyone? [Adam Zielinski 00:06:12] There’s quite a few. Imagine being able to go to WordPress.org and have a WordPress demo right then and there without having to download anything. Then you customize it, and you have a button to host your website anywhere or just to download it. Imagine having a live preview for all the themes and plugins in the directory and even in WordPress core, but these are sooner than later. Maybe like, let’s talk more grandiose, shall we? So there’s this term, 1 billion new users coming online in the next, like in the nearest future, and plenty of them doesn’t even own a desktop device. Maybe they have a mobile phone, maybe they have a tablet, maybe we’re talking about a young, prospective developer somewhere. And currently, if you don’t own a desktop device, you cannot contribute to the WordPress plugin ecosystem at all. Like, we’re seeing more and more of creating themes with no code, which is really exciting. But you cannot build the plugin, really. Well, with WordPress Playground. Suddenly you can do development on a mobile device. So development tools and code editors and just the entire suite of things we use as the developers on our desktop of devices like this may come online and be available in your browser. And if you’re on a train and you just have a phone with you, but you still want to learn, how to build a plugin, well, you’ll be able to do that. Furthermore, there’s a lot of exciting opportunities with ChatGPT, as in, well, here’s a WordPress running entirely on your device. So maybe if that’s connected to ChatGPT, you’ll be able to say, well, I like fish, or like, I want two columns and a photo of a racing car on top of it. And because ChatGPT can output HTML, we connect the two, and suddenly, you can build a website entirely in your browser using natural language. [Rich Tabor 00:08:20] Man, that’s, that’s really interesting. It really does unlock the next, potentially the next like, wave of innovation in the WordPress experience, especially removing all the complications of getting set up and actually seeing what’s there. I think that it really could, be huge for users every day. [Adam Zielinski 00:08:38] Oh, here’s one more. So, edge computing is big lately, and it’s going to be bigger in the future. WordPress Playground runs on this new technology called Web Assembly, and it just happened so that a bunch of edge computing providers allows you to run web assembly on their gear. So imagine having WordPress running entirely in edge infrastructure with no centralized server. Truly decentralized WordPress. It could be big for a well cost of operating, but also for speed, but also even further down in the future. Imagine downloading the actual, you know, even WordPress around time to your device and having the entire website on your phone. So then you know, you’re on a train, you enter a tunnel, but you can still browse that WooCommerce store and add things to your cart even though there is no range at all. [Rich Tabor 00:09:32] Wow, that’s, that’s pretty crazy. How far out there do you think something like that is? [Adam Zielinski 00:09:37] It’s hard to tell. I mean, technically, it is possible. There are a lot of challenges with regard to privacy, right? And data security for the edge computing case specifically. As for the development tools, there was a Cloud Fest hackathon earlier this year where I was with Daniel Bachhuber, also from Automattic, and we led this exciting project that brought the WordPress development environment into the browser using a couple of editors that are out there, and this is too much of an MVP for actual production use yet, but we got it working, and we build an actual plugin on a phone without internet access. [Rich Tabor 00:10:19] Wow. And that was just a hackathon, just hacking at it to see what you can get. [Adam Zielinski 00:10:23] Yeah, it was two and a half days. [Rich Tabor 00:10:25] Oh, that’s awesome. That’s really cool, man. Well, this has been quite a pleasure. Thanks, Adam, for chatting all about WordPress Playground. Folks, just be sure to check out developer.WordPress.org/playground to explore, experiment, and play with WordPress Playground. This has been awesome, Adam. [Adam Zielinski 00:10:43] Thank you so much for having me, Rich. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:10:45] What a remarkable new way of working with and experiencing WordPress. I would love to be able to find ways across the project and ecosystem to help folks see what they’re getting into before they get into it, but also, who knows what the future holds for that project. Keep an eye on it. (Musical interlude) [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:10] That brings us to our small list of big things happening right now in the WordPress project. The first one is that the Kim Parel Memorial Scholarship for WordCamp US 2023 is open, and applications for it are the WordPress Foundation will once again be offering that scholarship for Travel to WordCamp US. It is for specifically for women in technology, women in the WordPress space. I’ll include a link to that in the show notes. The second thing is WordPress’ 20th anniversary is still coming, as we heard in the last podcast. So we have reached over 100 events that are scheduled on or around May 27th, which is WordPress’ launch date. There is still time to find your closest location and attend one of those events. And probably, there’s also time to pull together an event of your own. Head on over to wp20.WordPress.net if you would like to see events in your area. And the third thing is WordCamp US 2023. I realize WordCamp Europe comes before that, but the programming team actually has a really interesting thing that they’re doing this year. They have some changes to the way that they are organizing the event and finding speakers for the event. But as always, they are working very hard to make sure it is an attendee-focused event. I’m gonna include a link or two to some announcements that are really worthwhile there. Head on over to the podcast page to see those. And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Thanks again to my guests, and I’ll see y’all in a couple of weeks. View the full article

WordPress 6.2.2 is now available! The 6.2.2 minor release addresses 1 bug and 1 security issue. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 5.9 have also been updated. WordPress 6.2.2 is a rapid response release to address a regression in 6.2.1 and further patch a vulnerability addressed in 6.2.1. The next major release will be version 6.3 planned for August 2023. The update process will begin automatically if you have sites that support automatic background updates. You can download WordPress 6.2.2 from WordPress.org or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates,” and click “Update Now.” For more information on this release, please visit the HelpHub site. Security updates included in this release The security team would like to thank the following people for responsibly reporting vulnerabilities and allowing them to be fixed in this release. Block themes parsing shortcodes in user-generated data; thanks to Liam Gladdy of WP Engine for reporting this issue. The issue above was originally patched in the 6.2.1 release, but needed further hardening here in 6.2.2. The Core team is thankful for the community in their response to 6.2.1 and collaboration on finding the best path forward for proper resolution in 6.2.2. The folks who worked on 6.2.2 are especially appreciative for everyone’s understanding while they worked asynchronously to get this out the door as quickly as possible. Thank you to these WordPress contributors This release was led by Jonathan Desrosiers. WordPress 6.2.2 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver security fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community. Aaron Jorbin, Alex Concha, Anthony Burchell, Chloe Bringmann, chriscct7, Daniel Richards, David Baumwald, Ehtisham S., Greg Ziółkowski, Isabel Brison, Jb Audras, Jeffrey Paul, John Blackbourn, Jonathan Desrosiers, Josepha, Marius L. J., Matias Ventura, Mike Schroder, Peter Wilson, Riad Benguella, Robert Anderson, Ryan McCue, Samuel Wood (Otto), Scott Reilly, and Timothy Jacobs How to contribute To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, pick a ticket, and join the conversation in the #core and #6-3-release-leads channels. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook. Thanks to @cbringmann, @davidbaumwald, @chanthaboune, @jeffpaul for proofreading. View the full article

WordPress 6.2.1 is now available! This minor release features 20 bug fixes in Core and 10 bug fixes for the block editor. You can review a summary of the maintenance updates in this release by reading the Release Candidate announcement. This release also features several security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 4.1 have also been updated. WordPress 6.2.1 is a short-cycle release. The next major release will be version 6.3 planned for August 2023. If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically. You can download WordPress 6.2.1 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”. For more information on this release, please visit the HelpHub site. Security updates included in this release The security team would like to thank the following people for responsibly reporting vulnerabilities, and allowing them to be fixed in this release. Block themes parsing shortcodes in user generated data; thanks to Liam Gladdy of WP Engine for reporting this issue A CSRF issue updating attachment thumbnails; reported by John Blackbourn of the WordPress security team A flaw allowing XSS via open embed auto discovery; reported independently by Jakub Żoczek of Securitum and during a third party security audit Bypassing of KSES sanitization in block attributes for low privileged users; discovered during a third party security audit. A path traversal issue via translation files; reported independently by Ramuel Gall and during a third party security audit. Thank you to these WordPress contributors This release was led by Jb Audras, George Mamadashvili, Sergey Biryukov and Peter Wilson. WordPress 6.2.1 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver maintenance and security fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community. Adam Silverstein, Aki Hamano, amin, Andrew Ozz, Andrew Serong, André, Ari Stathopoulos, Birgit Pauli-Haack, Chirag Rathod, Colin Stewart, Daniel Richards, David Baumwald, David Biňovec, Dennis Snell, devshagor, Dhrumil Kumbhani, Dominik Schilling, Ella, George Mamadashvili, Isabel Brison, Jb Audras, Joe Dolson, Joen A., John Blackbourn, Jonathan Desrosiers, JuanMa Garrido, Juliette Reinders Folmer, Kai Hao, Kailey (trepmal), Marc, Marine EVAIN, Matt Wiebe, Mukesh Panchal, nendeb, Nick Diego, nickpap, Nik Tsekouras, Pavan Patil, Peter Wilson, pouicpouic, Riad Benguella, Ryan Welcher, Scott Reilly, Sergey Biryukov, Stephen Bernhardt, tmatsuur, TobiasBg, Tonya Mork, Ugyen Dorji, Weston Ruter, and zieladam. How to contribute To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, pick a ticket, and join the conversation in the #core and #6-3-release-leads channels. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook. Thanks to @sergeybiryukov for proofreading. View the full article

Join WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy in the 55th episode of the WordPress Briefing as she looks back at the 20 years of WordPress and how the open source community made WordPress what it is today. Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording. Credits Editor: Dustin Hartzler Logo: Javier Arce Production: Brett McSherry Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod Show Notes The benefits of prioritizing and measuring performance in WordPress 6.2 WordPress 6.3 Planning Proposal & Call for Volunteers Preparing for the Next Women & Nonbinary Release Squad WordCamp Europe: Call for volunteers Table Leads Needed for WCEU 2023 Contributor Day Defining the Polyglots contributor ladder Transcript [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress Open Source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a smallest of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:40] In case you hadn’t heard yet. WordPress is celebrating its 20th anniversary on May 27th. There are a lot of celebrations and parties happening all across the world, hopefully with cake, because we all know that a party without cake is just a meeting and no one wants a year-long meeting about how old you are. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:59] But if you’ve not yet joined the celebrations, there’s still time to share your favorite WordPress merch, your favorite WordCamp memory, host a whole dang party if you want to, or share a video to post on wp20.wordpress.net. I’ve got links to everything you need in the show notes. So if you haven’t done it yet, you can do that while you listen to today’s episode. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:14] I’ve got links to everything you need in the show notes. So if you haven’t done it yet, you can do that while you listen to today’s episode. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:22] Today, WordPress is the leading CMS in the market. And according to W3Tech’s it powers 43% of the web. And that’s like 35% of the top 10,000 sites that are built using this software. And sometimes, that’s as a website, sometimes as a framework, but always as a way for people and businesses to find a space on the web to call their own. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:45] In 2021. The first-ever study on the WordPress ecosystem gave us an idea of just how large our ecosystem is. We already kind of had a sense that millions of people make a living through WordPress because we know that we are supporting small business owners and freelancers all the way out to agencies and content creators. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:06] But according to that study, WordPress at the time was powering 82 million websites and enabled an estimated economy of $597 billion. The success of an economy like this and various other alternative economies hinges on the success of invisible open source software that powers the web, just like WordPress, that has a tonne of growth and a lot of wins since that first Cafe Log fork way back in 2003. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:37] And WordPress could just say pencils down, everybody. Good job, team, and just kind of watch what comes next. But I’ve never met a word processor, emboldened as we are by our belief in open source freedoms, who stepped away from a challenge worth facing the recognition that everyone should have those freedoms whether they know they exist or not. Because I know that no one cares as much about open source freedoms as open source maintainers. But the recognition that everyone has the right to them anyway is built into the foundations of what WordPress is and who WordPress is. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:13] There are big plans for WordPress future, many of which are grounded in the promise of a new block editor within WordPress that aims to lower the barriers to entry for people at any point in their learning curve. So let’s take a look at what this means for WordPress, the software, and follow up about what it means for the WordPress community. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:31] Firstly, the software right at the end of 2018, the Gutenberg editor was merged into WordPress Core. And it’s subverted the way that people had always managed their content. It brought with it this new concept of site building that focused on blocks as the primary mode of creation. It was modular and required very little code knowledge. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:53] Arguably also very little skill with design. Although if you’ve ever seen me tried to design something with blocks, you will know it takes some skill. But still, the ultimate goal was to make those fundamental user interactions of managing the block and apply them in any place you could manage your site using WordPress. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:53] And if you think about the possibility to create media-rich content without having to work with shortcode, without having to know HTML workarounds, it opens the opportunity for many of us in the WordPress community to own our digital presence. In case it wasn’t already clear, this, my friends, is an audacious project, and it’s even more so if you remember that we have this existing and massive ecosystem that is enabled and empowered by our software. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:42] And as we look forward to the third phase of the Gutenberg Project, collaborative editing inside a WordPress installation will soon be a reality, which if you are like me and you never work on a website alone, you’re probably just dying to have. I say all this not to toot the horn have WordPress or belabor our success but rather to emphasize the importance of what I’m going to say next, which is how this CMS got to where it is, namely through the work of the community. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:12] WordPress has survived, and I would dare to say thrived through decades of constant economic, cultural, and technological shifts. And I believe that the thing that keeps us innovating fast enough to stay relevant but slow enough to be ethical, is how the community actively engages with the open source project. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:32] We know that our strength is directly tied to the resilience of our contributors. And we know that the software we ship is shaped by the people who are willing to tell us what they love, what they hate, and what they hope to see. When the WordPress project started, we mainly had code contributions as a way to give back, but over time, the project has grown to include contributions to learning, community building, and translations, among other things, but all of that exists alongside the CMS-focused contributions. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:03] Because WordPress as an organization understands that it is an integral part of an ecosystem of 1000s of global companies and millions of individual people who are building careers, starting businesses, learning new skills, and becoming part of something meaningful. I know that I talk just all the time about the greatness of WordPress as a software and community, which makes sense. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:29] I really do love the work I do with you all. But I am equally in awe of this open-hearted journey of disruption that WordPress represents as an open source project. WordPress and its community is part of a long line of disruptors; blogs made publishing available to everyone, which maybe doesn’t sound like a big deal right now because you’ve been around blogging forever. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:51] You’ve been able to just put your thoughts on the internet with almost no effort for as long as you have known the internet existed, but WordPress, at the time, was and honestly remains the low code open source CMS of choice. It has been for years. And so, let me backtrack you through the 10,000-foot milestones of our journey here. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:07:14] Gutenberg has been around since 2013. It’s 10 years. I know, don’t get scared, we’re celebrating 20 years. So it’s been around for half of our time as a concept. Open source as a concept was formalized in the 1980s. Though it definitely has been around longer than that as a concept and a way of working. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:07:34] And this low-code, no-code movement that we hear about from time to time that has been around since the 1970s, and just because we first became aware of it in the 1970s doesn’t mean that that’s when it actually first was discussed or thought about or used. Which means that you are in this moment, decades deep into projects that changed our entire understanding of the web. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:07:59] So grab a slice of cake, and raise a glass to 20 great years of WordPress, and I am going to raise a glass to 20 more years of continuing our journey together. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:08:17] Which brings us effervescently to the small list of big things. Yeah, I said effervescently. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:08:24] So there are a lot of things happening in the WordPress project over the next couple of weeks. There is a lot of testing going on. There are a lot of releases that are getting underway. There are events and things. So here’s my rundown of stuff you should take a look at. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:08:38] So firstly, there is a post out about performance improvements from 6.2. That is just inviting an open discussion so that we can get more of those improvements in better shape to get into the 6.3 release. And speaking of the 6.3 release that is coming, just last week, we announced the release squad that we have. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:08:58] It is an extra heavy release squad because we also are working toward the 6.4 release just at the same time. So there’s the folks who are running the 6.3 release, and they have committed to working openly and in public channels as much as possible so that the 6.4 folks have a chance to really take a look at what goes into a release, the questions that we ask, the philosophies we believe in, and then that 6.4 release oil pick up probably, my guess is August-ish, mid-August or so. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:09:32] That 6.4 release is specifically going to be made up entirely of diverse genders. People that we historically see are underrepresented in technology, but as always, we accept contributions from everyone for all releases. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:09:48] The third thing is that we have WordCamp Europe coming up, that is June 8 and 10th. So a little bit past the two-week mark. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:09:54] However, there is a final call for volunteers for anyone who wants to be able to help at the event. I personally have always enjoyed doing that kind of volunteer work. It helps you get to know your community even a bit better. And I don’t know; I’m just kind of an extroverted people person. So, of course, I always want to volunteer, but that call is still open. And they’re in the last phases of that. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:10:17] There is also a team or two that needs some help with getting leads for the contributor day that happens leading up to WordCamp. Europe, I know that the testing team needs a lead for the table, and so if you enjoy the process of triaging or testing or helping people get their environment set up, that is a great opportunity. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:10:37] And the final thing on my small, my big small list of big things is that we have a kind of a review of the currently defined contributor ladder for the Polyglots team. There are a number of posts over the years where we talk about the ways that people move through being a contributor. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:10:57] One of the things that we know about almost all contributor ladders is that there’s no time requirement between the steps, but in general, it functions like a ladder. So you do have to have, like, rung one. And then, rung two, if you try to skip from rung one to rung three, you will have a lot of difficulty. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:17] Not impossible, but it’s harder than going 1, 2, 3 In the normal sequential order. And so that’s a whole discussion that’s happening over there. There’s a link to all of these things in the show notes. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:28] And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks. View the full article

Each year, members of the WordPress community (users, site builders, extenders, and contributors) provide valuable feedback through an annual survey. For 2022, the survey received a comprehensive update, the first in six years. The total number of questions was reduced to 29 from nearly 100, socio-economic questions were mostly removed, and the Likert scale was introduced. These updates were intended to increase the completion rate of the survey, enable a more efficient and structured analysis of these data, and position the survey to best gauge the topics that matter most to the WordPress community. My goal is that the input received via the survey helps inform initiatives and focus areas for WordPress in the near term, along with other signals, such as conversations in the community, the Making WordPress blogs, and events. Such data play a key role in shaping the direction and strategy of the project and measuring progress in focus areas. 2022 Highlights The 2022 edition of the survey experienced a 26% increase in completion rate, however, submissions decreased by 56% to roughly 3400, including about 800 contributors. For the 2023 survey, promotion will be increased, hopefully counteracting the declining submissions. Here are some key takeaways: The survey shows an increased usage of blocks and the new site editor (versus the classic editor), which shouldn’t come as a surprise since the default theme is now a block theme. 22% of respondents have only used WordPress for a year or less. Those responding to the survey are also getting a bit older, with fewer responses from those under 40 than in prior years. 1 in 5 respondents learned about WordPress from a coworker, and about the same percentage from using a search engine. In 2022, WordPressers continued to learn about WordPress (68%), taught others about WP (48%), and built sites for others (55%). WordPressers choose the CMS platform because it’s open source (62%), flexible (47%), low risk (45%), cost-effective (45%), and has a positive reputation (41%). 57% of survey participants obtained news and training directly from WordPress.org. While that is the primary source, other sites remain very important: search engines (46%), YouTube (40%), other WordPress communities (35%), and social media (30%) The overwhelming majority of respondents don’t regularly use other CMS platforms, and 21% of respondents use none of the top 20 WordPress plugins. Respondents continue to state that “WordPress is as good as or better than other CMS platforms,” with 68% agreeing. Elements that respondents feel are the best aspects of WordPress include “ease of use,” “flexibility,” and/or “plugin options,” all about 30% each. When asked about the most frustrating elements of WordPress, 1 in 5 said, “nothing,” while approximately 30% referenced difficulties with site editing / Gutenberg. The overall contributor experience remains positive and something I continue to care about deeply. 64% shared they had a positive experience, and 24% viewed their experience as “neutral.” Contributors also feel welcome at the same percentages (64% agree and 24% are neutral). What’s Planned for 2023 In the next iteration of the survey, the plan is to improve the language options for completing the survey and continue investing in refining the questions and how they are asked. It is important to be mindful that completing a survey takes time, so we want to make sure community members are being asked questions that help WordPress the most. The tentative plan is to launch the 2023 edition in August. This will set up an opportunity for the 2023 results and, most importantly, your input to inform planning for 2024’s key initiatives and focus areas. The community’s feedback is vitally important to the success and direction of the project. Moving the survey to earlier in the year can positively affect planning and dialogue. View the 2022 Slide Deck Big thank you to @dansoschin for the analysis and editorial support. Thanks also to @angelasjin, and @cbringmann for their reviews and final edits. View the full article

With preparations for the next major releases already underway, the community is gearing up to celebrate WordPress’ 20th anniversary, which is just around the corner. This month has also seen some major highlights, such as WordPress 6.2’s performance wins and the launch of WP Translation Playground. Read on to find out what’s new. Forthcoming WordPress releases Following the successful release of WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy,” which has garnered over 31 million downloads (and counting), contributors across all teams are already planning future major releases, including versions 6.3 and 6.4. While WordPress 6.3 will focus on refinements to the site editing experience, 6.4 will reprise the underrepresented gender release initiative introduced in WordPress 5.6 “Simone.” If you’re interested in contributing, now is the perfect time to get involved. Check out the WordPress 6.3 proposed schedule and call for volunteers. WP20 is just around the corner Mark your calendars for May 27 and join the community for a day filled with exciting parties and activities! With a refreshed look, the WP20 website offers a list of events to join, swag to show your WordPress pride, and downloadable “selfie props” to add fun to your celebrations. Cake decorated with WordPress anniversary-themed motifs shared at a recent meetup in Japan. The Marketing Team has also launched #WP20 From Blogs to Blocks, a community-focused initiative that encourages you to take a small daily WordPress-focused action for 20 days leading up to the anniversary date. On the other hand, details are being finalized for the 20th anniversary commemorative book, Building Blocks: The Evolution of WordPress 2013-2023. This volume will span the history and most meaningful moments of the last decade of WordPress. What’s your favorite WordPress swag? Do you have a special memory from a WordCamp or meetup? Share them with the community and join the #WP20 fun on social media. WordPress 6.2 performance WordPress 6.2 reiterates the platform’s commitment to optimizing website performance with significant improvements. Load times are 14 to 18% faster for block themes and 2 to 5% for classic themes. Server-side performance is also seeing a big boost, with an increase of 17 to 23% for block themes and 3 to 5% for classic themes. Learn more about the performance wins in 6.2, including a retrospective from the Performance Core Team on the efforts that made it happen. New in the Gutenberg plugin Two new versions of the Gutenberg plugin have shipped in the last month: Gutenberg 15.5 shipped on April 5, 2023, with many user-facing features to improve the creation experience. Enhancements include caption style customization, theme-defined template patterns when adding a new template, and experimental support for grid layouts in the Group block. Gutenberg 15.6 is available for download as of April 19, 2023. This version introduces an experimental Details block to expand and toggle the visibility of hidden content, and more presets for core block spacing and border controls, among other highlights. Follow the “What’s new in Gutenberg” posts to stay on top of the latest enhancements. Team updates: WP Translation Playground, WordPress.org redesign next steps, and more The Polyglots Team launched WP Translation Playground, an innovative tool that combines Local GlotPress with WordPress Playground to translate plugins and themes in context—without having to set up anything. Wondering what’s next in the WordPress.org redesign project? Learn about the latest updates and how to get involved. This Community Team post discusses ways to make WordCamp Contributor Days more effective. Explore what’s new on Learn WordPress in April 2023, including the latest content on the platform and the projects the Training Team has been working on. WordPress Playground was used in a hackathon to prototype different ways to build plugins with minimal setup, right in the browser. See it in action in these tech demos. Members of the Marketing Team suggested improvements to submission guidelines to revitalize the WordPress.org Showcase. Most of the work to refocus the WordPress mobile app on core features is complete. Find out how to help shape its future with contributions opportunities for developers, writers, translators, and more. Keep up with the latest enhancements and development updates you need to build on top of WordPress in last month’s edition of What’s new for developers? The latest issue of the Meetup Organizer Newsletter shares tips and inspiring ideas to help you plan successful community events. Find out how WordPress and its global community of contributors positively impacted Monika Rao’s web career in April’s edition of People of WordPress. Join Josepha Haden Chomphosy in Episode 54 of WP Briefing as she explores the concept of the four freedoms of open source and their likeness to today’s Bill of Rights for the open web. Feedback & testing requests The latest Full Site Editing (FSE) Outreach Program testing opportunity invites feedback on the features included in WordPress 6.2 and those remaining in Gutenberg Phase 2. Share your thoughts by May 8, 2023. This update on the WP Feature Notifications project explains the progress towards a modern WordPress user notification system and how you can get involved. Help test the latest version of the Preferred Languages feature plugin. Version 22.2 of the WordPress mobile app for iOS and Android is ready for testing. This discussion post welcomes ideas and questions about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be integrated into the WordPress experience. WordPress events updates WordCamp Europe 2023 is fast approaching! The organizing team introduced the first confirmed speakers. WordCamp US 2023 announced updates on the programming for the upcoming event, for which tickets are now on sale. Organizers are also calling for sponsors. The 2023 Community Summit will provide a valuable opportunity for in-person discussions across contributor teams. Submit your topics if you haven’t yet. Don’t miss these upcoming WordCamps: WordCamp Barcelona, Spain on May 5-6, 2023 WordCamp Buffalo, NY, USA on May 6, 2023 WordCamp Gliwice, Poland on May 12-14, 2023 WordCamp Sylhet, Bangladesh on May 19-20, 2023 WordCamp Lisboa, Portugal on May 19-20, 2023 WordCamp Apatin, Serbia on May 27-28, 2023 Join #WPDiversity with a free online workshop on Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events APAC on May 13, 2023. Have a story we should include in the next issue of The Month in WordPress? Fill out this quick form to let us know. The following folks contributed to this Month in WordPress: @sereedmedia, @ninianepress, @rmartinezduque. View the full article

This month we feature Monika Rao, a Product and Quality Assurance Manager from India. She finds contributing to the WordPress project a way to deepen her technical skills and further her web career. The People of WordPress series shares inspiring stories of how people’s lives can change for the better through WordPress and its global community of contributors. Monika was born in Udaipur, in the state of Rajasthan, India. At that time, she recalls, there was some resistance to girls’ education in certain subjects. Thanks to her parents’ support and encouragement, she graduated in Computer Science Engineering. Following graduation, she went on to work for an international firm. However, she felt she wanted to work in her home area and so returned to work for a firm based in Udaipur itself. Monika started her career journey with WordPress in 2015, and was fascinated as she learnt more of the technology. A few years later, she moved into a role as a WordPress Quality Analyst, enabling her to dive further into the software. “From that moment, I decided to make it an integral part of my ever-learning professional career,” she said. The more Monika researched WordPress, the more she found it was not just a tool to simplify website building but also a platform where you could “meet new people, share your thoughts, learn from them and improve yourself through the process.” When she first started working with WordPress, she found she had many questions, ranging from what are themes and plugins to what is a WordCamp. As her knowledge grew, she knew one day she wanted to be able to contribute to both the code and the community supporting it. Becoming part of WordPress Monika started contributing to WordPress in 2015 with Theme Review. In this area, she was able to work alongside WordPress code experts and, at the same time, learn the concepts of theme development. She saw this as a great opportunity to learn and improve her development skills. She was also very interested in testing from the beginning, so she started contributing to Core. Her first contribution was to the WordPress 4.7 release in 2016. She remembers the day she first saw her name in the WordPress contributor list. This encouraged her to make more contributions including to core and the community team, and each time she felt more like part of the community. Thus inspired, Monika delved into making the software more easily available in her native Hindi language through joining other contributors to the Polyglots team. She went on to become a General Translation Editor for the Hindi language, and has continued to contribute in this area. Monika and other panelists at WordCamp Udaipur 2017 As she became involved with the WordPress community, she looked for ways of sharing it with others in her home city. In 2017 she was part of the organizing team for WordCamp Udaipur 2017 and there shared her contributing journey with others. This was her first WordCamp, and she describes the experience as ‘superb’. It enabled her to connect to both those new to WordPress and those already working with it. “It was a great moment for me speaking in front of hundreds of people and everyone cherished my journey. It inspired me to continue my contribution to other teams too.” Monika Rao She went on to be an organizer for WordCamp Udaipur 2018 and WordCamp India 2021. She also contributes to the Meta and Theme review teams. Contributing to WordPress software releases 2019 was a big year for Monika. She got married and joined a new firm where she could work more on WordPress, learning about marketing and design. In November 2019, the WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden put out a call for an all-women and non-binary release squad. Monika said: “I’ve always felt that not enough women take part in WordPress, so I decided to jump in.” She took on the role of Test Lead. “It was a wonderful journey— worth every second and this was a proud moment for me when I saw my name on the WordPress Noteworthy list. You feel proud when you see your small contributions in use by 40 per cent of the web.” Monika Rao Monika was part of the notable contributors for the WordPress 5.6 release As a Test Lead, her priority was ensuring the release would be stable and, more importantly, ready for production sites. To effectively manage all the testing, test scrubs were run weekly, highlighting the key testing areas to help get the entire team involved. The scrubs also played an important role in picking up tickets needing immediate resolution. Monika also continued her role in the WordPress 5.7 release, and focused more on the core software. She believes being part of the Core and Test teams is a good way to watch and learn, as well as take part in the different elements that make up a release. “Skills you have will eventually fade away unless you work on them and sharpen them. So don’t underestimate the value of any skill. It will eventually help you somehow in your career.” Monika Rao She added: “I owe my skills and knowledge to WordPress and its lovely community. The best part about this platform is that it is free and provides ample opportunities to improve your skills and build a career. The wider WordPress community is highly supportive, and it provides numerous additional resources, such as online forums, tutorials, and meetups, to help people learn and grow. With the help of WordPress, anyone can learn how to create websites, develop plugins, and contribute to the community.” This route for learning has helped Monika in choosing the direction of her career and in keeping her skills up-to-date. In October 2021, she joined a company specializing in producing WordPress plugins and services for online businesses. Everyone can contribute to WordPress Monika pictured during her travels Monika is determined more people, especially other women, have opportunities to contribute to open source in general. “Many people are using WordPress, but they don’t all know about contribution. Therefore, my future goal is to help people, especially women, contribute more to WordPress.” Monika Rao “When I first started contributing to WordPress, I thought that being from a testing background, I may not be able to contribute much. However, I soon realized that there are various different areas where I could easily contribute and develop my skills,” said Monika. “So, I would encourage anyone who is interested in contributing to WordPress to find their own area of interest, regardless of their background, be it marketing, content writing, designing, or any other field. The WordPress community welcomes contributions from people of all backgrounds and skill-sets. So, don’t hesitate to dive in and contribute in a way that suits your interests and skills.” Share the stories Help share these stories of open source contributors and continue to grow the community. Meet more WordPressers in the People of WordPress series. Contributors Thanks to Monika Rao (@monikarao) for sharing her adventures in open source. Thank you to Abha Thakor (@webcommsat) and the late Surendra Thakor (@sthakor) for interviews and writing this feature, and to Meher Bala (@meher), Chloe Bringmann (@cbringmann), Mary Baum (@marybaum) for work on photographs and review. The People of WordPress series thanks Josepha Haden (@chanthaboune) and Topher DeRosia (@topher1kenobe) for their support. This People of WordPress feature is inspired by an essay originally published on HeroPress.com, a community initiative created by Topher DeRosia. It highlights people in the WordPress community who have overcome barriers and whose stories might otherwise go unheard. #HeroPress View the full article

Join WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy in the 54th episode of the WordPress Briefing as she explores the concept of the four freedoms of open source and likens it to today’s Bill of Rights for the open web. Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording. Credits Editor: Dustin Hartzler Logo: Javier Arce Production: Chloé Bringmann Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod Show Notes Episode 2: WordPress is Free(dom) OpenAI ChatGPT and Github Copilot WordPress 6.3 Planning Proposal & Call for Volunteers Preparing for the Next Underrepresented Gender-Led Release – WordPress 6.4 WP20 — Celebrating 20 years of WordPress Transcript [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00] Hello, everyone! And welcome to the WordPress Briefing: the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go! [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:40] Start of Show Just over 50 episodes ago, I shared some basic thoughts about the four freedoms of open source. I also talked through the most quoted phrase in open source “free as in free speech, not free as in beer.” And honestly, what podcast about the freedoms of open source would be complete without that? If you haven’t listened to that episode, I suggest you do, but if you don’t have time, I’ll start by reminding us all of the definition of free software, which is most commonly referred to as the four freedoms of open source. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:12] So the first thing is the freedom to run the program as you wish for any purpose. The second thing is the freedom to study how the program works and to change it so that it does your computing as you wish. As a side note, access to the source code is a precondition for this. The third freedom is the freedom to redistribute copies so that you can help others. And the fourth freedom is the freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this, you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes, and of course, also access to the source code is a precondition for this. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:47] The TLDR version of these freedoms is, essentially, that users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change, and improve the software. Now, normally when I speak about the freedoms of open source, I’m talking about it either from a practical or a philosophical standpoint, but I also spend a lot of time thinking about it from a leadership and organizational perspective. Every once in a while, you might hear me talk about the effects of “open source at scale,” or you might hear Matt say that the four freedoms are essentially the “Bill of Rghts for the open web.” I almost never really dig into either of those topics because it’s just really complicated. But for starters, anytime you talk about what someone is entitled to or deserves or expects, there is a feeling of political bias. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:40] And while I personally believe that creating software is inherently political or, at a minimum, concerned with the needs of people, that’s not what convinces anyone to participate in open source, and it’s certainly not what convinces people to use WordPress. But here’s the thing, as a leader in a widely used, free, and open source software project, as a leader in WordPress, I also know that every new user to our platform or any other open source platform represents a little more freedom in the world. A little more access to tools and jobs that weren’t available before. A slightly more open door to networks that undergird the success of entrepreneurs across the globe and a little more equity to the world of democratizing publishing. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:28] When I look at the four freedoms of open source, this Bill of Rights for the Web, I see not only the freedoms that we should have but also the things that we should have freedom from. We should have the freedom to know how our tools work, the freedom to know what information they need from us, and also the freedom to have some way to make that software work specifically for us because that’s why we have software because we have humans that need it. But we should also have freedom from having to hide our hacky enhancements or freedom from fear of losing our earned audience, or even the fear of losing access to copious amounts of content that we have created ourselves over the years. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:13] And honestly, the things that we should be free from just include a lot of fear of loss. Loss of opportunity or relevance or livelihood. And I feel like for our project, and maybe for open source as a whole, we’re encountering a lot of that right now, whether we are aware of it or not. We’re seeing advancements like GPT3 or ChatGPT if that sounds more familiar and co-pilot. And while it’s not quite in the same vein, also things like Gutenberg. Advancements that are coming to technology around us, technology we’re familiar with. And it’s hard to see what’s in them sometimes. It’s hard to see what drives them. It’s hard to know how we can make them work for us. So I have to remind us all, as citizens of an open source community, that what protects us from those things we should be free from is directly connected to how active we are in the things we are free to. We hear that in a slightly more routine way from folks around open source communities. Basically, the whole concept of open source software is being built by the folks who show up. You can’t influence the future of anything if you’re not showing up in the spaces where the influence happens. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:35] So be an active participant in these new technologies. Learn how GPT works and how it could work for you, even if it’s just writing better prompts. Learn how Gutenberg can support your needs, not subvert your needs, even if it’s just learning how to arrange a series of blocks into a pattern or patterns into a page. But as with all fast-moving technological advances, I encourage you to leap in feet first, not head first. Get in up to your neck in the “why”s and “how”s of that new technology you’ve been worrying about. Be the first to become best at this arcane new thing because that’s why we open source at all so that you have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change, and improve your software. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:33] Small List of Big Things That brings me now to my small list of big things. It’s a very small list, but it is very big, as always. The first thing is that we are gearing up for the remaining major releases of the year, WP 6.3 and 6.4 in an atypical moment for our project. You can volunteer for both simultaneously if you want, and hopefully, you do want. Second thing is that there are many ways to celebrate WordPress’s 20th anniversary on May 27th. But one of the things you can do right now is record a short video or sound clip about a great memory or experience you have had in this community or just generally because of WordPress. Those will be featured on the WP 20 website, and maybe even a lucky few will make it into the second volume of the WordPress history book. And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thanks for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks. View the full article

Named after the multi-instrumentalist Eric Allan Dolphy Jr., WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy”‘s high notes are riffed on by WordPress’s Executive Director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, in this 53rd episode of the WordPress Briefing. Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording. Credits Editor: Dustin Hartzler Logo: Javier Arce Production: Chloé Bringmann Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod Show Notes WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy” Introducing the WordPress Developer Blog WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program Call for Volunteers: Contributor Working Group Why Jazz Make Slack channels #kidscamp and #sustainability Transcript [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress Open Source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go. [00:00:28] The latest version of WordPress has shipped. WordPress 6.2, which was named after Eric Dolphy, was released on March 29th. And as is the way with software, there’s already a minor release underway to catch a few errant issues that folks like you have reported to us. It’s a big release that refines a lot of our design tools, but some of the most important changes are actually to the inserter. If you haven’t had a chance to get in there and play with it yet, here are the three things that I think you should know. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:08] First, the pattern browser. We’re all aware of the block inserter by now, and a lot of us probably use the quick options, the keyboard shortcuts, or that kind of inline inserter, that little black box that’s in the middle of your post. If you use the main inserter, that’s a blue square in the top left of the screen. If you use that to add a block, you can still add individual blocks as usual. But there’s a new way to browse patterns, and in my opinion, it is so much better. It now brings out this drawer that has like thumbnails of patterns that will work with your theme. And if you, like me, know what you want your site to look like, but could not in a million years figure out how to build it from scratch out of individual blocks, then this is the area for you. It was like shopping, but you don’t have to go through a checkout process at the end, and you still have what you want. It’s great. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:00] That’s also available when you’re working on templates or template parts, so you can make changes everywhere instead of going page by page. The second thing that I think you should know is about the media browser in that same area where you browse your patterns; you can also now browse for media. It lets you look through the images you’ve already added to your site, but it also lets you search for openly licensed images from Openverse. And if you choose one of those images from Openverse, it inserts the proper attribution for you. You still have to add your own alt text, but that’s the fun part anyway, right? [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:35] And number three, a Style Book. So this thing is available in the template editing area, specifically, as is appropriate, given what it actually does. So if you’re in the template area, toward the top right of the screen is like a half moon day mode, night mode looking icon. If you click on that, you can make changes to things inside your blocks. But if you click on the little eyeball icon that’s just underneath it, it pulls up a style book where you can also see and edit the styles globally. If that didn’t make sense to you, don’t worry. I’ve got you. I’m about to tell you a bunch of things you can do in here. You can edit the way headings and lists and tables, quotes, and code looks all across the site. You can edit the way images, galleries, files, and videos look using custom CSS. Yes. Also, all across the site. And you can edit buttons, separators, and individual blocks. Say it with me — all across the site. That is not a comprehensive list. There is a ton of stuff. You can see the styles that you have applied across the whole site. You can see them in context, and you can make any changes that you need globally, which means all across the site. Yeah. Style Books. What will we think of next? [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:54] So those are my three things I think you should know about WordPress right now. As a former WordPress builder who was never really super great with the code, this stuff makes me feel powerful. I just love these changes, and I hope you do too. [00:04:07] Which brings us now to our small list of big things. First, we just launched the Developer Blog. It’s over at developer.wordpress.org/news. It has a bunch of content on it that not only is geared specifically toward developers that are using WordPress but especially the folks who are extending WordPress. It gives you kind of an in-depth look at various changes and projects, and implementations and what goes into each one of them. So it gives you a bit of like this aspirational overview of stuff that you could do with WordPress and then also gives you an inside look at how you would accomplish it yourself. It’s very cool. I like it a lot. Head on over there, but we’ll have a link to the show notes below. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:00] The second thing is that we have an MVP of our new mentorship program that is underway. It should be debuting for essentially testing any day now, a link to the posts detailing that work, just in case you want to join that important initiative. But it is an important thing for me. I think that mentorship is a key element of many of our successful contributors’ onboarding journeys, a part of their story of coming to us. And so, creating a mentorship program that is a bit sustainable and looks toward the health of the overall project, I think, is an excellent plan. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:38] The third thing on our small list of big things is that Matt put out a nice little post about kind of the history of why jazz has this strong background in the WordPress project. It’s a brief read. I’ll put a link to that in the show notes as well. But suffice it to say that he’s saying that jazz has a little bit of learned processes and rules but that the primary expectation is that you’re able to make of the jazz what you want. Like you get to make your own thing out of it. You get to be extemporaneous. You get to be very measured, whatever it is, that expresses what you are trying to do and what you are trying to say with it. That’s why he feels like jazz is such an important part of the DNA of the WordPress project. Like I said, it’s a short read. I’ll put a link to it in the show notes. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:30] And finally, there are a few working groups that folks can contribute to right now. We don’t always have working groups. We generally just kind of do stuff inside individual teams. But right now, we’ve got like the kids camp group, the sustainability group, and of course, that mentorship working group that I mentioned earlier in our list. So if you’re wanting a little change of pace, I’d drop by their areas in the Making WordPress Slack to see if they have anything that’s up your alley. And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks. View the full article

March saw the arrival of the first major release of 2023, WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy.” Planning for the project’s 20th anniversary continues with new celebratory updates and commemorative swag. Read on for the latest happenings in the WordPress space. Meet WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy” WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy” was released on March 29, 2023. Named after the acclaimed jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer Eric Allan Dolphy Jr., the latest version of WordPress further enhances the site editing experience with significant updates. Highlights include a reimagined Site Editor interface, a more intuitive way to manage menus, and a distraction-free writing mode. A new Block Inserter design adds integration with Openverse, allowing you to easily browse and insert free, openly-licensed images and audio files into your content. Whether you’re a content creator, designer, or developer, WordPress 6.2 has something for you. Check out the full announcement post for an overview of what’s new and the Field Guide for detailed developer notes. WordPress 6.2 is one of the last major releases planned for Phase 2 of the project’s development roadmap and was made possible thanks to more than 600 contributors. Download WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy.” WP20 swag is here Show your WordPress excitement with limited edition 20th anniversary merchandise—now available at the official WordPress Mercantile store. If you prefer to create your own swag, you can use these WP20 downloadable assets. The 20th anniversary website lists celebrations as organizers announce and schedule them. Check back regularly to see if there’s an event in your area to join or help organize one to celebrate this milestone with your local community. Enter the Wapuu Coloring Giveaway by April 17, 2023, for a chance to win some commemorative WP20 swag! New in the Gutenberg plugin Two new versions of the Gutenberg plugin have shipped in the last month: Gutenberg 15.3 was released on March 13, 2023. This version polishes the Site Editor experience, includes a new “Time to Read” block for displaying estimated read time to posts, and enhances the Duotone design tool. Gutenberg 15.4 is available for download as of March 22, 2023, and focuses primarily on bug fixes and testing improvements. Other additions include color and layout support for the Cover block, improved descriptions to help you understand the purpose of each template in the Site Editor, and the ability to turn paragraph blocks into columns. Follow the “What’s new in Gutenberg” posts to stay on top of the latest enhancements. Team updates: Phase 3 planning, WordPress Developer Blog launch, and more Gutenberg Lead Architect Matías Ventura outlined the focus areas for Phase 3 of the WordPress development roadmap, known as Collaboration or Collaborative Editing. Last month, the WordPress Developer Blog officially launched (removing the “beta” label). Subscribe to keep up with the latest features, tutorials, and learning resources in the WordPress development space. The Documentation Team seeks volunteers to help with WordPress 6.2 end user documentation. Are you looking to broaden your knowledge and improve your WordPress skills? See what’s new on Learn WordPress in March 2023, including the latest course on Converting a Shortcode to a Block. A new Community Themes initiative aims to bring together a group of contributors to collaborate and build block themes. The Training Team is looking for assistance in creating content to complete this WordPress Development syllabus. The newly formed Contributor Working Group hosted an inaugural chat to kick off work on the WordPress Mentorship Program. The Polyglots Team is testing AI systems to help with translation work. The WordPress.org redesign project has a new dedicated Making WordPress Slack channel to coordinate work: #website-redesign. The March 2023 editions of the Polyglots monthly newsletter and the Meetup Organizer newsletter are available for reading. The Mobile Team announced a new support forum for the WordPress mobile app. Tune in to Episode 52 of WP Briefing to learn more about the visioning behind Phase 3, Collaboration. Feedback & testing requests A new Full Site Editing (FSE) Program exploration looks into the Site Editor as a design tool in light of the recent WordPress 6.2 release. Participants are asked to create a block theme without coding using the current editor tools. Share your experience by April 26, 2023. A group of Core contributors is working on a new Interactivity API proposal to provide a better developer experience for building interactive blocks. Version 22.0 of the WordPress mobile app for iOS and Android is ready for testing. Members of the Core Team are looking for user experience (UX) feedback on the Plugin Dependencies feature plugin. WordPress events updates WordCamp Asia 2024 is calling for organizers. Apply by April 15, 2023. Registration for the WordCamp Europe 2023 Contributor Day is now open. Want to create diverse and inclusive WordPress events? Mark your calendars for the upcoming #WPDiversity workshops. Four WordCamps are taking place this month: WordCamp Torino, Italy, on April 14-15, 2023 Wordcamp Vienna, Austria, on April 15-16, 2023 WordCamp Paris, France, on April 21, 2023 WordCamp Sofia, Bulgaria, on April 22-23, 2023 Join WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy as she discusses the benefits of routine and what role it plays in the WordPress project. Have a story we should include in the next issue of The Month in WordPress? Fill out this quick form to let us know. The following folks contributed to this Month in WordPress: @bsanevans, @cbringmann, @eidolonnight, @rmartinezduque, @sereedmedia. View the full article

Say hello to WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy,” named for the woodwind jazz wiz, the multi-instrumentalist—Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. Dolphy is acclaimed for having brought the bass clarinet to prominence in the jazz scene, creating a place for the flute and extending the lexicon of the alto saxophone. In a career that spanned continents, his artistry was at the forefront of pushing improvisational boundaries, ensemble work, and partnerships with well-respected artists like Charles Mingus and John Coltrane. This latest version of WordPress reimagines your site editing experience, introduces more ways to style your site, and offers a new distraction-free way to write. Discover improvements that give you more control and freedom to express your creative vision. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re a content creator, developer, site builder, or designer. Let the music of Eric Dolphy delight you as you take in all that 6.2 has to offer. Download WordPress 6.2 today WordPress 6.2 is the first major release of 2023, covering over 900 enhancements and fixes. It’s also a transition point in the WordPress project’s development roadmap, shifting focus from customization to early exploration of workflows and collaboration. What’s inside Meet the reimagined Site Editor Ready for you to dive in and explore: 6.2 is your invitation to discover what the next generation of WordPress—and block themes—can do. Now out of beta, the Site Editor has an updated interface, giving you a new way to interact with your entire site. Explore full previews of your templates and template parts, then jump in and get to editing your site from wherever you choose. Manage menus in more ways with the Navigation block Add, remove, and reorder menu items faster—with a new sidebar experience that makes editing your site’s navigation easier. Discover a smoother experience for the Block Inserter A refreshed design gives you easier access to the content you need. Use the Media tab to quickly drag and drop content from your existing Media Library. Find patterns faster with a split view that lets you navigate categories and see previews all at once. Find the controls you want when you need them Your block settings sidebar is better organized with tabs for Settings and Styles. So the tools you need are easy to identify and access. Build faster with headers and footers for block themes Discover a new collection of header and footer patterns. Use them with any block theme as a quick, high-quality starting point for your site’s templates. Explore Openverse media right from the Editor Openverse’s library catalogs over 700 million+ free, openly licensed stock images and audio—and now it’s directly integrated into the WordPress experience through the Inserter. Focus on writing with Distraction Free mode For those times you want to be alone with your ideas. You can now hide all your panels and controls, leaving you free to bring your content to life. Meet the new Style Book Get a complete overview of how every block in your site’s library looks. All in one place, all at a glance, directly in the Site Editor. Copy and paste styles Perfect the design on one type of block, then copy and paste those styles to other blocks to get just the look you want. Custom CSS Power up your site any way you wish with design tools and custom CSS for another level of control over your site’s look and feel for maximum creativity and artistry in your designs. Other highlights in 6.2 Sticky positioning: Choose to keep top-level group blocks fixed to the top of a page as visitors scroll. Importing widgets: Options to import your favorite widgets from Classic themes to Block themes. Local fonts in themes: Default WordPress themes offer better privacy with Google Fonts now included. Learn more about WordPress 6.2 Explore Learn WordPress for quick how-to videos, courses, and other resources for the latest features in WordPress. Or join a free live interactive online workshop. Check out the WordPress 6.2 Field Guide for detailed developer notes to help you build with WordPress and get the most out of the latest release. Read the 6.2 release notes for additional technical details about this release, including installation information, updates, fixes, file changes, and more. The 6.2 release squad 6.2 is made possible by the many folks who have enthusiastically helped keep the release on track and moving forward: Release Lead: Matt Mullenweg Release Coordinators: Francesca Marano, Héctor Prieto Core Tech Co-Leads: Tonya Mork, Jb Audras Editor Tech Co-Leads: George Mamadashvili, Nik Tsekouras Core Triage Co-Leads: Colin Stewart, Mukesh Panchal Editor Triage Co-Leads: Anne McCarthy, Nick Diego Design Lead: Rich Tabor Documentation Co-Leads: Birgit Pauli-Haack, Femy Praseet, Milana Cap, Abha Thakor Marketing & Communications Co-Leads: Jonathan Pantani, Lauren Stein, Mary Baum Test Co-Leads: Robin, Adel Tahri Performance Lead: Felix Arntz Thank you, contributors WordPress 6.2 couldn’t be here without the countless effort and passion of more than 600 contributors in at least 50 countries. A special thank you to the 178 new contributors who joined a release for the first time. Their collaboration helped deliver hundreds of enhancements and fixes, ensuring a stable release for all—a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community. 10upsimon · 254volkan · @mercime · Aaron D. Campbell · Aaron Graham · Aaron Jorbin · Aaron Robertshaw · Abha Thakor · Abid Hasan · abitofmind · ABTOP · ace100 · Adam Bosco · Adam Silverstein · Adam Wiltgen · Adel Tahri · Adhun Anand · adityaarora010196 · aduth · Afshana Diya · Ahmed Chaion · Ajay Maurya · ajayver · Akash Mia · Aki Hamano · Alain Schlesser · Alan Jacob Mathew · albarin · Alberuni Azad. · alecgeatches · Aleks Ganev · Alex Concha · Alex Lende · Alex Stine · alvastar · Alvi Tazwar · amin · amirrezatm · Amit Barai Alit · Amit Paul · Anantajit JG · Andrea Fercia · andreaboe · Andrei Draganescu · Andrew Matthews · Andrew Nacin · Andrew Ozz · Andrew Serong · Andrey "Rarst" Savchenko · André · Andy Fragen · Andy Peatling · Aniket Patel · Ankit K Gupta · Ankit Panchal · Anne McCarthy · Anthony Burchell · Anthony Hortin · Anton Vlasenko · Antony Agrios · Aparna Adhun · AR Rasel · Arafat Jamil · Aravind Ajith · Ari Stathopoulos · arnolp · Artemio Morales · Arthur Chu · ArtZ91 · Arun · Ashar Irfan · Ashraful Sarkar Naiem · Autumn · Ayesh Karunaratne · azurseisme · Barry Ceelen · Bart · Beatriz Fialho · Beda · Ben Dwyer · benish74 · Benjamin Grolleau · Benoit Chantre · Bernhard Kau · Bernie Reiter · Bethany Chobanian Lang · bgin · Bhavik Kalpesh · Birgir Erlendsson (birgire) · Birgit Pauli-Haack · bjorn2404 · BogdanUngureanu · bonjour52 · bookwyrm · Boone Gorges · Brad Jorsch · Brady Vercher · Brandon Kraft · Brennan Goewert · Brian Gardner · bronsonquick · Brooke Kaminski · Brooke. · buutqn · Cameron Jones · Carlos Bravo · Carlos Garcia Prim · Carolina Nymark · Chad Chadbourne · Channing Ritter · Chauncey McAskill · Chintan hingrajiya · Chirag Rathod · Chloe Bringmann · chocofc1 · Chouby · chrisbaltazar · Christoph Daum · Chrystl · ckanderson22 · Clayton Collie · cnspecialcolor · codesdnc · Coding Chicken · Colin Stewart · conner_bw · Copons · corentingautier · Corey Worrell · Cory Birdsong · Craig Francis · craiglpeters · Creative Andrew · Crisoforo Gaspar · Cupid Chakma · D.PERONNE · Daisy Olsen · dali-rajab · Damien Alleyne · Damon Cook · Daniel Bachhuber · Daniel Johnson · Daniel Richards · Daniele Scasciafratte · darerodz · datagutten · David Aguilera · David Baumwald · David Biňovec · David Calhoun · David Gwyer · David Herrera · David Marín Carreño · David Shanske · David Smith · David Vongries · Dean Sas · Dennis Claassen · Dennis Snell · derekblank · devanshijoshi · dhusakovic · Dilip Bheda · Dion Hulse · doctorlai · Dominik Schilling · Donncha · drzraf · DSIGNED · dustinrue · Edwin Cromley · Ella van Durpe · emanuelx · Emmanuel Hesry · Enej Bajgorić · Enrico Battocchi · Eric Andrew Lewis · Erick Danzer · Erik Betshammar · Esrat Sultana Popy · Eugene M · Evan Herman · Fabian Kägy · Faisal Ahmed · Faisal Alvi · fasuto · Felipe Elia · Felipe Lavín · Felix Arntz · Femy Praseeth · Florian TIAR · fpodhorsky · Francesca Marano · Francisco · Frank Bueltge · franzaurus · Fuad Ragib · Gal Baras · gamecreature · Garrett Hyder · Gary Pendergast · Gennady Kovshenin · George Hotelling · George Mamadashvili · Gerardo Pacheco · gisgeo · Glen Davies · Greg Ziółkowski · grl570810 · gvgvgvijayan · H-var · hakre · hanshenrik · Hareesh S · Harit Panchal · Hasan Misbah · Hasanuzzaman · Haz · Helen Hou-Sandi · HelgaTheViking · Helmut Wandl · Hendrik Luehrsen · Hilay Trivedi · hiren sanja · Hitesh Patel · hughie.molloy · hugodevos · hztyfoon · Héctor Prieto · Iain Poulson · Ian Belanger · Ian Dunn · Iazel · Ignat Georgiev · imanish003 · ingeniumed · Innovext · inwerpsel · iqbalrony · ironprogrammer · Isabel Brison · IT Path Solutions · ivanjeronimo · j.hoffmann · Jack Reichert · Jaed Mosharraf · Jakaria Istauk · James · James Koster · James Roberts · Jan Thiel · janusdev · Jarda Snajdr · Jarko Piironen · Javier Arce · Javier Carazo · Javier Casares · jchambo · Jean-Baptiste Audras · Jean-Philippe Green · jeawhanlee · Jeff Matson · Jeff Ong · Jeffrey Paul · Jennifer M. Dodd · Jeremy Felt · Jeremy Herve · Jeremy Lind · jeryj · Jessica Lyschik · jhned · jigar bhanushali · Jip Moors · Joe Dolson · Joe McGill · joelmadigan · Joen Asmussen · John Blackbourn · John James Jacoby · John Watkins · Jokerrs · Jon Brown · Jonathan Bossenger · Jonathan Desrosiers · Jonathan Pantani · Jong · Jonny Harris · Jorge Costa · jornp · Joseph G. · Josepha Haden · joshuatf · Joy · jsh4 · Juan Aldasoro · JuanMa Garrido · Juhi Saxena · Juliette Reinders Folmer · Julio Potier · Justin Ahinon · Justin Tadlock · Justin Welenofsky · justlevine · K. Adam White · kacper3355 · KafleG · Kai Hao · Kajal Gohel · kaneva · Kapil Paul · Kathryn P. · Keanan Koppenhaver · Kelly Choyce-Dwan · Kelly Hoffman · Kevin Batdorf · Kjell Reigstad · Konstantin Obenland · konyoldeath · Kowsar Hossain · Krunal Bhimajiyani · Krupal Panchal · Kunal Madhak · Lana Codes · larsmqller · laurelfulford · Lauren Stein · Lena Morita · Lena Stergatou · Leo Milo · lifeboat · Linkon Miyan · lkraav · Loïc Antignac · Lovekesh Kumar · Lox · lozula · lucius0101 · Lucy Tomas · Luigi · luisherranz · Lukman Nakib · Márcio Duarte · Madhu Dollu · Madhu Dollu · Maggie Cabrera · Mahbub Shovan · Mahek Kalola · manfcarlo · Manoj Patil · Marcelo de Moraes Serpa · Marco Ciampini · Marek Dědič · Marie Comet · Marin Atanasov · Mario Santos · Marissa Matthews · Marius L. J. · Mark Jaquith · Marko Ivanovic · marksabbath · Markus · Markus Kosmal · Martijn van der Klis · Mary Baum · matclayton · Mateus Machado Luna · Mathieu Paapst · Matias Ventura · matiasbenedetto · Matt Keys · Matt Mullenweg · Matthias Reinholz · Mauricio · Max · Max Lyuchin · Maxime J. · MD Jamil Uddin · Md Kawser Ahmed Khan Jami · Md Rakib Hossain · Md. Abir Hasan Dipu · Md. Reduan Masud · mdviralsampat · Mehul Kaklotar · mensmaximus · meyerdev.ch · mgol · Michael Burridge · Michael Kelly · Michal Czaplinski · Michel Many · Miguel Axcar · Miguel Fonseca · Miguel Torres · Mike Schroder · Mike Straw · Milan Dinić · Milana Cap · Minal Diwan · mitchellaustin · miya · Monzur Alam · mreishus · mrwweb · mtias · mujuonly · Mukesh Panchal · Mumtahina Faguni · Musarrat Anjum Chowdhury · Mustaque Ahmed · mw108 · Naeem Haque · Namith Jawahar · Nathan Johnson · Nazmul Hasan · nendeb · Neycho Kalaydzhiev · Nicholas Garofalo · nicholaswilson · Nick Diego · Nick the Geek · nidhidhandhukiya · Niels Lange · Nik Tsekouras · NikhilPatel · Niluthpal Purkayastha · Nitesh Das · Nithin John · Nithin SreeRaj · Nitin Rathod · nitman43 · Noah Allen · nuvoPoint · oakesjosh · Obayed Mamur · ockham · oguzkocer · oh_hello · Okamoto Hidetaka · Olga Gleckler · OllieJones · Omar Alshaker · Paal Joachim Romdahl · PabloHoney · Pascal Birchler · Paul Bearne · Paul Biron · Paul Kevan · Paul Schreiber · pavelevap · pbking · Pedro Mendonça · pepe · Petar Ratković · Peter Wilson · petitphp · Petter Walbø Johnsgård · Phil Webster · Phill · Pial · Pieterjan Deneys · Piotrek Boniu · PJ Brunet · pkolenbr · Pooja N Muchandikar · Pravin Parmar · Presskopp · Ptah Dunbar · pypwalters · raduiason · Rafael Agostini · Rafin · Rajan Panchal · Rajesh Raval · Ramon Ahnert · ramon fincken · Ramon James · Razthee Md. Yakini · Renato Augusto Gama dos Santos · Reza Khan · Riad Benguella · Riccardo Di Curti · Rich Tabor · Rinky Chowdhury · Ritesh Patel · rjasdfiii · Robert Anderson · Robin · Robin Labadie · rodage · rodricus · Rolf Allard van Hagen · Ross Gile · Roy Tanck · Ruchir Goswami · Rupok · Ryan · Ryan Kienstra · Ryan Welcher · Ryo · Sé Reed · Sérgio Gomes · Sören Wrede · Sahil B. · Sajib Talukder · Sakib Mohammed · Sam Fullalove · sam1el · samiamnot · Sampat Viral · samruddhikhandale · Samuel Wood (Otto) · sanjucta · Sanket Chodavadiya · Sanne van der Meulen · sapayth · Sarah Norris · Sarath AR · Saumil Nerpagar · Sazia Faizunnessa Ira · Scott Kingsley Clark · Scott Winterroth · Scout James · Sean Hayes · Sergey Biryukov · seriouslysenpai · Seth Miller · Shahidul Islam · Shamayel · Shamim Mia · Sharif Mohammad Eunus · Shraboni · shubham1gupta · Silicium · Simon Gomes · Simon Lieschke · Siobhan · snicco.io · sruthi90 · SteelWagstaff · Stefano Minoia · stentibbing · Stephen Bernhardt · Stephen Edgar · Stephy Miehle · stephymiehle · Steven Word · Subrata Sarkar · Sumit Singh · sun · sunyatasattva (a11n) · Suvro · syamraj24 · Sybre Waaijer · Syeda Sanjida Afrin · syhc · Synchro · syntaxart · szaqal21 · Tahmid ul Karim · tahminar27 · Takashi Kitajima · Tanaz Masaba · Tanbir Ahmod · Tanner Moushey · Tasnia Rahman Raima · teebee · tekapo · thedaysse · thejaydip · theode · Thomas Griffin · Thomas Patrick Levy · thomask · timbroddin · Timi Wahalahti · Timothée Brosille · Timothy Jacobs · TobiasBg · tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn Fjellner) · Tom J Nowell · Tomasz Dziuda · Toni Viemerö · Tony G · Tonya Mork · Torsten Landsiedel · Toru Miki · Towhidul I Chowdhury · travisaxton · triumvirate · Tung Du · Umesh Gupta · upadalavipul · Vagelis · Vicente Canales · Viktor Szépe · Virginie Garnier · Vishal Kumar · Vlad T · vtad · vykesmac · WebMan Design | Oliver Juhas · Webrocker · websitegenii · Weston Ruter · whaze · winterpsv · wojsmol · Wojtek Naruniec · Wojtek Szkutnik · Yui · Yuliyan Slavchev · Zeba Afia Shama · Zenaul Islam · zevilz · zieladam · Česlav Przywara By release day, 70 locales had translated 90 percent or more of WordPress 6.2 in their language. Community translators are hard at work ensuring more translations are on their way. Thank you to everyone who helps to make WordPress 6.2 available in 200 languages. A release haiku for 6.2 Six point two, so new Shiny and ready for you Congrats on hard work! * Portrait of Eric Allen Dolphy Jr. discovered via Openverse. Colorization by D. Pountain; Original by F. Wolff. “eric dolphy” by dick_pountain is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. View the full article

On Episode fifty-two of the WordPress Briefing podcast, join WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy and special guest Héctor Prieto as they discuss phase three and why it’s more than just collaborative editing! Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording. Credits Editor: Dustin Hartzler Logo: Javier Arce Production: Santana Inniss Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording. Show Notes Write as Blocks in an Encrypted Collaborative Environment by Riad Benguella Riad Benguella’s collaborative editing GitHub repository Riad Benguella’s WordPress.org Profile Block Collab: New package, a framework for collaborative editing GitHub PR Phase 3: Collaboration Matías Ventura Quick Search GH Issue Matías Ventura WordPress.org Profile WordPress 6.2 Release Day Process Introducing the WordPress Developer Blog WordCamp Europe Contributor Day Registration WP20 Wapuu Coloring Giveaway Transcript [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:40] I have with me today Hécto Prieto. You all may know him from the WordPress Slack. He recently was, I believe, a release coordinator, maybe for the last release. Was that for 6.1? [Héctor Prieto 00:00:51] Yes. It was for 6.1 and also 6.0, in fact. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:54] All right. Well, welcome to the WordPress Briefing today. How are you doing? [Héctor Prieto 00:00:59] Well, I’m excited to be here. I’m a longtime listener of the podcast since the first episode. So I’m super excited to be here with you today. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:06] Yes. Longtime listener. First-time caller. All right, well, we’re gonna have a topic that just dumps you right in the soup, as they say in the United States. So we are actually here to talk about phase three of Gutenberg. It’s been a long time coming, and there are a lot of questions that folks have about what’s going into it and what’s not going into it. And as someone who works really closely with our Gutenberg technical architect, Matías Ventura, I figured you would be exactly the right person to come and talk about your favorite things. From your perspective, what is going to be the biggest enhancement that we start to approach in phase three? Like which thing, which API is gonna take the most work, do you think? [Héctor Prieto 00:01:53] Well, the most work, that’s a very hard question to answer because we are still we are going to start an exploration phase to determine how far we want to go with each of these APIs. So, in general, all these APIs and these products are standalone projects. And some of them are shorter, and some of them are longer. I would say, in general, the real-time collaboration sounds the most technically challenging because of what it represents and all the changes needed to how we interact with WordPress from async to sync, basically. That would be the hardest part. I think there are also already a few prototypes working, but we need to see how that scales, for example. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:32] Yeah. So speaking of a few prototypes, I know that there are two or three different prototypes specifically for collaborative editing, but do we have people or groups, working groups in the community that have built any other prototypes? Or is it just kind of first passes at collaborative editing that we’ve seen? [Héctor Prieto 00:02:52] Well, apart from Riad Benguella’s exploration, there’s a public repository with that exploration, there are a few plugins trying the same, trying real-time collaboration. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:03] Yeah, I can think of co-blocks and as blocks, and then I feel like there was a third one. [Héctor Prieto 00:03:09] Yeah. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:09] We’ll find the links to all these [Héctor Prieto 00:03:12] Yeah. Let’s add them to the show notes. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:14] Excellent. So that’s going to be the biggest one. Is there, of the list of APIs, and this is based on the post that Matías sent out last week. If you all haven’t seen that, we’ll put that in the show notes as well. But from the APIs that Matías sort of helped us to identify last week, is there any one that you are particularly excited about for fixing things in WordPress or just generally like an interesting topic of development for you? [Héctor Prieto 00:03:42] Well, I would say all of them and how they all play together. But, if I need to pick one of them… [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:48] Everything’s the best! [Héctor Prieto 00:03:50] I’ll cheat anyway, and I will going to pick two out of them because they solve issues at different levels. I’m very excited about visual revisions. I think it helps a lot of users, and it affects even non-technical users. So it’s one of the projects that lower how hard or complex WordPress can be to use sometimes. It’s going to be a huge improvement. It’s going to, I mean, bringing blocks to the revision system. I mean, it’s just a dream come true for me. I’m also going to highlight the search everywhere or quick search feature Matías already opened an issue in the GitHub repository right now. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:28] Mm-hmm. [Héctor Prieto 00:04:28] So the idea for this product is to have a power user shortcut that opens searching, an Alfred-like or Spotlight-like interface for those familiar with MacOS operating systems. When you can type anything, any place you want to go, or you want to search for any specific text in a document. And it’s supposed to be your power user command tool. So that you can do most things there. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:53] Oh, and I mean not only power user command tool, but also there are some applications there for folks who have mobility issues, people who are using primarily keyboard as opposed to keyboard and mouse, all that kind of stuff, right? [Héctor Prieto 00:05:07] Exactly. And just thinking long term with the rise of AI, it could be possible even to add some natural language processing to this interface so that users could just write in, in plain text, in natural language, what they want to do, and WordPress would provide the action for them. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:23] Very nice. My two favorites, since you gave two favorites and I can’t just give one at that point, my two favorite projects, which are also probably really, really hard projects, are those explorations around fixing notifications. That is a really big project. And one that I think that, in general, the WordPress project is going to be really excited to have some input on. And so that’s one that I really will have an eye on. And the other one that I’m going to definitely have my eye on is the media gallery redesign. I realize that this shows, between you and I, that shows our two specific focuses. Because, of course, you work directly with guiding all of our developers. And I am very much like our user advocate. And WordPress “everyman.” I don’t know if that’s a term that makes sense outside the US. But I do a lot of advocacy for folks who are using WordPress from the user side as opposed to from the developer side because, of course, we have a lot of excellent developers. So y’all don’t need my help with your advocacy. But yeah, that really shows that you and I have different focuses, which I think is good too. [Héctor Prieto 00:06:32] Yes. Also, it’s worth noting that at the end of the day, any improvement we make for developers is so that developers can build better things for users. So, at the end of the day, everything is in the best interest of the users. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:45] That’s right. That’s definitely a good point. Yeah. So, a final question about this particular thing because we’re trying to keep it a little brief and also because we’ll have a few other podcasts that are specifically about phase three as our explorations get going. Final question here: If you felt like there was one API or one project in particular that could benefit from a lot of community involvement which would you guess that was? [Héctor Prieto 00:07:20] I don’t think I can single out any of them. I think getting user feedback is going to be a vital part of this phase, as always. So I would encourage our listeners to just participate in discussions and provide feedback as we start releasing the first prototypes in the Gutenberg plugin. I don’t think I can pick one of them for you, completely honest. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:07:43] Yeah. My guess for that is going to be the rework of the dashboard, the admin, WP admin. I think that a lot of people are gonna have a lot to say about what they use it for, what they would like to be able to use it for, how to make it look more modern, how to make it feel more modern. I think that that probably is going to benefit from a lot of early testing and possibly some specific user testing around the concepts of design in there. And so that’s one that that I think probably is going to take a lot of feedback from the community. And community, in this case, I think, is not only our developers and designers and copy folks who are working to build the CMS, but probably also all of our folks who are extending WordPress, everybody who is working in agencies, things like that. [Héctor Prieto 00:08:35] Hmm, well, if I need to pick one, I would say the publishing flows could use also lots of feedback and testing because we are going to implement editorial requirements and customized user flows. And, of course, there are many, many different workflows out there that we might not be able to think of ourselves. So just imagine the sheer amount of different use cases. There’s going to be, or there currently is with customizations of third-party plugins. So, yeah. I would like to listen to how people would like the publishing flows to be. What are the specific use cases? [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:09:09] So really, just everything, we need a lot of user feedback on everything. [Héctor Prieto 00:09:13] Yes. That’s the summary. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:09:15] I don’t think that’s a bad summary. I know that we talk a bit about how WordPress is made better by the activity of our co-creators, the people who are using the software and testing the software, and telling us how it could be better. Those are the groups of people that make sure that we are the best version or headed in the best direction on any of our things with the software. And so I guess it’s probably not super unusual for everyone to hear like we need your feedback on everything because that’s probably what we do half the time. [Héctor Prieto 00:09:44] Yeah, absolutely. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:09:47] So the publishing workflows, that reminds me that there has been a little bit of a conversation lately around the naming of this phase, basically. And I know that the phases don’t necessarily need names. Like that’s why they’re numbered, and that’s a great idea. Like numbers are wonderful ways to reference things, but it also is just easier to reference it in kind of general conversation. So the first phase was easier editing, and it really focused on the editing experience itself. The second one was customization, and now the third phase has been called collaboration for quite a bit of time. But as we got closer and closer to this phase and we had more and more conversations that were coming out of phases one and two, it became really clear that really what we’re looking at here is more around workflows. And I love that that is an option for how to refer to this. Probably that’s how I will refer to it for most of the time that I talk about it as we are looking at phase three. Because I remember that when we were first building the prototypes of Gutenberg, one of the big flags that I had was that breaking changes are not just about what we can see or any sort of visual regressions or what causes the white screen of death. Also, some of the things that are breaking changes should be considered in those workflows when we change where things are or how you accomplish a task. And our users weren’t ready for it. That is something that is breaking for them, right? [Héctor Prieto 00:11:25] Yes. As you mentioned, this phase was referenced as collaboration, real-time collaboration, for a long time, but if we think of how this collaboration looks, it’s much more than just editing at the same time. A very big part of collaboration is also asynchronous collaboration by adding in-line comments and improving these notifications when you have a comment in your draft. I think the power of this phase is how everything comes together. These individual pieces come together. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 0:11:51] Yes, and I don’t know where that first flag that sparked the discussion around, like, okay, but collaborative editing is not quite big enough and also means a bunch of different things for a bunch of different people. It depends on the size of your organization or the type of content you’re writing. Like, I don’t know where that conversation started. My guess is, you know, some WordCamp somewhere, and an attendee was like, did you, did anybody ever think about these problems? And then they kind of worked their way around the Make Core site or otherwise made their way around to Matias’s ears. But yeah, I think that was a really smart choice. And you’re exactly right, collaborative editing; that can refer to the synchronous kind or the asynchronous kind, and both of those types of collaboration are equally valuable and probably equally used. [Héctor Prieto 00:12:40] Yes. And one important point to note here is that this editorial flows, and this collaboration is crucial to implement multilingualism going into phase four. We need to think that as soon as we have posts and pages in different languages, there are going to be requirements in terms of how to translate these pieces of content. So this will need collaboration, all forms of collaboration. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:13:02] Yeah, absolutely. This maybe was before your time with the project, but I was team multilingual-first for a long time. Or at least thinking that we could do the multilingual part of this work alongside the collaborative editing part of the work. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand what we think is going in phase three versus what probably we need to be able to do as far as having native multilingual support in the project. And I have softened my very hard position on that. You know, we’re big fans of strong positions loosely held, strong opinions loosely held. And this was one of those moments where I had that really strong opinion that we could just do them concurrently. We can do them at the same time. And I think it was a conversation that you and I were having when you were pointing out the complexities of translating WordPress at all, let alone being able to translate all your content as well. And it makes a lot of sense, and you’re right. I think that there are a lot of interactions, a lot of workflows that we’re gonna have to kind of refresh or redesign or rebuild before it really makes sense for us to help make that a nice streamlined option for multilingual offerings. [Héctor Prieto 00:14:17] Yes, absolutely. As a Spanish-speaking person, I’m super excited about having multilingual in Core, but I also understand that we need some tooling ready before implementing multilingual in Core. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:14:29] There are no, there really are no easy problems left in WordPress, right? Like, we all agree on this now? [Héctor Prieto 00:14:36] That’s correct. And we’re creating something incrementally. If we look at the phases, they are ordered sequentially. But that doesn’t mean that when we start phase three, we are, finishing phase two completely in the same way. We have not finished phase one. That will be like saying, when is WordPress finished, when is the development finished? So it’s an incremental project, and it’s always going to be to need refining. So it’s of course, multilingual needs to come after collaboration because we need those tools. But that doesn’t mean we need to finish the collaboration phase or have it very advanced phase three before we can start phase four. That will be determined in the next month as we start explorations. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:15:17] So if you all, which I know you are, are interested in better workflows, more streamlined ways of working inside WordPress, and or interested in how we are gonna get multilingual settled in the future, this is a great time to get involved in this project and in the community. Like I said, we’ve got that post up that Matías shipped last week, which, again, if you have not read it, go read it because it’s got excellent, excellent information in there for you. Héctor, before we head out, is there anything that you wanna make sure that you let the listeners know, either about phase three or just about WordPress in general? [Héctor Prieto 00:15:57] Well, tomorrow is WordPress 6.2 release day. So happy 6.2, everybody! [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:16:04] Happy 6.2. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Which means today is the dry run; probably in three hours, we’re doing the dry run. [Héctor Prieto 00:16:14] Depends on when we’re listening to this, but yes. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:16:18] Oh, that’s a good point. Right? Not everybody listens to this the second it becomes available. Time zones. That’s right. Oh, man. Look at us being a global project and just pretending like everybody listens to this particular thing the moment that it’s available. I apologize to everybody who’s listening to it after the release or in the middle of the release party or whatever you’re doing. Regardless, tomorrow, if you’re listening to it today, is the WordPress 6.2 release, and it’s gonna be great. Well, Héctor, thank you so much for joining me today. I really enjoyed having you on, and thanks for letting me interview you. [Héctor Prieto 00:16:59] Thank you for having me. It was my pleasure to be here. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:17:10] So that brings us now to our small list of big things, and as is frequently the case, it’s actually kind of a big list of big things. So we’re gonna hop right in here. As Héctor and I mentioned in the episode, the release WordPress 6.2 is coming out tomorrow, depending on when you’re listening to this. If you listen to it on the 27th, it comes out on the 28th of March. If you have a chance to drop by the release party. I would encourage you to; they’re pretty interesting just to get an idea of everything that it takes to build WordPress. It is, of course, the last few hours before a release, and so you don’t get a full scope. But it’s always nice to see the way that everybody in the community works together, especially there in that last moment when we’re trying to package something and test it in a bunch of environments all across the world. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:18:00] I love attending those. And so I encourage it. The next episode of the WordPress Briefing is going to have the release rundown. I’ll go through the key features and highlights that finally made it into 6.2. The reason we don’t do those beforehand is just in case we have to remove anything at the last minute from a release. It doesn’t happen too often, but it does happen sometimes. And so, next episode of WP Briefing, that’s what we’ll be talking about. The next thing on my list is a new developer blog. So there is a brand new developer blog. It was launched last Wednesday. It’s a great resource for WordPress developers to stay up to date and hear the latest in the WordPress development world. And also, we had been hearing some feedback from our developers in recent years that if you are like exploring how to extend WordPress, if you’re in that group of extenders, people who are building themes or building plugins, you’ve kind of feel like you’ve lost a place where you can have those exploratory conversations. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:19:00] This is gonna be one of those places. We’ll put a link in the show notes. So far, the content that’s planned, I think, is really interesting. Next thing on our small list, big list, of big things is WordCamp Europe’s Contributor Day. So registration for Contributor Day is now open, and it does require a separate registration than regular attendance at WordCamp Europe. So if you are registered for WordCamp Europe, you already have your ticket for that, but you are not registered for Contributor Day, click the link in the show notes and come on down to spend a little time giving back to the WordPress Project. And the last thing on our list today is that we have a WP20 Wapuu coloring giveaway. So put on your little party hats, and grab your crayons. The 20th anniversary Wapuu coloring giveaway is here. There is an opportunity to color in your own community-driven Wapuu and tweet it to us using #WapuuWP20 for your chance to win a sweet haul of WP20 swag items. [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:20:00] You can check out the full rules at the link in our show notes. And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thanks for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks. View the full article

With much activity happening in the WordPress development space every day, keeping up-to-date with the latest updates can be challenging. The new WordPress Developer Blog is a developer-focused resource to help you stay on top of the latest software features, tutorials, and learning materials relevant to the open source project. This blog is the culmination of a community effort that began last year. Formed by experienced WordPress community members and developers, the editorial group has since worked on a wide range of content already available—from theme and block development tutorials to tips and tricks for leveraging WordPress in the site editing era. A new home for developers As a complementary resource to the WordPress documentation, the Developer Blog aims to provide a shared space to stay informed of development-related updates, keep up with ongoing discussions and ideas, and explore cutting-edge use cases. In other words, consider it as a central hub for developers and extenders of different backgrounds and skill levels to learn with quality content from reliable sources, share knowledge, and drive WordPress development forward. True to the open source way, the blog will likely evolve. As its editors and readers learn and create more content, it will adapt in response to the needs of community members like you. Everyone is welcome to chime in on-topic discussions, share ideas or contribute. Learn more about how to get involved. What about the content? Content on the WordPress Developer Blog covers many topics, including tutorials on theme development, plugins, and block development. You can also expect posts on WordPress APIs, best practices for working with WordPress, updates on upcoming releases, and learning resources for beginners and seasoned developers. These articles offer a good hint at what’s already in store for you: Demystifying home and posts templates in WordPress theme development Creating themes from a pattern-first mindset Static vs. dynamic blocks: What’s the difference? Creating custom block styles in WordPress themes What’s new for developers? (March 2023) Sounds interesting? Subscribe to the Developer Blog to keep up with the latest content in the WordPress development space. Props for content and peer review @chanthaboune @rmartinezduque @mburridge @marybaum @bph @greenshady @webcommsat. View the full article

It’s the final countdown: the third (and last) scheduled release candidate (RC3) for WordPress 6.2 is ready! The WordPress 6.2 release is scheduled for March 28, 2023—just one week away! Now is your last opportunity to test it before the general release. Just tuning in now? Catch up on the featured highlights, and dig into more 6.2 details in the WordPress 6.2 RC1 release announcement. Thanks to all the Beta and RC testers who have assisted in this release. Since RC2 was released on March 14, there have been about 21 issues resolved in Trac and GitHub. Your feedback and help in filing bug reports keep the WordPress experience stable, smooth, and delightful. It’s critical work and a great way to contribute to the project. How to install RC3 for testing This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it is recommended that you test RC3 on a test server and site. You can test WordPress 6.2 RC3 in three ways: Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream). Option 2: Direct download the RC3 version (zip). Option 3: Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.2-RC3 A shout out to plugin and theme developers Your products are the reason WordPress does so many things for more people across the world. As you test your latest versions against RC3, make sure you update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.2. If you find compatibility problems, please post detailed information to the support forums. Check out the WordPress 6.2 Field Guide for more details about the major changes in this release. Help translate WordPress Do you speak a language other than English? Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. Keep WordPress bug-free—help with testing Without your testing support, hitting important product milestones would be a much bigger challenge. It’s also a meaningful way to contribute to the project. If you’re new to testing, or it’s been a while, this detailed guide can help you get started. If you think you have run into an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, you can file one on WordPress Trac. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Release the haiku Wow, we’re oh so close Test, test. Get it out the door. Please no RC 4. Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @laurlittle @marybaum @audrasjb @cbringmann @webcommsat View the full article

Here it is: the second release candidate (RC2) for WordPress 6.2 is ready! WordPress 6.2 is scheduled for release on March 28, 2023—which is only two weeks away. Now is your perfect opportunity if you haven’t tried it out yet. Your feedback and help filing bug reports are what keep the WordPress experience stable, smooth, and delightful. It’s important work and a great way to contribute to the project. Thanks to everyone who tested the Beta and RC releases so far. Since RC1 was released on March 9, there have been about 36 issues resolved in Trac and GitHub. Catch up on the featured highlights, and dig into more 6.2 details, in the WordPress 6.2 RC1 release announcement. How to install RC2 for testing This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it is recommended that you test RC2 on a test server and site. You can test WordPress 6.2 RC2 in three ways: Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream). Option 2: Direct download the RC2 version (zip). Option 3: Use the following WP-CLI command: wp core update --version=6.2-RC2 A shoutout to plugin and theme developers Your products are the reason WordPress does so many more things for more people across the world. As you test your latest versions against RC2, make sure you update the “Tested up to” version in your plugin’s readme file to 6.2. If you find compatibility problems, please post detailed information to the support forums. Check out the WordPress 6.2 Field Guide for more details about the major changes in this release. Help translate WordPress Do you speak a language other than English? Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages. Join the bug hunt—test, test, test Without your testing support, hitting important product milestones would be a much bigger challenge. It’s also a meaningful way to contribute to the project. If you’re new to testing, or it’s been a while, this detailed guide can help you get started. If you think you have run into an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, you can file one on WordPress Trac. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs. Release the haiku Listen, we are close One step to final RC Breathe, and keep going Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @laurlittle @marybaum @audrasjb @cbringmann Haiku by @sereedmedia View the full article